Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Zhou Tian

Zhou Tian Grammy Nominee on WWFM

Coming up in the 3:00 hour, it’s one more chance to catch Zhou Tian’s Concerto for Orchestra in advance of this Sunday’s Grammy Awards ceremony. Zhou’s piece is nominated in the category of Best Contemporary Classical Composition. We’ll hear the world premiere recording of the work, with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Zhou was in Princeton last year for the U.S. premiere of his work, “Broken Ink,” with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra.

Prior to the airing of his Concerto for Orchestra, we’ll enjoy “An Exaltation of Larks” by one of his teachers, Philadelphia composer – and Pulitzer Prize winner – Jennifer Higdon. The work was written for the LARK Quartet (“exaltation” is the term for a collection of larks) of which Princeton Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Basia Danilow is a member.

Join me at 3:00 EST for an hour of outstanding contemporary music, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Zhou Tian with Basia Danilow of the PSO and the Lark Quartet

January 23, 2018
Zhou Tian Grammy Nominee on WPRB Today

I hope you’ll join me this morning for music by Zhou Tian. Zhou was my guest on Classic Ross Amico when his work, “Broken Ink,” was performed by the Princeton Symphony Orchestra last season. Zhou’s brilliantly orchestrated Concerto for Orchestra has been nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of “Best Contemporary Classical Composition.” A recording, with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, will provide the capstone to today’s survey of concertos for orchestra and genre-bending symphonies featuring solo instruments, which will continue until 11:00 EST on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com.

January 18, 2018
Musical Hybrids on WPRB

Ah, humans… compelled to classify everything. The more confusing the world gets, the more we try to understand. But what’s the alternative?

At a time when everything seems so fluid – language, mores, sexuality, and even gender – I thought we’d take a look at some equally perplexing musical hybrids this Thursday morning on WPRB.

Concertos are usually understood to be works for solo instrument and orchestra. However, we’ll be focusing on concertos for orchestra alone. Likewise, symphonies are ordinarily purely orchestral endeavors. We’ll hear symphonies for orchestra and prominent instrumental soloist.

Among our featured highlights will be the Concerto for Orchestra – now Grammy-nominated for “Best Contemporary Classical Composition” – by one-time Classic Ross Amico guest Zhou Tian; a symphony for solo piano by Charles-Valentin Alkan; an organ symphony by Aaron Copland, and a “concerto symphonique” for piano and orchestra by Henry Charles Litolff.

We may not know whether it’s fish or fowl, but whatever it is I’ll be tossing it in the blender, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EST on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. It will be another breakfast of champions, on Classic Ross Amico.

January 18, 2018
Zhou Tian’s “Broken Ink” Premieres Tonight!

Music by one-time Classic Ross Amico guest, composer Zhou Tian, can be heard on tonight’s Princeton Symphony Orchestra broadcast, on WWFM – The Classical Network. Zhou’s “Broken Ink” will be featured alongside Claude Debussy’s “La Mer” and Paul Hindemith’s “Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber.” PSO music director Rossen Milanov will conduct. Do yourself a favor and catch this well-balanced concert, especially Zhou’s assured and beautifully orchestrated suite in its U.S. premiere! The concert begins at 8 p.m. EDT at wwfm.org.

September 15, 2017
Zhou Tian’s Broken Ink on The Classical Network

I hope you’ll join me this afternoon on The Classical Network. Following today’s Noontime Concert, we’ll hear selections from the original version of Chinese-American composer Zhou Tian’s “Broken Ink.” Originally titled “Poems from the Song Dynasty,” the work received its US premiere (the world premiere of its revision) in a concert of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Rossen Milanov, this past weekend.

Zhou’s “Broken Ink” is a multi-movement meditation on Song Dynasty poetry, an important part of the cultural heritage of the composer’s native Hangzhou, explored through the means of a Western symphony orchestra. Zhou re-imagines the lost art of Classical Chinese poetry, a multidisciplinary form which was sung as much as it was spoken. (Increasingly, it also became tied to painting.) Though the melodies have been forgotten, the composer avoids interpreting the texts too scrupulously, choosing instead to reflect on their bittersweet nature, in a work full of touching melodies and driving rhythms.

Zhou’s “Viaje” for flute, cello and piano, written for Mimi Stillman’s Dolce Suono Ensemble, will be performed as part of a memorial concert in honor of composer Steven Stucky, at the Curtis Institute of Music’s Gould Hall at Lenfest Hall, 1616 Locust Street, in Philadelphia, tonight at 7 p.m. More information is available at http://www.dolcesuono.com.

His “Grand Canal,” a work which incorporates traditional Chinese instruments and bears the influence of Chinese opera (and which was presented here by the PSO as part of its 2012-13 season), will be performed by the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, in Columbus, OH, this weekend. You can find out more at http://www.columbussymphony.com.

Tune in this afternoon for the original version of Zhou Tian’s “Broken Ink.” It will be among my musical selections, between 2 and 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

May 9, 2017

Tag Cloud

RECENT POSTS