![]()
2024年musicON音乐节共分5场音乐会，第四场为美好艺术中心学员室内乐专场，本场演出作品12部。▼节目单（系列音乐会第四场，美东时间2024年10月27日下午1:00，美国国家歌剧院音乐厅）![]()
▼本场音乐会作曲家与作品简介
![]()
Tianzhe Chen （USA）
Tianzhe Chen was born in Shenzhen, China, in 2007. Studied piano and Guqing for years and started composing in October 2023. Now studying as a Junior at Boston Trinity Academy in Boston, MA. Swaying Foxtail in the WindInspired by the graceful movement of foxtails swaying in the wind, reflecting nature’s dynamic responses. As the wind shifts, the foxtails move from gentle sways to fierce, resilient dances. Sudden changes in key, tempo, and dynamics capture this unpredictability, embodying both the softness and strength of the foxtail. The music mirrors the ever-changing dance of nature.
![]()
Angela is a sophomore attending Phillips Academy, Andover. She was born in Maryland, and lived in Beijing, China for seven years before coming back to the United States. She has played the flute for seven years and piccolo for three years. She is in the Academy Symphony Orchestra, New England Conservatory (NEC Prep), and is selected for the MMEA All-State Orchestra in 2024. She started learning composition in the beginning of 2024, and hopes to make friends and spread kindness in the community through music. Some of her hobbies are hiking, badminton, camping, and reading.The Great Race
The string quartet The Great Race is composed of two violins, viola, and cello. The music depicts the competitiveness and rushed nature within our everyday lives. The piece starts and ends with compacted sixteenth notes and counterpoints, symbolizing competition. Throughout the piece, there are several places of slow realization, together with vibrato, showing calmness. The piece, overall, advocates for a more sustainable and mindful lifestyle, and inspires people to focus on themselves and slow down the pace.
![]()
I am currently a junior in high school (11th grade) and currently studying under the instruction of Mr. Wu in music composition in the classical format. I began my musical endeavors at a little age, learning piano, and later joining my school’s concert and marching band as an alto and baritone saxophonist. Alongside my passion in creating music, I have a lot of other hobbies stemming from the creative mind; I am a columnist for my school’s local paper writing op-eds, and I am a hobbyist photographer for nearly two years now.Novus
"Novus" originated as a simple piano and violin duet for a homework assignment, but evolved into a more complex piece, marking the composer’s first experience with writing for two instruments, especially the violin. Inspired by Prokofiev’s Sonata No.1, the piece incorporates various classical techniques and maintains a lively tone with minimal key changes for simplicity. The title "Novus," meaning "new" in Latin, reflects the composer’s exploration of unfamiliar territory in their first multi-instrument composition.
![]()
Joanna Mo is a 7 th grader at Sartartia Middle School in Sugarland, Texas. Joanna started playing the piano when she was five and started composing under Mr. Yiming Wu’s guidance when she was eight. She studied music theory under Dr. Meng Wang and Dr. Xun Chen.Rewards Joanna got: National 2nd place, Junior group, NFMC Composition Competition, USA 2024. National 3rd place, Elementary group, MTNA Composition Competition, USA 2021. Honorable Mention, Elementary group, MTNA Composition Competition, Texas, 2020 . Joanna wishes to continue improving her talent and dreams of creating more pieces to make the world more colorful.
This 136-measured piece “Rain and Wind” highlights the contrast between rain and wind and the difference between short and long rhythms. “Rain and Wind” shows how rain is like short rhythm and the wind is like long rhythm and in waves. “Rain and Wind” was inspired by Akira Nishimura’s piece, String Quartet No. 2 Pulse of the Lights, which explores the interplay of light and sound. Pulse of the Lights reflects Nishimura’s interest in cosmology. The composer was interested in the works of nature, so she wrote “Rain and Wind.”
![]()
Julia Lu, currently a junior in high school, is a composer who believes music has the power to bring people together. With a love for exploring unique sounds and techniques, she creates works that evoke deep emotion. Her recent compositions push the boundaries of traditional music, blending classical and contemporary elements. Her music often draws inspiration from nature and everyday life. For Julia, music is a way to connect, inspire, and move audiences.This piece uses Robert Frost’s poem Nothing Gold Can Stay with original lyrics that offer a hopeful contrast. While Frost’s poem reflects on the fleeting nature of beauty and loss, the added lyrics emphasize resilience and renewal. Musically, the piece features rich 7th chords and fluid key changes, mirroring life’s unpredictable emotional shifts. By blending melancholy with optimism, the song captures the transient nature of all experiences, inviting listeners to find comfort in the knowledge that both sorrow and joy will pass, making way for new beginnings.
![]()
Zilin Yan, an undergraduate student majoring in composition at Mannes School of Music at the New School, studies under the guidance of Professor Joan La Barbara. Zilin Yan’ s works mainly focus in classic, pop and the post rock, using smooth but powerful tones to express thoughts to the relationship between people, personal experience, fighting against the nihilism. Zilin Yan believes the style of music could be mixed together to create new works as the inspirations come from not only the classic music and the modern music, lead to not only the classic works but also electronic music works.The name of the piece is THE TREE. The picture that I want to describe is a huge tree that supports all of the living things with emitting light and heat in fantasy stories. The piece begins with a smooth and mysterious tone to start the trip to the Tree. With the develop of the melodies and the rhythms,the whole picture of the Tree will come in front the audience, telling the moving story of the Tree.
![]()
A young pianist and a high school senior, Eric Nie dedicates himself into the field musical composition. Since the beginning of his composition at the age of 12, he waited for a chance to demonstrate his own creation in a formal performance. He was originally an apprentice in electronic music, but later adapted to more artistic composition. He actively adapts traits in popular music and mathematical concepts into his composition, creating a presence of melodic variation, timbre-oriented orchestration, quasi-functional enharmonic, and arithmetic iteration. Furthermore, his experience in sports also contributes to his composition style by enhancing the composition’s consistent movement.Palinopsia
Derived from the word palinopsia — the hallucination of previously observed images, the piece utilizes the normalized differences between elements of a just intonation ratio array, and constructs a series of timestamps from which a persistent form of expression is carried via functionally varying instruments, creating a persistent pattern in a stable skeleton, while gradually dissecting the very core materials of the piece and mutating it into a novel form, leaving behind an illusion of the previous image. By interchanging the functions between pitch, texture and structure of the same material, a set of vaguely connected strings sews a powerful theme.
![]()
Alex Zhiheng Li (b.2011) is a young composer who is passionate about classical music. He started learning piano and cello since he was very young. He develops his passion about music these years and currently Alex studies composition with Yiming Wu. Alex likes to compose music to express his feelings. In his spare time, Alex also loves to read adventure fictions and think about math problems. His favoritepet is Milky, a two-year British short hair cat who inspires him almost everyday.Ball of Yarn is meant to interpret a clutter of felines’ true feelings when presented with a toy such as a ball of yarn. When met with a new opportunity for curiosity, cats never fail to chase after the ball.The first part of Ball of Yarn represents the initial feelings of a new trinket to play with. Chaotic and disordered, this part shows the excitement and confusion with the yarn. Often, the ball of yarn would roll out of the large house the cats lived in.The second part of Ball of Yarn shows the kittens resting after a long day of chasing after the ball. After a final chase, the cat who caught the ball placed it on its bed. Tucking away its paws, it soon fell asleep. This part of Ball of Yarn is quieter and more relaxed compared to the first part.
![]()
Yixuan Li is 15 years old from Rockville, Maryland. He studied music composition with Yiming Wu for four years. He won an Honorable Mention in the Junior Composition Division of the 2023 Maryland MTNA Competition. He was accepted into the NowBeat Project 2024 Cycle. Yixuan started to play violin at age of 6, and he has placed first in several string competitions including the Joseph and Goldie Feder Memorial String Competition, the National Chamber Ensemble Outstanding Young Artist Competition, the Londontowne Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artists Competition, and the Junior String Division of the Maryland MTNA Competition."Melancholy" is a piece for violin and viola that captures the feelings of loneliness and sadness. The violin’s melodies and the smooth, flowing notes of the viola create a sense of being all by yourself. The way the music moves makes it feel like reaching out, trying to connect with something or someone, but never quite finding it. The melodies feel distant, and the title fits the music as it expresses deep emotions of being alone and longing, making it a very touching and emotional piece.
![]()
Amy Chen, a sophomore, is passionate about music composition and studies under the guidance of Yiming Wu. With six years of piano experience and a commitment to the violin since 2016, Amy actively participates in MCYO and school orchestra. In 2023, Amy won the state Honorable Mention in the Music Teachers National Association Composition Competition. She also won Emerging Composer in the 2024 Tribeca Young Composer Competition, and is also the Southeastern region winner of the National Federation of Music Clubs (NFMC) competition. Notably, she was selected to the 2024 All State Orchestra. Beyond her musical pursuits, Amy indulges in her creative side through interests in fashion design and drawing.I Don't Even Know Who You AreI Don’t Even Know Who You Are (IDEKWYA) is a song about mistrust in a long distance relationship, due to not truly knowing the other person’s personality and not knowing their thoughts. From the perspective of the singer, the other person’s intentions are unclear, but the singer would rather focus on the good memories with the other person than take any action to fight against the mistrust. In reality, the other person feels indifferent about the relationship and is too scared to hurt the singer by leaving, making them trapped in a cycle that only hurts them both.
![]()
Jack ( Jia ) Zhong is a young composer from Guangzhou, China, currently living in Monterey, California. He plays electric bass, string bass and piano. He started formally studying classical composition in December 2023 with Mr. Wu Yiming, writing music for piano solos, small ensembles, and symphony orchestras."The Flowing Stars" Suite for Cello and Piano consists of two musical movements. The first movement is harmonically sentimental, aiming to evoke a sense of tranquility through intricate polyrhythms. In contrast, the second movement has a groovy, rhythmic feel, bringing a lively and energetic atmosphere. Together, these movements create a captivating musical journey that mirrors the serene and dynamic qualities of the stars.
![]()
I’m Marilyn Huang, a sophomore at Thomas S. Wootton High School, and music is my passion. I’ve been playing the cello since I was eight, and I’ve loved being part of the Maryland Classical Youth Orchestra since 2019. I perform in a quartet and enjoy sharing music with the community, especially through performances for the elderly. One of my proudest moments was playing at Carnegie Hall after winning the Grand Prix at the Music-Fest Rising Talents Festival. I also love composing; I’ve won several competitions and was thrilled to be accepted into the Juilliard Composition Summer Program. As a pianist since age five, I find joy in entertaining and connecting with audiences through my music."Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë is a classic story about love and tragedy between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw. Set on the moors, the novel explores themes of social class and the destructive side of love. When Catherine chooses to marry Edgar Linton, it leads to heartbreak and turmoil. In the first movement, "Whispers of the Moors," Heathcliff and Catherine form a strong bond, but societal pressures create tension and a love triangle. In the second movement, "Shadows of Vengeance," Heathcliff's heartbreak turns into a desire for revenge, showing how love can lead to betrayal and tragic outcomes for everyone involved.▼ 2024 musicON音乐节演奏家及歌唱家（共25人）![]()
▼直播预告
YouTube：美国国家歌剧院National Opera Center官方YouTube频道将为此次2024 musicON音乐节系列音乐会提供全程直播服务，请大家持续关注频道https://www.youtube.com/user/NatOperaCenterLIVE
微信视频号：本场音乐会将于北京时间10月28日凌晨1:00在微信视频号musiCON声先进行全球同步直播，欢迎广大乐迷届时观看。
