NEW YORK, Oct. 1 -- Two generations of Chinese women composers are to hold a concert on Monday in New York in celebration of the 69th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China which falls on Oct.1.
"Exploring Sonic Frontiers: Two Generations of Chinese Women Composers," scheduled for 7:30 PM on Monday at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, features two composers who are so different in age -- Keyin Lou, who was born in Hangzhou, China, in 1994, and Yuexiang Xu, who was born in Changsha, China, in 1977.
Both ladies graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and studied at Manhattan School of Music (MSM). In May, 2018, Lou received a master's degree in composition from the MSM. In 2008, while still in middle school, the Shanghai Little Star Art Chorus published and distributed her Olympic children's song series, including "Dad Is a Torchbearer" and "I Was Planting Flowers for the Olympics."
Xu, who is professor and director of the Department of Composition and Theory at South China Normal University School of Music, has been awarded a scholarship under the State Scholarship Fund to pursue study in the United States as a visiting scholar in 2018. At the same time, she studied Classical Composition for the Professional Studies Certificate at the MSM.
Xu's piece for Chorus and Percussions "Seeing off the Bride" was published in China's 56 National Chorus Encyclopedias in 2003. The work was performed at the Golden Hall in Vienna, Austria on Aug. 3, 2006, at the closing ceremony of the 5th Beijing 2008 Olympic Cultural Festival on July 14, 2007, in the U.S. state of Colorado on Jan. 29, 2008 and on Feb. 9th of the same year in California and other places.
The show is being presented by the China National Literature & Art Foundation Aesthetic Development Fund and New York City-based FFY Arts Production & Consulting Inc.