Brooklyn Botanical Garden - 990 Washington Avenue 40.66755 N, 73.96275 W
Birds is inspired by bird sounds and their rhythmic sense. This concept reimagines the life of a bird from its morning rise to its last call. The bird seems to have a natural progression in which that happens, and allowing each section of this piece to flow into the next is the key to bringing this piece to life. All sections are meant to be repeated until the material is fully internationalized by listeners. This may mean repeating 4-5 times per section, the only section played 1 time is the last call. There must be at every performance a natural leader cueing each section and fermatas. The idea is to be musical interpreting those held notes to create a building effect leading up to the last call.
This work was inspired by the calls and sounds of six different birds - Western Meadowlark, House Wren, Hermit Thrush, Black Rail, Eurasian Nightjar, and Night Heron. Each of the four movements of this piece combines elements from several of the sounds or patterns that one or more of these birds produce and has them work together.
Trent Ransom is a graduate student at the DePaul University School of Music studying violin performance. Trent currently studies with I-Hao Lee. He previously studied with Cyrus Beroukhim and Teri Einfeldt. Trent has attended Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, I- Hao Lee Program (China), Round Top Festival Orchestra, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and Preludio Program for Advanced Violinists at the Ithaca College Suzuki Institute. Honors include winning the Connecticut Youth Symphony concerto competition, and winning the Hartford Musical Club Competition.
Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Shao-Che (Sean) started playing the violin from the young age of five in a local music classroom. Growing up, Sean participated in many national music competitions, and often as prize winners. Sean moved to New York City at the age of thirteen to pursue a career as a violinist, he studied under both Mr. I-Hao Lee and Mr. Hyo Kang in The Juilliard Precollege…
I Cheng Liu has appeared across Taiwan as an outstanding soloist and as a chamber musician. Born in Changhua, Taiwan. I Cheng began his cello lessons at the age of thirteen. After attending Municipal Datongguomin Junior High School and Taichung Municipal Cingshuei Senior High School, I Cheng started to participate in many music contests and earned great results…
Fengwan Chen currently studies at The Juilliard School under the guidance of Joseph Lin. Fengwan has worked with Lewis Kaplan, Boris Kuschnir, Regis Pasquier, Midori Goto, Mayuko Kamio, and Ning Feng, among others. As an avid musician, she won the fellowships of Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, and the Music Academy of the West. Fengwan also performed at Juilliard ChamberFest and Seiji Ozawa Music Academy in Japan.
