During the first half of this concert music by Tan Dun (Concerto for Six), Yi-Wen Jiang (Selections from ChinaSong) and Bright Sheng (Four Movements For Piano Trio) will be performed.

Wang was born in China and joined the LA Phil in 1994. She’s a beautiful musician and audiences may know her best from her on-stage collaborations with composer John Williams. Wang is the featured soloist any year in which the Theme from Schindler’s List is played as part of the Maestro of the Movies concerts.

Wang has performed under music directors Esa-Pekka Salonen and Gustavo Dudamel. She will soon find her third music director on the podium after Dudamel leaves for the New York Philharmonic.

Last week I spoke with Wang about this concert, the significance of the music she programmed and about her musical partnership with Williams. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview with Wang, please go to our YouTube channel.

Q: What does the New Year mean to you personally and do you associate any particular music with the New Year?

All New Years means so much for many of us coming from Asia. I heard a comparison that it is like Thanksgiving and Christmas combined. I have to say it is that combined and much more. There are many traditions. Traditions with foods that we eat for Lunar New Year and of course, music. What I’m going to perform, it’s not really traditional New Year’s music. But certainly, as people will hear, it’s very effective. It’s very colorful. It’s going to be very festive. 

I guess being colorful and festive makes it easier for Western audiences to hear Chinese music. 

In fact, as I was practicing Harvest Celebration [one of the ChinaSongs], it came to my mind this is exactly the drum beats and the percussive rhythm that people would feel at a local dance. I’m going to speak at the beginning of the concert. I will ask people who has seen a Lion Dance. They will really associate that with the rhythm that they will hear in Harvest Celebration.

The concert opens with Yi-Wen Jiang’s adaptations of traditional songs. Then you’ve got music by Bright Sheng and Tan Dun. The second half of the program is Mendelssohn’s string quintet. What’s the conversation that you see taking place between the first half of the concert and the second half of the concert?

I actually wouldn’t be the expert right now to tell you. But I do want to mention that to the audience that viola quintet is a form of chamber music that’s less common than a string quartet and a piano trio. Bright Sheng’s piano trio brings back a lot of familiar memories to me melodically. So I recommended that piece and I suggested Yi-Wen Jiang’s transcription of the three string quartet pieces. In terms of Mendelssohn viola quintet, it’s a master work of the chamber music repertoire. What is the connection? I cannot just ignore that when I introduce the program. In terms of how I see that, it’s as if we give you some beautiful hamburgers on the Chinese banquet table.

Selections from ChinaSongs opens the concert. Those are based on traditional songs. What can you tell me about those songs and their cultural significance? 

The first piece is Yao Dance. It means dances of the Yao People. The Yao People is from the south west of China. They are a minority. They love to sing and dance and they have beautiful music. The second one is Shepherd’s Song, and this is folk music from the Inner Mongolia. [It’s] really about the shepherds in the prairie and has a lot to do with singing. Shepherd Song and Harvest Celebration are both very well known as solo music for violin with piano accompaniment. So these two are the pieces that I played many times when I was growing up in China.

Shepherd Song is slow. It’s beautiful. It’s music originally written for a Chinese instrument, which is called suona, which is a double reed instrument. It sounds like an extremely loud oboe. It’s an instrument that people play in festival settings like weddings and New Years. It’s very loud. A composer transcribed that for violin. It’s really a great piece that always brings down the hall because it’s so lively and loud. It’s exciting. It has syncopation. It has rhythmic changes. It’s always a fantastic piece for a performance.

Where do you believe Tan Dun’s work stands in the world of contemporary classical music in general, and in the music by Chinese-American composers?

I really think Tan Dun is very important, if not the most important, living Chinese composer. I always thought that from the very beginning. He always incorporates a lot of elements from back home and not only the familiar melodies that I grew up listening to. He went into places in China that we’ve never been to. I think he’s so innovative. I feel he’s always ahead of all time.

Tan Dun and Bright Sheng were in the same composition class at the Central Conservatory in Beijing. That’s the first class right after culture revolution ended. We always consider that to be the most important and the greatest composition class period in Chinese history. So they both attended and were in that class, and they both came to Columbia University and had their doctorate at Columbia University. We actually turned out to have two composers from the same background and education.

What does it mean to you to have Chinese music part of the programing at the Los Angeles Philharmonic or any other orchestral institution that chooses to program it?

I feel it’s very important. Not only in L.A. Society is so diverse and it’s important that we understand each other’s music and background. So I’m always thrilled to be the interpreter or to introduce that music to a broader audience. Obviously in L.A., needless to say, we have so many people of Chinese heritage.

Increased exposure to non-traditional music and contemporary classical music began in earnest under Esa-Pekka Salonen. Gustavo Dudamel has done a wonderful job of continuing that tradition. What are your hopes that whomever the new music director is announced to replace Gustavo Dudamel will follow in those footsteps and continue to present music from other cultures and from newer composers that don’t traditionally fit into programing?

I have no doubt whoever our next music director will be will be innovative and will bring their new angle and strength in this following champions of modern music. Gustavo came and look at how much music he brought in. We’ve played so much music of South American composers that we really had not a lot of exposure to before. So I feel whoever will come will bring their unique angle on this.

Is it time for a woman to be the music director?

Maybe. We will see. I think we are trying not to put an expectation to fulfill a certain agenda or a role. Yes, we are looking. We are taking our time. We are hopeful. We’ve had Gustavo for 17 years.

I noticed how carefully you skirted around that question. If Gustavo said, hey, there’s a place for you at the New York Philharmonic, would you join him?

I have to say this, I will not. My home is in LA and my part is here. 

One of the advantages of having your home in Los Angeles is the relationship that you’ve developed off-stage and on-stage with John Williams. What can you tell me about your close musical relationship with him and how that developed? 

It all started after I joined the L.A. Phil. My first summer was 1995, and then, in 1998, I remember very clearly when he first programmed a violin solo. On that program it was Sabrina and he was so thrilled. We connected and the rest is history. We have have performed yearly ever since then. So it’s more than 25 years now. I’ve also toured with him. There’s nothing else quite like that.

When I’m asked your favorite conductor, I will bring up John Williams’ name. Who will give you this kind of experience for me?

When you are on stage, immersed in this music and you look up the composer looking down at you – that kind of connection, that kind of gift and experience cannot be replaced.

He has written a violin concerto or two. Maybe you could be a soloist on one of those.

It is my goal. Yes. Someday I will play one of those concertos and not just the three minute solo, which I do love. 

Being a young girl growing up in China, could you ever have imagined this kind of experience with the most beloved film composer of all times, with arguably the greatest orchestra in the United States? What does it mean to you every night when you get on stage, whether you’re a member of of a small ensemble, as you will be Tuesday, or a soloist with the entire Philharmonic?

Thank you for asking me that question, because I feel that every day. I could not have imagined. When I attended the Middle School of Shanghai Conservatory and practiced around the clock. When I came here on a full scholarship to attend Peabody Conservatory. Then when I attended Manhattan’s School of Music and studied under Glen Dicterow, who is a colleague at USC Thornton School of Music. I could not have imagined that my professional path would have taken me this far. Even when I joined the L.A. Phil at age of 26, I could not have imagined how my professional development have evolved and grown.

I have an important part of my career that is teaching now. I already have one former student in the orchestra and I have another incoming former student. This is really the greatest feeling to see the next generation, developing under my guidance.

On your page on USC’s website, you are quoted about your teaching philosophy that, “The intent is always to motivate and to inspire them to become better instrumentalists and complete musicians.” I was intrigued by complete musician. When did you realize you were a complete musician and what does it mean to you? Or how do you define what a complete musician is?

I hope I live by example. You don’t only win the job and play the notes and make a salary. Complete musicians means you’re devoted. That you are involved in music. Your responsibility includes sharing, cultivating, giving, which is so important. I would say at my ripe old age, I feel I’m still changing and hopefully getting better. I’m still hoping to become a better musician, artist and a teacher. That, for me, means you’re complete musician. You are immersed and giving.

Berl Sinofsky [one of Wang’s former teachers] is quoted as saying that, “Music is a higher calling than just a profession or living. It is an effort in understanding something bigger than yourself. It is an effort at striving to be something bigger than you are.” In what ways has music given you that understanding of something bigger and that ability to be something bigger? 

I doubt I can give really a deserving answer to your question. I think that’s a great statement that he gave. I hope to do more is really part of my answer. It’s going to be what I said earlier. I think by really doing good with my music and really becoming more than just a musician by really helping others and be involved and immersed in a community. I think that’s that’s what I’m hoping to do.

To watch the full interview with Bing Wang, please go here.

All photos courtesy of Los Angeles Philharmonic

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Our top pick for New In Music This Week: September 1^st is:

JAZZ: REFRACT – BlankFor.ms – Red Hook Records

Any artist who can bring drummer Marcus Gilmore and pianist Jason Moran together to create a trio album has got to have something special. BlankFor.ms (AKA Tyler Gilmore) is just such an artist.

The press release for this album refers to BlankFor.ms as an electronic musician and tape loop specialist. His own website says he is a musician who uses “degraded tapes, analog synthesizers and a spinet piano.”

Sun Chung produced the album and contributed to all the songs on Refract. The three musicians. Tyler Gilmore is credited with co-writing all the songs with various contributions from both Moran and Marcus Gilmore.

This is a fascinating album that I’ve found myself listening to several times already. 

Our other picks for New In Music This Week: September 1^st are:

CLASSICAL:  BUDDHA PASSION – Tan Dun – Decca Classics

If you love choral music or have thought about exploring it, I strongly recommend this massive 100-minute work from composer Tan Dun. This work from 2018 for soloists, large orchestra, multiple choirs, percussion, western and eastern instruments and more is, quite simply, remarkable.

We’re accustomed to passions typical exploring Christian beliefs. Given the title, this work explores them from a Buddhist narrative.

Tan Dun is perhaps best known for his Academy Award-winning score for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. As much as I enjoyed that score, his Water Concerto for Water Percussion and Orchestra plus his Water Passionwere amongst my favorite works of his. I now add Buddha Passion to that list and you can, too.

CLASSICAL: RACHMANINOFF: THE PIANO CONCERTOS & PAGANINI RHAPSODY – Yuja Wang/Los Angeles Philharmonic/Gustavo Dudameli – Deutsche Grammophon

You may recall I had the privilege of going to Carnegie Hall to hear Yuja Wang perform all five of the works in a single concert. It was a breathtaking performance and one I wish the whole world could see.

Since that isn’t possible, it’s a good thing that Wang performed all five works with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor Gustavo Dudamel. This recording captures the works in exactly the same order as they were performed in New York (these live performances occurred over multiple days instead of just one).

Wang has so thoroughly mastered these works that the performances on this recording are essential listening for anyone who loves Rachmaninoff’s work.

JAZZ:  LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD – Kris Davis – Pyroclastic Records

Pianist/composer Davis released her album Diatom Ribbons in 2019 to enormous critical acclaim. Along with drummer Teri Lyne Carrington, bassist Trevor Dunn and electronic musician Val Jeanty, they created an album that showcased Davis’ ability to combine work that is equal parts composed and improvised.

Those collaborators joined Davis for the performances at New York’s Village Vanguard that make up this enormously impressive two-disc album. They are joined by guitarist Julian Lage.

Ten of the eleven tracks were composed by Davis (Geri Allen’s The Dancer is the only track not composed by her). 

New In Music This Week: September 1^st isn’t a huge list (probably due to the US holiday), so I recommend checking out previous editions of New In Music from August 25^th, August 18^th, August 11^th, July 21^st and June 30^th to check out some music you might have missed.

That’s our small, but mighty, list of the best of What’s New In Music This Week: September 1st.

Enjoy the music and enjoy your weekend!

Main Photo: An excerpts from the album cover for Rachmaninoff: The Piano Concertos & Paganini Rhapsody – Yuja Wang, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel

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Tan Dun’s inspiration for this work are the Dunhuang Cave paintings on China’s Silk Road. Cave temples were carved into a cliff face and filled with images and sculptures of Buddha. Dunhuang is located on the western edge of the Gobi Desert. For this work, the stories of these cave paintings have served as the basis for Buddha Passion.

Like his masterwork Water Passion after St. Matthew, Buddha Passion is an oratorio for vocalists and orchestra. Joining Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic for this concert at Sen Guo (soprano), Huiling Zhu (mezzo-soprano), Kang Wang (tenor), Shenyang (bass-baritone) and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Buddha Passion is sung in Chinese and Sanskrit.

If you’re looking to celebrate Chinese New Year, the LA Philharmonic offers concerts on Wednesday and Thursday featuring violinist Ray Chen featuring a mix of western music (Ravel’s Bolero and Saint-Saens’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso) plus eastern music by Huanzhi (Spring Festival Overture) and Du Yun (Thirst for Orchestra). The latter work is an LA Philharmonic commission having its world premiere. Leading the Philharmonic for these two concerts will be Elim Chan.

Photo of Tan Dun by Feng Hai/Courtesy of Columbia Aritsts

Photo of Elim Chan by Willeke Machiels/Courtesy of Harrison Parrott

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