CHANTICLEER & THE SHANGHAI QUARTET GIVE NEW YORK PREMIERE OF FROM THE PATH OF BEAUTY ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9 AT METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

NEW WORK, A SONG CYCLE FOR MIXED CHOIR & STRING QUARTET BY CELEBRATED CHINESE COMPOSER CHEN YI, WAS ENTHUSIASTICALLY RECEIVED AT RECENT WORLD PREMIERE IN SAN FRANCISCO

“Chen Yi woos with a seductive and distinctive Beauty” – San Francisco Chronicle

“Original and fascinating” – Los Angeles Times

NEW YORK, April 1, 2008 – Chanticleer, the Grammy Award-winning male a cappella ensemble, and the internationally acclaimed Shanghai Quartet, will give the New York premiere of Chen Yi’s From the Path of Beauty, a song cycle for mixed choir and string quartet, on Wednesday, April 9 at 8 pm in the Temple of Dendur at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Commissioned by Chanticleer and the Shanghai Quartet for their respective 30th and 25th anniversaries, Chen Yi’s newest work is a musical portrait of beauty in Chinese arts, ranging from ancient totems and delicate figurines to poetry and calligraphy, and from dance to music.

The work is composed in seven movements, four of which feature both Chanticleer and the Shanghai Quartet together, while each of the other three features one of the groups alone. The string quartet plays in nontraditional textures, such as dark and dense blocks of chords, imitation of Chinese operatic reciting, and woodwind-like running passages. The choir sings in nonsense syllables, clusters, and banding tones taken from Chinese traditional folk music materials and performing styles.

The April 9 concert will also feature the Shanghai Quartet in a performance of Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major, and the Chanticleer men singing works by Ravel and György Ligeti.

The world-premiere performance of From the Path of Beauty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on March 13 was greeted with enthusiastic acclaim.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported:

Local music lovers with reasonably long memories will remember the days in the early 1990s when composer Chen Yi walked among us, turning out music of irresistible suavity and allure in her role as composer-in-residence with both Chanticleer and the late, lamented Women’s Philharmonic.

She was back in town again over the weekend with a new piece, and the old emotions – excitement, satisfaction, gratitude – surfaced all over again. From the Path of Beauty…attempts nothing less than a history of Chinese aesthetics in the space of 40 minutes. And if the specifics of that lineage remained obscure to a listener unversed in the subject, the joy and resourcefulness of Chen Yi’s writing remained unmistakable.

London’s Financial Times described the work in detail:

Cast in seven movements, the 40-minute song cycle finds its verbal and harmonic inspiration in the traditional Chinese arts. The movements bear allusions to the different dynasties that have comprised the history of Chen’s homeland and the gestures of Chinese opera and folk culture permeate this often exquisitely crafted work.

In their sole unaccompanied section and the four with strings, the twelve vocalists slide into pitches, declaim discrete syllables, and animate a spare harmonic scheme. The strings favor dramatic glissandi, much decorative filigree, and percussive thwacks that might have derived from an operatic epic. Chen lingers over a romantic string reverie before plunging us into a propulsive recreation of a boisterous village band, where a deft hand bridges a wide cultural chasm. The listener’s experience of the work is akin to unrolling an ancient Chinese scroll, savoring the wonders as they pass before you.

Christine Bullin, Chanticleer’s President and General Director, comments: “Chen Yi has provided Chanticleer with some of its enduringly popular music; we are delighted to continue our longstanding relationship with her, and that this ambitious work has found such immediate favor with the public.”

Chanticleer has long been on the vanguard of the contemporary music scene, commissioning dozens of new works from a wide range of composers that have contributed significantly to the choral repertoire. Last season the group performed and recorded And on Earth, Peace – A Chanticleer Mass, a collaborative work featuring contributions by five contemporary composers – Douglas J. Cuomo, Kamran Ince, Michael McGlynn, Ivan Moody, and Shulamit Ran. In September 2006, Chanticleer launched its 29th season with a program of new music, including the world premiere of Argentine-American composer Ezequiel Viñao’s The Wanderer, which was performed at Terra, an alternative event space and gallery in San Francisco.

In January 2002, Warner Classics’ Teldec label issued a recording of another major Chanticleer commission, Sir John Tavener’s Lamentations and Praises, timed to coincide with the work’s world-premiere performances at Stanford University’s Memorial Church. The album was one of the most acclaimed recordings of that year, and was named an “Editor’s Choice” by UK-based Gramophone magazine before winning two Grammy Awards. Another Chanticleer album, Colors of Love, was released in 1999 and featured all new works by composers including Chen Yi, Augusta Read Thomas, Steven Stucky, and Bernard Rands, as well as Tavener’s Village Wedding. Colors of Love also won a Grammy Award, and in recognition of Chanticleer’s commitment to new music, the American Music Center presented the group with its 2006 Letter of Distinction.

The commission of Chen Yi’s From the Path of Beauty has received major assistance from the Carol Franc Buck Foundation, the Fleishhacker Foundation, and Kathleen G. Henschel. The Ann & Gordon Getty Foundation, J.C. Property Investment, Tom & Patricia Klitgaard, and Mary D. Lau have provided additional support. The composition is dedicated to Peter Henschel and Gordon Lau, honoring their great devotion and contribution to the friendship between the San Francisco Bay Area and China.

Composer Chen Yi

As a prolific composer who blends Chinese and Western traditions, transcending cultural and musical boundaries, Chen Yi was the recipient of the prestigious Charles Ives Living award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2001. She is the Cravens/Millsap/Missouri Distinguished Professor at the Conservatory of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005. Chen Yi has received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in music composition from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Columbia University in the City of New York. Her current teaching posts also include a three-year stint at China’s Central Conservatory of Music.

Chen Yi has served as composer-in-residence for Chanticleer, the former Women’s Philharmonic, and the Aptos Creative Arts Center. Her extensive body of work consists primarily of music for symphony orchestra, in addition to chamber music, vocal works, and pieces for piano. Chen Yi’s music is featured on more than a dozen CD recordings, including Chanticleer’s Grammy Award-winning Colors of Love.

Shanghai Quartet

Originally formed in Shanghai 25 years ago, the Shanghai Quartet is a versatile ensemble known for their passionate musicality, impressive technique, and multicultural innovations. The Shanghai Quartet’s elegant style of melding the delicacy of Eastern music with the emotional breadth of Western repertory allows them to traverse the genres, from traditional Chinese folk music to cutting-edge contemporary classical works. The musicians are Weigang Li and Yi-Wen Jiang, violin; Honggang Li, viola; and Nicholas Tzavaras, cello.

To celebrate their 25th anniversary season (2008-09), the Quartet will premiere commissions from composers who represent the three continents comprising their artistic and cultural worlds: Chen Yi, Krzysztof Penderecki, and jazz pianist Dick Hyman. Reviewing a recent Shanghai concert, the New York Times stated, “The whole performance was superb.”

Chanticleer

Called “the world’s reigning male chorus” by the New Yorker, Chanticleer will have performed more than 100 concerts by the end of 2007-08, the Grammy Award-winning ensemble’s 30th season. Praised by the San Francisco Chronicle for their “tonal luxuriance and crisply etched clarity,” Chanticleer will tour 22 American states this season, including appearances at Walt Disney Concert Hall under the auspices of the Los Angeles Philharmonic; at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.; and at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. In January 2008, the ensemble performed at prestigious venues in major European cities: Paris, Luxembourg, Bruges, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, and Vilnius.

In fall 2007, Warner Classics and Jazz released Chanticleer’s newest Christmas CD, Let It Snow, which quickly became a Top Five best seller on Billboard’s crossover chart. In December, Chanticleer won the 2008 Musical America Award for Ensemble of the Year, the first time a vocal ensemble has been so recognized.

Based in San Francisco, Chanticleer has developed a remarkable reputation for its vivid interpretations of vocal literature, from Renaissance to jazz, and from gospel to venturesome new music. With its seamless blend of twelve male voices, ranging from countertenor to bass, the ensemble has earned international renown as “an orchestra of voices.” Joseph Jennings is Chanticleer’s Music Director.

Chanticleer return to the Bay Area from May 15-30 with a special program, “El Camino Real: Chanticleer Travels the Mission Road,” beginning in San Luis Obispo and concluding at San Francisco’s Mission Dolores. The rich repertory of the past eras will nicely complement these nine historic California Missions.

For additional information visit www.chanticleer.org

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