Composer Vivian Fung Announces 23/24 Season, Including Jasper Quartet Album of String Quartets on Sono Luminus

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Contact: Katy Salomon | Primo Artists | VP, Public Relations 
katy@primoartists.com | 212.837.8466 

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JUNO-Award Winning Composer 
Vivian Fung Announces 2023-24 Season

Sono Luminus Releases Insects and Machines, a Portrait Album of Fung’s
String Quartets Nos. 1-4 Performed by Jasper String Quartet on October 27, 2023

The World Premiere of Songs For The Next Generation in NYC
with the Jasper String Quartet, Nicholas Phan, and Myra Huang

Premieres at Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, National Sawdust & Merkin Hall

France’s Orchestre National Des Pays de la Loire Tours Earworms 

The Telegraph Quartet Performs Pizzicato

The Ice is Talking Featured on Steven Schick’s November 2023 Album

"One of today’s most eclectic composers" – NPR

www.vivianfung.ca

New York, NY (August 11, 2023) – With “a strong, not easily confined music personality” (I Care If You Listen) and works described as “enthralling” (Winnipeg Free Press) and “evocative” (Classical Voice North Carolina), Vivian Fung has established herself as one of today’s most influential composers.

I Care if You Listen recently premiered a new video of Fung’s Shimmer and Sparkle, filmed by Matt Carr and performed by percussionist Haruka Fujii. Commissioned by the San Francisco-based, women-led organization Ensemble for These Times, the short pieces are mostly performed on household objects, including water bowls, porcelain mugs, mortars, and cups of different sizes. Watch the videos.

Highlights of her upcoming 2023-24 season include the world premieres of three new works: Down and Dirty at the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, the Ligeti Etudes project at National Sawdust, and Songs For The Next Generation at Merkin Hall. In between these highly-anticipated premieres are a variety of performances of Fung’s compositions across the United States and Europe, including the Orchestre National Des Pays de la Loire in France and the Telegraph Quartet in Naples, Florida. Works performed include Aqua and Earworms, which both debuted in the 2022-23 season and have since been performed by ensembles across the world, including a performance this summer at the Grant Park Music Festival. Fung will take part in a residency alongside soprano Andrea Núñez and librettist Royce Vavrek at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust before embarking on a trip with Vavrek to Cambodia to gather research for a new opera.

On October 27, 2023, a portrait album of Fung’s first four string quartets will be released by the Jasper String Quartet, frequent artistic collaborators to Fung, on Sono Luminus. The release marks Vivian’s latest portrait album since her JUNO Award-winning Dreamscapes, recorded by the Metropolis Ensemble and released in 2012 on Naxos.

On October 27, 2023, Sono Luminus will release Insects and Machines, the Jasper String Quartet’s new album featuring Fung’s String Quartets Nos. 1-4. This is the premiere commercial recording of Fung’s first four string quartets, composed over a span of 15 years from 2001 to 2019. Truly a collaborative effort, the portrait album was recorded by the Jasper String Quartet with the composer in the studio in October 2022 and the album title is borrowed from the subtitle of Fung’s fourth quartet.

The Jasper String Quartet and Vivian Fung will celebrate the release of Insects and Machines with a concert on October 16, 2023 presented by the Americas Society/Council of the Americas in New York. In spring 2024 at the Kaufman Music Center, the Quartet will collaborate with tenor Nicholas Phan and pianist Myra Huang on the premiere of a new work by Fung addressing climate change, culminating in the world premiere performance on May 30, 2024.

On Friday, August 11, 2023 at 5:30PM, Fung’s work Down and Dirty makes its world premiere at the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival. Commissioned by the Festival for clarinetist Jon Manasse and pianist Jon Nakamatsu, the piece has been tailored to both virtuosic artists – both individually and as a duo. Named to reflect the gritty, dynamic character of the piece, Down and Dirty has been crafted in discrete movements that convert naturally into solo pieces for each artist, to be performed individually when they aren’t touring together. The premiere will take place at the First Congregational Church of Chatham, MA.

Fung’s Prayer will be featured in programs at the Peninsula Music Festival on Saturday, August 19, 2023 and by the Buffalo Philharmonic on Saturday, April 20 and Sunday, April 21, 2023. Written during the COVID-19 lockdown and first performed virtually, the piece is a profound statement about relying on faith during times of crisis. With just a few days to complete Prayer before its virtual debut, Fung faced the challenge of working on the piece while caring for her child 24/7 and battling a bronchial infection. In her program notes, Fung stated, “under no other circumstance in the past (or probably in the future) have I worn my heart on my sleeve as transparently as I have with this piece.”

On Sunday, September 24, 2023, Fung will contribute to the commissioning project Ligeti Etudes Meets 18 Composers, in which 18 new works for piano will be composed based on existing etudes. Each composer will be paired with a specific etude, and will use it as the inspiration and basis for their own short piano work to be premiered at 7:30pm at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, NY. Vivian Fung will be paired with Ligeti Etude No. 15, White on White, and Han Chen will work closely with her to present the new piece at the event. Additional commissioned composers include Nick Bentz, Victoria Cheah, Tengku Irfan, Nina Young, and more.

On Tuesday, November 7, 2023, San Francisco Conservatory of Music students will perform alongside SFCM alumni ensemble L'Arc Trio in the world premiere of Fung’s piano trio Ominous Machine, in partnership with the CA Biennial Festival. Fung wrote Ominous Machine in 2021, but the premiere was delayed due to the pandemic until after the world premiere of Ominous Machine II, which builds upon the original work and was commissioned and performed by the Network for New Music for two pianos and two percussionists in May 2023 at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia.

The Telegraph Quartet performs Fung’s Pizzicato on Monday, January 22, 2024 at Lincoln Performance Hall in Portland, OR. The Telegraph Quartet, an adventurous and young group known for “a combination of brilliance and subtlety” (The Telegraph) won the grand prize at the 2014 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition and the prestigious 2016 Naumburg Chamber Music Award. Inspired by the sounds of Asian folk music, Fung states that the piece is, “influenced partly by the music of the Chinese plucked instruments pipa and qin as well as by the energetic rhythms of Indonesian gamelan.”

Fung’s piece Baroque Melting – described in her program notes as “the aural equivalent to Salvador Dali’s melting clock” – will be featured Friday, February 9, 2024 as part of Ontario Canada's Thunder Bay Symphony concert. Performed alongside genuine Baroque masterpieces by Bach, Vivaldi, Purcell and Rebel, Fung’s innovative composition deliberately bends and blurs traditional Baroque elements in an intriguing modern contrast to the music of the period.

From February 11-16, 2024, Fung will also take part in a residency alongside soprano Andrea Núñez and librettist Royce Vavrek at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust. In another collaboration between Fung and Vavrek, made possible through Canada Council for the Arts, the pair will travel to Cambodia in late 2024 to conduct research for an opera to be workshopped at the Canadian Opera Company in early 2025.

During a residency in Missoula, Montana, Fung will be on hand for two concerts featuring her Violin Concerto No. 1, performed by the Missoula Symphony with violin soloist Kristin Lee on Saturday, March 2, 2024 and Sunday, March 3, 2024 at 7:30pm. Described as “music of dramatic urgency and depth, in which Fung draws on ideas from gamelan while also adding plenty of her own original material – clangorous, dissonant harmonies, off-kilter rhythms and a sense of wild unpredictability,” (The San Francisco Chronicle) the piece will be paired with works by Beethoven, Billadeau, and Dvorák. As part of her residency, Fung will also lead masterclasses at the University of Montana.

On Friday, May 17, 2024, a new work by Fung will be performed by the Grossman Ensemble, the resident group of contemporary music specialists for the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition. Presented in partnership with the University of Chicago, the evening’s program also features new works by David Bird, Felipe Lara and Gabriel Novak. The performance will be led by accomplished conductor and new music champion Jeff Meyer.

On Thursday, May 30, 2024 at 7:30pm, the world premiere of Vivian Fung’s new song cycle, Songs For The Next Generation, will take place at Merkin Hall in New York City. The project is a collaborative effort with the Jasper String Quartet, tenor Nicholas Phan, and pianist Myra Huang, and is approximately 30 minutes in length. Centered around poet Claire Wahmanholm’s prize-winning poem “O,” the second-place winner of the Academy of National Poets’ Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize, the music will be paired with poems written by high school students at New York’s Kaufman Center and inspired by Wahmanholm’s work. The song cycle and poetry are thematically centered around the fragility of our planet and environment, and the multi-disciplinary work is intended to highlight the dangers of climate change and the need for climate action.

A second work highlighting environmental themes – Fung’s solo percussion piece The Ice is Talking – will be featured on an album by Steven Schick, scheduled for release in November 2023. Inspired by a visit to the Columbia Icefields in her native Canada, the piece channels Fung’s dismay on seeing how the glaciers had receded since her last visit two decades before.

Vivian Fung 2023-24 Season Calendar
Wednesday, July 12, at 6:00pm
The National Repertory Orchestra Performs Prayer
Riverwalk Music Center | Breckenridge, CO
Link: https://www.nromusic.org/event/beethoven-and-shostakovich-symphonic-beginnings/

Wednesday, July 12, 2023 at 6:30pm
Aqua at The Grant Park Music Festival
Pritzker Pavilion | Chicago, IL
Link: https://www.grantparkmusicfestival.com/music/2023-season/tchaikovsky-piano-concerto-no-1

July 17, 18, and 30, 2023 at 7:30pm
Highlands-Cashiers Music Festival Featuring Pizzicato
Village Greens Commons - Lewis Hall | Cashiers, NC
Link: http://www.h-cmusicfestival.org/regular-series.html

Sunday, July 23, 2023 at 9:30am
Interlochen Center for the Arts Performs Prayer
The Kresge Auditorium | Interlochen, MI
Tickets and details available soon!

Friday, August 11, 2023 at 5:30pm
World Premiere of Down and Dirty at the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival
First Congregational Church | Chatham, MA
Link: https://capecodchambermusic.org/vivian-fung-premiere-and-a-rising-star/

Saturday, August 19, 2023 at 7:00pm
Prayer at the Peninsula Music Festival
Door County Auditorium | Sister Bay, WI
Link: https://www.musicfestival.com/the-music/symphony-series/

Sunday, September 24, 2023 at 7:30pm
World Premiere of the Ligeti Etudes Project
National Sawdust | Brooklyn, NY
Link: https://www.hanchenpiano.com/ligeti-project

September 24-29, 2023 at 5:00pm
Orchestre National Des Pays de la Loire performs Earworms
Centre de Congrès | Pays de la Loire, FR
Link: https://onpl.fr/concert/concert-douverture-avec-le-violoniste-nemanja-radulovic/

Monday, October 16, 2023 at 7:00pm
Jasper Quartet: Music by Vivian Fung (CD Release Concert)
The Americas Society | New York, NY
Link: https://www.as-coa.org/events/jasper-quartet-music-vivian-fung

Saturday, November 7, 2023 at 7:30pm
World Premiere of Ominous Machine
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
Link: https://sfcm.edu/experience/performances/chamber-music-tuesday-sfcm-alumni-larc-trio

Thursday, November 30 and Friday, December 1, 2023 at 8:00pm
Naples Philharmonic Performs Earworms
Hayes Hall | Naples, FL
Link: https://artisnaples.org/subscriptions/masterworks

Monday, January 22, 2024 at 7:30pm
Telegraph Quartet Performs Pizzicato
Lincoln Performance Hall | Portland, OR
Link: https://focm.org/concerts/2023-24-season/telegraph-quartet-2023-24/6263/

Friday, February 9, 2024 at 7:30PM
Thunder Bay Symphony Performs Baroque Melting
St. Paul’s United Church | Thunder Bay, ON
Link: https://tbso.ca/concert/dont-go-baroquing-my-heart/

Saturday, March 2, and Sunday, March 3, 2024 at 7:30pm
Missoula Symphony Performs Violin Concerto No. 1
Missoula Symphony Association | Missoula, MT
Link: https://missoulasymphony.org/season-tickets-now-available 

Saturday, March 2, 2024 at 7:30pm
Anchorage Symphony Performs Trumpet Concerto
Anchorage Symphony Orchestra | Anchorage, AK
Link: https://www.anchoragesymphony.org/concerts-events/tradition-innovation

Saturday, April 20, at 7:30 pm and Sunday, April 21, 2024 at 2:30pm
Buffalo Philharmonic Performs Prayer
Kleinhans Music Hall | Buffalo, NY
Link: https://bpo.org/event/beethovens-emperor/2024-04-20/

Thursday, April 25, and Saturday, May 4, 2024 at 7:30pm
American String Quartet Performs Pizzicato
Central United Methodist Church | Phoenix, AZ
Link: https://www.phoenixchambermusicsociety.org/americanstringquartetandwndychen

Friday, May 17, 2024 at 7:30pm
Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition/Grossman Ensemble in partnership with UChicago Present a new work by Vivian Fung
Logan Center Performance Hall | Chicago, IL
Link: https://chicagopresents.uchicago.edu/concerts-and-events/grossman-ensemble-4

Thursday, May 30, 2024 at 7:30pm
World Premiere of Songs For The Next Generation
Merkin Hall | New York, NY
Link: https://vivianfung.ca/jasper-string-quartet-collaborations

About Vivian Fung
JUNO Award-winning composer Vivian Fung has a unique talent for combining idiosyncratic textures and styles into large-scale works, reflecting her multicultural background. NPR calls her “one of today’s most eclectic composers” and The Philadelphia Inquirer praises her “stunningly original compositional voice.” Her newest compositions run the gamut from the orchestral piece Parade, a ROCO commission reflecting on San Francisco’s Lunar New Year festivities; to the daring Ominous Machine II, a powerhouse work for two pianos and two percussion; to her Flute Concerto: Storm Within, a challenging and turbulent work commissioned and premiered by Vancouver Symphony Principal Flutist Christie Reside.

Recent season highlights include the world premieres of Parade by ROCO, as well as Fung’s String Quartet No. 5 by Canada’s Lafayette String Quartet. Several of Fung’s works made European premieres, including Prayer (Argovia Philharmonic), A Child's Dream of Toys (Theater Erfurt) and Baroque Melting (Berner Symphonieorchester). Other recent highlights include the digital world premiere of two operatic scenes based on Fung’s oral family history in Cambodia with librettist Royce Vavrek; the UK premiere of Birdsong, performed by violinist Midori at Kings Place in London; and the world premiere of String Quartet No. 4 “Insects and Machines” by the American String Quartet.

As a composer whose international influences often inform her music, Fung has taken inspiration from travels in China, Vietnam, Spain, Indonesia and beyond.
She has received numerous awards and grants from institutions including ASCAP, the Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and the Canada Council for the Arts, among many others. Her compositions have been performed by dozens of major ensembles, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Detroit Symphony and Vancouver Symphony. Recordings of her work have been released on the Naxos Canadian Classics, Telarc, Çedille, Innova, Signpost and Çedille Records labels.

Passionate about fostering the talent of the next generation, Fung has mentored young composers through programs with the London Symphony Orchestra, the American Composers Forum, and many other institutions.

Born in Edmonton, Canada, Fung began her composition studies with composer Violet Archer and received her doctorate from The Juilliard School in New York. She currently lives in California. Learn more at www.vivianfung.ca.

*Photo Credit: Geneviéve Caron

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