The Boy Who Drew Cats - Chandos Records

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Chen Yi Meditation: Two Songs for Voice & Piano 1 Know You How Many Petals Falling? [2:44] 2 Monologue [2:51] Brian Arreola, tenor | Wei-En Hsu, piano

Ke-Chia Chen Three Frost Songs 3 Now Close the Windows [2:11] 4 Storm Fear [2:42] 5 To The Thawing Wind [2:44] Brian Arreola, tenor | Wei-En Hsu, piano

Asako Hirabayashi 6 The Boy Who Drew Cats [6:07] Brian Arreola, tenor | Kelvin Chan, baritone Wei-En Hsu, piano | Mira Frisch, cello Wei-Wei Le, violin

Kozaburo Y. Hirai 7 Nara Yama [2:43] Kelvin Chan, baritone | Wei-En Hsu, piano

Brian Arreola 8 Love’s Philosophy [1:44] Brian Arreola, tenor | Wei-En Hsu, piano

Chihchun Chi-sun Lee Sentiments 9 Patience [3:09] 10 The Watch [3:43] 11 Diamond Impressions [4:22] 12 Two Epigrams [1:40] Kelvin Chan, baritone | Wei-En Hsu, piano

Kozaburo Y. Hirai 13 Kuju-kuri-Hama [2:27] Kelvin Chan, baritone | Wei-En Hsu, piano

Tyzen Hsiao 14 The Fairest Flower [3:00] Brian Arreola, tenor | Wei-En Hsu, piano

Dong Su Shin 15 Sana [2:01] Kelvin Chan, baritone | Wei-En Hsu, piano

Nan Pa Hong 16 Boatman’s Song [3:34] Kelvin Chan, baritone | Wei-En Hsu, piano

Yangzhi Ma 17 Thought, Go Your Way Home [3:53] Kelvin Chan, baritone | Wei-En Hsu, piano

Total Time = 51:45

TROY1787WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COMALBANY RECORDS U.S.915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643ALBANY RECORDS U.K.BOX 137, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA8 0XDTEL: 01539 824008© 2019 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA

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The Boy Who Drew CatsSongs by Asian & Asian-American Composers

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TROY1787WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COMALBANY RECORDS U.S.915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643ALBANY RECORDS U.K.BOX 137, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA8 0XDTEL: 01539 824008© 2019 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA

WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL. DDD

The Boy Who Drew CatsSongs by Asian & Asian-American Composers

WORKS BY CHEN YI | KE-CHIA CHEN | ASAKO HIRABAYASHI | KŌZABURŌ HIRAI | BRIAN ARREOLA | CHIHCHUN CHI-SUN LEE | TYZEN HSIAO | DONG SU SHIN | NAN PA HONG | YANGZHI MA

Brian Arreola, tenor Kelvin Chan, baritoneWei-En Hsu, piano Mira Frisch, cello Wei-Wei Le, violin

Arreola_1787_book.indd 1-2 7/10/19 11:52 AM

Prize. She has received commissions from Boston Symphony Orchestra, Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, Barlow Endowment, the Taiwan National Culture and Arts Foundation, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan Philharmonic, National Orchestra of Korea, and Taiwan National Chinese Orchestra, just to name a few. Her music has been performed at Carnegie Hall, the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers, and various international festivals and broadcasts worldwide. (Please visit her website:) http://www.chihchunlee.com.

Asako HirabayashiAsako Hirabayashi’s first recording on the Albany Label, whose program was entirely composed and played by herself, was selected as one of the five best classical CDs of the year 2010 by the Minneapolis Star Tribune and received seven favorable reviews inter-nationally. She has won numerous grants and awards including the 2009-10 McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians and two Minnesota State Arts Board’s Artist Initiative grants as a soloist. As a composer, she has won several first prizes in competi-tions such as Alienor International Harpsichord Composition Competition (three years consecutively) and the NHK International Song Writing Competition in Japan, and was awarded a 2012 Jerome Fund for New Music by the American Composers Forum to write an opera. She has appeared as a featured guest soloist in international festivals and concert series worldwide. She holds a Doctoral degree from the Juilliard School.

Yangzhi Ma Yangzhi Ma started her composition study in the year of 2010, when she was fully spon-sored by China’s Ministry of Education to pursue a dual Master’s Degree in Shanghai and New York. With Off — for Soprano and Ensemble (2012), she was granted the 2013 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award and was selected to attend the 19th International Young Composers Meeting in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, where she received Second Prize with her large ensemble work The Butterfly — for Two Sopranos and Fourteen Players (2013). The same year, the piece was invited to be performed by

The Composers

Ke-Chia ChenKe-Chia Chen’s compositions have been performed throughout the United States and abroad. She has collaborated with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra on several projects including orchestrating music for their 2015 Papal Mass and 69th UN General Assembly session performances. Commission highlights include the Philadelphia Orchestra, Taiwan Philharmonic, Network for New Music, and Taipei Percussion. Chen’s acclaimed Broken Crystal, an Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s Marilyn K. Glick Young Composer Award winner, recently received its Asian premiere by the Taiwan Philharmonic. Her The Silent Flame was awarded first prize in the 2016 International Horn Society Composition Contest. Artist-in-residencies include the Copland House Residency Award, Ucross Foundation, Ensemble 212, Concerts on the Slope, Colorado College Summer Music Festival and Music at Angel Fire Chamber Music Festival, along with composer fellowships at the Aspen, Pacific, and Bowdoin Music Festivals. Chen’s artistic focus draws from Western and Asian classical traditions. Her unique awareness and bold personal touch highlight the essence of her compositional process. Ke-Chia Chen is on the Musical Studies faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music. She holds degrees from the Curtis Institute, Manhattan School of Music, and a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. Visit www.kechiachen.com for more information.

Chihchun Chi-sun LeeTaiwanese-American composer, Chihchun Chi-Sun Lee’s works were described as “exploring a variety of offbeat textures and unusual techniques” by Gramophone and “eastern techniques blended with sophisticated modern writing style” by “Amadeus” Il mensile della grande musica. Lee has received honors including winning the Brandenburg Symphony International Composition Competition in Germany and receiv-ing a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Theodore Front Prize from IAWM, ISCM/ League of Composers Competition, and an International Festival of Women Composers Composition


Orchestra. Her music has also been recorded on many labels, including Bis, New Albion, CRI, Teldec, Telarc, Albany, New World, Naxos, Quartz, Delos, Angel, Bridge, Nimbus, KIC, and China Record Company. Dr. Chen Yi is a cultural ambassador who has introduced hundreds of new music compositions and a large number of musicians from the East and the West to music and education exchange programs in the US, Germany, the UK, and Asian countries, particularly in recent years through programs of the Beijing Modern Music Festival, the Beijing International Composition Workshop (BICW), the Shanghai Spring Festival, the Tianjin May Festival, the China-ASEAN Music Week, the symphony orchestras through-out China and some other Asian countries, and the Thailand International Composition Festival, among many others. She believes that music is a universal language; improving understanding between peoples of different cultural backgrounds and helping to bring peace in the world.

The Performers

Brian Arreola, tenorTenor Brian Arreola has been featured with The Minnesota Opera, Opera Carolina, Toledo Opera, The In Series, American Opera Theater, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, New Orleans Opera, Iford Opera (UK), Grachtenfestival (Netherlands) and others. Of his 2016 debut as Roméo with Toledo Opera The Blade enthused, “Tenor Brian Arreola created a Roméo whose persona churned from petulant adolescent to ardent lover. His voice was rich, lyric, and particularly expressive in the final death duet.” In 2019-2020 he will return to Washington DC’s The In Series to sing B.F. Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, and Don José in Le Cabaret de Carmen, and make his debut with Michigan Opera Theatre as Luis in Terence Blanchard’s “opera-in-jazz” Champion. He teaches voice and opera workshop at UNC Charlotte.

Orkest de ereprijs in 2013 Gaudeamus Muzieweek in Utrecht, the Netherlands. With A Beginning or an Ending- for Orchestra (2012), she appeared in the opening concert of 2013 Ostrava Days for New Music with the Janacek Philharmonic in Czech Republic. She was commissioned by The National Youth Orchestra of The Netherlands, which led to her tour concerts in 2014, including debut in Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, the most prestigious stage for contemporary music in the Netherlands. Other professional highlights including performances at the Cortona Session for New Music Festival in Italy and a collaboration with Kansas University New Music Ensemble. Dr. Yangzhi Ma studied with Dr. Reiko Fueting and Beat Furrer, and holds a M.M. and a D.M.A. in composition from the Manhattan School of Music and a Post-graduate Certificate in Composition from Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz. Dr. Ma has been on the faculty of the Composition Department at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing since 2018.

Chen YiAs a Distinguished Professor at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, a prolific composer, and recipient of the Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Dr. Chen Yi blends Chinese and Western traditions, transcending cultural and musical boundaries. Her music has reached a wide range of audiences and inspired peoples of different cultural backgrounds throughout the world. She holds a BA and MA in music composition from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, and a DMA from Columbia University in New York City, studying composition with Wu Zuqiang, Chou Wen-chung and Mario Davidovsky. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2019.Dr. Chen’s music has been performed and commissioned by the world’s leading musicians and ensembles, including Yehudi Menuhin, Yo-Yo Ma, Evelyn Glennie, the Cleveland Orchestra, the BBC, Seattle, Pacific, and Singapore Symphonies, the Brooklyn, NY, and LA Philharmonic, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, and the St. Paul Chamber


Academy for Performing Arts. A native of Taiwan, he received his BFA degree in Piano at Taipei National University of the Arts, and was pleased to be the only candidate at Juilliard selected to Royal Academy of Music, London as an exchange student. Additional trainings at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, and Rutgers University. Mr. Hsu is the winner of many awards, including the 2010 Los Angeles International Liszt Piano Competition, the Scott Huxley Piano Accompaniment Prize, Major Van Someren-Godfery Prize Accompaniment Award (2004), Ludmilla Andrew Russian Song Prize Accompaniment Award, Sir Arthur Bliss Prize, Distinction Performance Award from RAM (2005). Mr. Hsu made his debut recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in March 2008. He was named the Stern Fellow in SongFest 2009. He has served as a vocal coaching faculty in SongFest 2010 and 2011. He is the Founder/Music Director for Pocket Opera of New York, the Executive Director for Metropolitan International Music Festival, and the Music Director for More Than Musical (HK). As a composer, his music has been performed in the United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Taiwan, Japan, and China. He was elected in 2017 as an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) for his contribution to the music profession and community. In 2018, he was named the 2018 NTCH Artist in Residence in Taiwan. (http://weienhsu.com)

Mira Frisch, celloMira Frisch, Associate Professor of Cello and Director of String Chamber Music at UNC Charlotte, previously taught cello and chamber music at Truman State University in Missouri and at the summer festival Musicale della Toscana in Italy. She has performed as a recitalist and chamber musician throughout the United States and in Bermuda, Italy, and France. Her recordings as a member of Duo XXI, with violinist Anna Cromwell, were released on the Albany Records label in 2010 and 2014. The ensemble’s performance was called “beautifully played” by American Record Guide and their “precise ensemble play-ing” was noted by Fanfare Magazine. Dr. Frisch can also be heard on the album There

Kelvin Chan, baritoneNetherlands- and US-based baritone Kelvin Chan pursues his core commitment to culti-vating human connection through the arts as a singer-actor, director, theatre-maker, and producer. Bringing both a wealth of theatrical experience and a noteworthy resume of classical vocal training and performance to his role as Founding General Director of Vital Opera, he continues to interrogate an eclectic variety of theatrical styles and disciplines in pursuit of his ideal of whole-body expressiveness. Those explorations have taken him as far afield as the award-winning physical-theater company Song of the Goat Theatre (Teatr Pieśń Kozła), in Wrocław, Poland, where he was a company member and music director from 2016 to 2018, as well as workshops with New Dramatists, the SITI Company, the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards, and Meredith Monk and Ensemble. Recent directorial credits include the world premiere of Zac Greenburg and Michael Burnham’s The Bradbury Tattoos for concert:nova in Cincinnati, Zen and the Art: The Music of John Cage also for concert:nova, and György Kùrtag’s Kafka Fragments, Part I with soprano Mellissa Hughes for Brooklyn’s Resonant Bodies Festival. As a performer he has participated in workshops and performances of many new operas, including Judd Greenstein’s A Marvelous Order, Max Giteck Duykers’ Both Eyes Open, and Anthony Braxton’s Trillium J, and created both the role of Goong-Goong in Courtside by Jack Perla at Houston Grand Opera and the role of Shi-Yin in RedDust at Opera Theater of Pittsburgh. Chan has also performed with the New York New Music Collective, Brooklyn Art Song Society, Ekmeles, Antioch, Bard SummerScape, One Quiet Plunge, New York City Opera’s VOX Festival, and Trinity Wall Street’s Concerts at One, among other.

Wei-En Hsu, pianoWei-En Hsu has a busy performing career throughout the States, Europe, and Asia. He has established himself as an early music specialist in promoting Baroque opera and the art of recitative for pianists. At the same time, Hsu has worked closely with living composers in his generation in promoting new music. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Hsu is an accomplished pianist, organist, con-ductor, répétiteur and composer. He is now an Associate Professor at the Hong Kong


Queensland Symphony (Australia), Bermuda Symphony Orchestra, and the State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra. A devoted chamber musician, Le has collaborated with musicians and quartets in North America, Europe, and Asia, including Richard Stoltzman, William Preucil, Sara Chang, and Eliot Fisk, as well as the Ying Quartet and St. Petersburg Quartet. She is an Associate Professor of Violin at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and has served on the faculties of Emory University and Georgia State University in Atlanta.

Cover Art

The title of this recording, and of the composition by Asako Hirabayashi, track 6, is taken from the Japanese folk tale of the same name. The translation of that story, by Lafcadio Hearn, was published in Hasegawa Takejirō’s Japanese Fairy Tale Series, in 1898. The titular boy seems to suffer from Autism Spectrum Disorder, but the story’s ghostly prem-ise makes a shield of his seeming handicap: his singular focus on drawing cats ends up saving his life. Cover artist Jean Mooney is mother to an ASD son, John, who earned his Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2019. At UNC Charlotte John was a cello student of Dr. Mira Frisch and performed his Junior and Senior degree recitals accompanied by Dr. Brian Arreola at the piano. John was honored by the music faculty as Outstanding Lower Division Scholar in 2017 and Most Improved Upper Division Student in 2019. Jean Mooney earned a BFA in Art from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and has worked with children her entire career. She has been a public school teacher in North Carolina since 2004.

Lies the Home, produced by Cantus; and the Albany recordings Songs of the Fisherman, an opera for tenor, dancer, and chamber ensemble; and Dark Dances, a recording of the chamber music of John Allemeier. She has presented at national conferences of the American String Teachers Association, College Music Society, Music Teachers National Association, and the Society of Composers. In the Carolinas, Dr. Frisch has performed as guest principal cellist with the Charleston Symphony, as a section cellist with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, and with the Madison Park String Quartet. She is past-president of the North Carolina Chapter of the American String Teachers Association. Dr. Frisch received the Bachelor of Arts degree in Music and Mathematics from Saint Olaf College, the Master of Music degree in Cello Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Cello Performance from the University of Minnesota.

Wei-Wei Le, violinDescribed by the legendary violinist Yehudi Menuhin as “one of the most talented young musicians I have ever seen,” Wei-Wei Le, a native of Shanghai, graduated high school from the Yehudi Menuhin School in England and went on to receive her Bachelor of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, a Master of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a Graduate Diploma from the New England Conservatory of Music. Le has firmly established herself as one of the most gifted violinists in her genera-tion, winning many important international competitions, including the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition (England), the Kloster Schontal International Violin Competition (Germany), and the Starling International Violin Competition (USA), among others; and studying with renowned violin pedagogues such as Yehudi Menuhin, Donald Weilerstein, Almita and Roland Vamos, and Dorothy DeLay. As a solo performer, Le has given recitals and concerts all over the world, including solo concertos with orches-tras such as the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (London),


ききききき

ki‐ki‐ki‐ki‐kiかりかりかりかり

ka‐ri‐ka‐ri‐ka‐ri‐ka‐ri

あの音何だろな

(that sound) (what is that?) a‐no o‐to na‐n‐da‐ro‐na

鋭い牙を研ぎすまして

(sharp fangs) (sharpen)su‐ru‐do‐i ki‐ba‐o to‐gi‐su‐ma‐shi‐te

獲物を待つよな乾いた音

(prey) (as if waiting for) (dry sound)e‐mo‐no‐o ma‐tsu‐yo‐ba ka‐wa‐i‐ta o‐to

身の毛もよだつ何かが

(back hair standing) (something is) mi‐no‐ke‐mo yo‐da‐tsu na‐ni‐ka‐ga

あの音何だろな

(that sound) (what is it?) a‐no o‐to na‐n‐da‐ro‐na

眠るな小僧よ

(don’t fall asleep) (young boy) ne‐mu‐ru‐na ko‐zo‐o‐yo

Text: The Boy Who Drew Cats

From the composer:This is a scene where the boy was sent away from the temple, and was told by a priest “Don’t go to large places, seek small places,” at his departure. He was scared and depressed, wandering around wondering what to do with his life. The tenor sings the little boy and the baritone sings the other voices in his mind. Sometimes he remembers what the priest had said, and sometimes, he only hears the other voices in his mind.

猫を描いた少年 The Boy Who Drew Cats

独りきりの行く手に横たわる暗黒

hi‐to‐ri‐ki‐ri‐no yu‐ku‐te‐ni yo‐ko‐ta‐wa‐ru a‐n‐ko‐ku (Alone) (the place you are going) (lies) (darkness)

広きを避け狭きを求めよ

(large space) (avoid) and (small space) (seek) hi‐ro‐ki‐o sa‐ke se‐ma‐ki‐o mo‐to‐me‐yo

取り憑かれた悪、悪霊

(possessed) (evil) (evil spirit) to‐ri‐tsu‐ka‐re‐ta a‐ku, a‐ku‐rei

闇が忍び寄る悪霊

(darkness) (creeps up) (evil spirit) ya‐mi‐ga shi‐no‐bi‐yo‐ru a‐ku‐rei

得体の知れぬ化身のざわめき

(uncertain thing) (monster making noise) e‐ta‐i‐no shi‐re‐nu ke‐shi‐n‐no za‐wa‐me‐ki


おいらの描いた猫たちが護ってくれた

(I) (painted cats) (protected me)o‐i‐ra‐no e‐ga‐i‐ta ne‐ko‐ta‐chi‐ga ma‐mo‐tte‐ku‐re‐ta

この命を大切に生きていく

(This life) (cherish) (will live) ko‐no i‐no‐chi‐o ta‐i‐se‐tsu‐ni

新しい希望よ

(new hope)a‐ta‐ra‐shi‐i ki‐bo‐o‐yo

輝く明日

(bright tomorrow) ka‐ga‐ya‐ku a‐shi‐ta

おいらの描いた猫たちとともに

(I painted) (the cats) (with)o‐i‐ra‐no e‐ga‐i‐ta ne‐ko‐ta‐chi‐to to‐mo‐ni

(Japanese Text: Asako Hirabayashi)

Alone, only the deep black darkness in front of me “Take the narrow space over the large space” Possessed by the devil, the evil spiritThe darkness creeps in... the evil spirit

おいらは疲れた

(I’m) (tired)o‐i‐ra‐wa tsu‐ka‐re‐ta

眠れば魔物がやってくる

(If you fall asleep) (monster) (will come) ne‐mu‐re‐ba ma‐mo‐no‐ga ya‐tte‐ku‐ru

闇に紛れて血のにおいが

(darkness) (in the midst of) (blood smell is) ya‐mi‐ni ma‐gi‐re‐te chi‐no ni‐o‐i‐ga

おのれを襲いに悪の足音

(me) (attacking) (evil footsteps)o‐no‐re‐o o‐so‐i‐ni a‐ku‐no a‐shi‐o‐to

血にまみれ呪われた大ばけネズミ

(blood covered) (cursed) (large monster rat)chi‐ni ma‐mi‐re no‐ro‐wa‐re‐ta o‐o‐ba‐ke‐ne‐zu‐mi

一体何が魔物を制裁したのか

(how) (what) (monster) (killed)i‐tta‐i na‐ni‐ga ma‐mo‐no‐o se‐i‐sa‐i shi‐ta‐no‐ka


Acknowledgments

Recorded: April 27-28, 2015, Acoustic Barn Productions, Charlotte, NCRecording Engineer: Rick Dior

Publisher InformationChen Yi’s Meditation is published by Theodore Presser. Tyzen Hsiao’s The Fairest Flower is published by Hsian Song Culture Co., Inc. All other works are available directly from the composers.

This recording is made possible by a Faculty Research Grant from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Creepy monsters chattering Kikikikiki...Kari kari kari kari...

What is that noise...?It sounds like something is sharpening its fangs Dry chattering, as if it’s waiting for its prey

Something horrifying...

What is that noise...?“Do not fall asleep, little boy.”“But I’m so tired...”“If you fall asleep, the monster will come!”

The smell of blood in the midst of darknessThe evil footsteps are coming closer to get you...

A cursed enormous rat covered with blood!!

Who killed the monster?The cats that I have painted protected me from the devil Forever grateful, I will cherish my lifeWith a renewed hopeI see a bright future ahead of me With the cats I have painted(Translation: Momoko Tanno)


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The Boy Who Drew Cats - Chandos Records