OperaWire: Bangsokol New Release
Bangsokol is the first major symphonic work that addresses the traumas of the Cambodian genocide of the late 1970s.
Middlebury Magazine: Sonic Art
What began as an attempt by Matthew Evan Taylor to collaborate with fellow musicians during the isolation of the pandemic ended up being a yearlong project that culminated in an evening performance at the Met.
I Care If You Listen: 5 Questions to Han Chen about Migration Music
I learned that there are no two identical immigration stories, and they are always intertwined with all other things going on in life, things I just wouldn’t know without doing this project.
Broadway World: Premiere Of Matthew Evan Taylor's Life Returns
Composer and saxophonist Matthew Evan Taylor's Life Returns is an evening-length composition that draws on African American, South Indian, and European musical practices.
Classical Composition, Folk Traditions, and Combining the Two
Han Chen speaks with composer Hsu Chiayu, whose work blends Chinese and western techniques and bond over their shared experience as Taiwanese immigrants.
Cultural Attaché: Interview with Christopher Cerrone and Stephanie Fleischmann
The new opera “In A Grove” may seem familiar, but in the hands of Christopher Cerrone and Stephanie Fleischmann the story that inspired "Rashomon" will definitely be different.
Transitioning Out from a Period of Grief and Healing
Han Chen speaks with composer, improviser, and pianist Jonah Haven about the process of writing a new solo piano work co-commissioned by Han Chen and Metropolis Ensemble.
Video Premiere: de_dust2 from The Computer Room by Phong Tran
For anyone old enough to remember the birth of the internet, the room in the house where that endearing, bulky desktop computer lived had a certain allure.
Archetypes are the Universal Language
Han Chen speaks with composer, pianist, and vocalist Clarice Assad about her Archetypes project, which illustrates types of characters that pop up in cultures all around the world.
Understanding of Eastern and Western Influences
Han Chen speaks with composer Huang Ruo about how he weaves his own personal understanding of Eastern and Western influences into his compositions.
LINEAGE(S)
LINEAGE(S) asks artists to be vulnerable with each other by acknowledging and then sharing the music that lives in their own bodies. We created a map which involves improvising and listening deeply to overlapping LINEAGE(S) gestures*. The piece also includes an evolving lineage folder where ensembles are invited to upload audio or visual documentation of their LINEAGE(S) gestures* to inspire future performers of the piece.
Terraria
ent- is most immediately a reference to a german inseparable prefix that indicates beginning, movement away, separation, or reversion. but it’s also the beginning of the (etymologically distinct) word “entropy,” which denotes both the degree of disorder within a system and the gradual decline into this disorder. either sense works to evoke the process I envision for the piece. after beginning with slow, stable repetition, performers are encouraged to take inspiration from their surroundings as they diverge from the score and inject unpredictability into their playing.