A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists.
Tonight on APEX Express, Host Isabel Li broadcasts her first show Obbligato, centered on music by contemporary classical composers who identify as Asian American Pacific Islander. Tonight’s show features music by Grammy nominated Chinese American composer Zhou Tian, who blends musical inspiration from different cultures and mixes them seamlessly into a musically satisfying combination for performers and audiences alike. The Wall Street Journal states that his works accomplish 2 important things. They remind us of how we got from there to here, and they refine that history by paying belated tribute to contributors who might otherwise be forgotten.
Obbligato Transcript
Opening: [00:00:00] Apex Express Asian Pacific expression. Community and cultural coverage, music and calendar, new visions and voices, coming to you with an Asian Pacific Islander point of view. It’s time to get on board the Apex Express.
Isabel Li [00:00:50 ]
Good evening and thank you for tuning in to APEX Express on KPFA, 94.1 FM. We are bringing you an Asian and Asian American view from the Bay and around the world.
Isabel Li [00:01:00]
I’m your host, Isabel Li, and tonight is my first Apex Express show that I’ve named Obbligato, a show centered on music by contemporary classical composers who identify as Asian American Pacific Islander. Tonight’s show features music by Grammy nominated Chinese American composer Zhou Tian, who blends musical inspiration from different cultures and mixes them seamlessly into a musically satisfying combination for performers and audiences alike. The Wall Street Journal states that his works accomplish 2 important things. They remind us of how we got from there to here, and they refine that history by paying belated tribute to contributors who might otherwise be forgotten.
Isabel Li [00:01:45]
Before we get into the music of Zhou Tian, because this is my first time on Apex Express, I’ll briefly introduce myself. I’m Isabel Li, a second generation Chinese American violinist, writer, filmmaker and researcher, and I strive to amplify the works of AAPI artists and musicians, especially in relation to classical music. My senior thesis film in undergrad, for example, was a short narrative film about a Chinese American cellist who bridges intergenerational divides through music. I believe that Asian and Asian American identities in the world of classical music, which is usually associated with whiteness, European culture and elitism, are especially interesting to study.
Isabel Li [00:02:28]
Because there is a considerable proportion of classical musicians and composers who do identify as Asian American, there’s a great book that talks about this, actually called Musicians from a Different Shore: Asians and Asian Americans in Classical Music by author Mari Yoshihara, which I read while researching for my film. Through this show, I hope to highlight works by some of these AAPI identifying musicians and composers, and further discussions about this intersection of Asian identities and classical music.
Isabel Li [00:02:59]
I’m really excited to get into the music of composer Zhou Tian, described as a prime example of 21st century global multiculturalism. Born into a musical family in Hangzhou, China, Zhou moved to the US when he was 19. Trained at Curtis, Juilliard and USC, he studied with some of America’s finest composers, such as Jennifer Higdon, Christopher Rouse and Stephen Hartke. His music has been performed by leading performers and orchestras, Including to name a few, Jaap van Zweden, Yuja Wang, Manfred Honeck, Long Yu, Noah Bendix-Balgley, the New York Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony. Pittsburgh Symphony. The Dover Quartet, as well as the Shanghai Symphony, where he recently served as artist in residence. He is currently professor of composition at Michigan State University.
00:03:54 Isabel Li
Starting off today’s show is an orchestral piece by Zhou Tian composed in 2019, that was commissioned by the Shanghai Symphony titled Gift or 《禮獻》 in Chinese gift pays tribute to traditional Chinese poetry and music, specifically inspired by a poem titled Music as a Gift of decency by Shen Yue, from the northern and Southern dynasties, circa the year 400. Here is Joe Tiene’s gift, performed by the Shanghai Symphony, conducted by Long Yu.
04:10 Comp Music – Gift
00:13:20 Isabel Li
That was a resplendent orchestral piece to start off today’s show that was Zhou Tian’s Gift performed by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Long Yu.
00:13:31 Isabel Li
I really appreciate how this orchestral piece enmeshes folk tune sounding melodies with more contemporary sounding frenzied rhythms, especially with the syncopations that occur throughout the magnificent melodies. In fact, in one of the sections we actually hear this series of high pitched repeated dotted rhythms in Gift.
00:13:51 Isabel Li
And it actually reminded me of how I got to know Zhou’s work in the first place. A few years ago I had been introduced to him as a composer through one of his other compositions, which unfortunately we will not be listening to today, but it is definitely worth listening at some point. It’s called Transcend and Zhou had written this in commemoration and in acknowledgement of the work of Chinese immigrant laborers who worked on the transcontinental railroad who, if you remember the photo of the final spike, there was not a single Chinese immigrant labor in sight in the photo and in that third movement of that Symphony of Transcend, we actually hear this rhythmic motif that signals DONE. It’s a Morse code rhythmic tapping of done. And it was very interesting to me because it’s also kind of historically informed when the transcontinental railroad was completed.
00:14:47 Isabel Li
They actually signaled its completion by tapping DONE, this rhythm, and Joe had recaptured that and expressed that in a very artistic way through his compositional work, and I really appreciate this consistency in rhythmic, artistic musicality that he applies throughout all of his different works.
00:15:09 Isabel Li
Coming up next is a piano solo performed by Zhou Tian himself. This is the 2022 piece that he wrote, inspired directly from the resonant bells of Buddhist temples called majestic bells, or in Chinese, 《輝煌的鐘聲》. Here is majestic bells performed by Zhou Tian on piano.
15:30 Comp Music – Majestic Bells
00:20:53 Isabel Li
That was composer Zhou Tian himself on piano playing the piano solo piece called Majestic Bells. What I really love about this piece is how Joe seems to combine influences from composers of the late 19th century and 20th century, especially if you observe with the parallel intervals parallel fifths especially and free flowing melodic forms. It kind of reminds me of the music of Bartok and Debussy, and how it’s both introspective and grandiose at the same time. Just as a reminder, thank you so much for listening to Apex Express on this Thursday evening on tonight’s edition of Obbligato on Apex Express, which focuses on work by contemporary AAPI, classical composers and musicians.
00:21:42 Isabel Li
We’re focusing on the works of Grammy nominated Chinese American composer Zhou Tian.
00:21:48 Isabel Li
Our next piece of music that we’ll be listening to is based on the Chinese proverb 《千年善禱》, which translates to A Thousand Years of Good Prayers. And that was the title of Zhou Tian’s orchestral piece. Composed in 2009, Zhou wanted to highlight the spiritual blessing in a very timeless way. Because this proverb stretches back to ancient times. Through his use of expanded orchestration and his various layers of percussion of orchestral melodies throughout this piece, here is A Thousand Years of Good Prayers performed by the USC Thornton Symphony, conducted by Donald Crockett.
22:00 Comp Music – A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
00:31:11 Isabel Li
An incredibly moving, sweeping piece of music for orchestra.
00:31:16 Isabel Li
That was Zhou Tian’s A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, which is based on the story of the proverb The Chinese proverb 《千年善禱》, and the story goes, or perhaps I should say the legend goes, that good relationships really take 1000 years of good prayers to bring about and Zhou Tian was really tapping into the spiritual element of this proverb. And I think he really accomplished that feeling.
00:31:47 Isabel Li
What I really appreciate about classical music in general, and why the show exists, is because classical music taps into the ineffable, the universal in all of us. What we don’t really have the language to communicate can be communicated through music. And Zhou Tian’s music is an example of how we can use this particular musical language to express these deeper meanings that can transcend linguistic, social, and even national boundaries. For this next piece. Now, because I’m a violinist, I couldn’t help but choose a piece that features the violin.
00:32:26 Isabel Li
We’ll be hearing Zhou Tian’s Double Concerto for violin, Viola and orchestra, and it features 3 movements titled Play, Aria, and Rendezvous. However, because of time, we will only be hearing one of these movements and I picked the first movement where we hear the two instruments, the solo instruments, violin and viola, engage in an energetic dialogue, shifting between moments of cooperation and playful rivalry.
00:32:55 Isabel Li
This is performed by Noah Bendix-Balgley on violin, Shanshan Yao on Viola, and the Hangzhou Philharmonic conducted by Yang Yang.
33:10 Comp Music – Double Concerto for Violin and Viola, I. Play
00:46:08 Isabel Li
Completed relatively recently in 2024, that was the Double concerto for violin and Viola by Zhou Tian, performed by Noah Bendix-Balgley on violin, Shanshan Yao on Viola with the Hangzhou Philharmonic conducted by Yang Yang.
00:46:25 Isabel Li
As I was listening to this, and these are my violinist instincts kicking in, you know, it is a very virtuosic piece. So many complex rhythms, the violin and viola really have to work together to create this lyricism that is so energetic and playful at the same time. Like many of his other works, there is this unique combination of Chinese folk music and jazz like undertones in the rhythmic makeup of the piece. And it harkens back to another one of his very important works, which we will unfortunately not have time to listen to today, but his concerto for orchestra, which was composed back in 2016, earned him a Grammy Award nomination for Best Contemporary Classical Composition in 2018, making him the first Chinese born composer and the second Asian composer following the late Toru Takemitsu honored in that category.
00:47:22 Isabel Li
The combination of folk tunes and jazz rhythms is such a unique and intriguing combination, and I think there is so much that can be communicated through this, such as paying tributes to various cultures, which Zhou Tian does very ingeniously.
00:47:39 Isabel Li
And at the same time, Zhou really makes these types of folk music maybe more accessible to contemporary audiences who are more inclined to recognize jazz melodies and rhythms.
00:47:52 Isabel Li
We are quickly approaching the end of this week’s edition of Apex Express, so for our final piece, we have an orchestral suite.
00:48:02 Isabel Li
By Zhou Tian called broken Ink, the Chinese name is 《音詩》, and that is spectacularly interesting to me, because in literal translation, the Chinese title is sound poetry. It kind of reminds me of the Western classical music genre of a tone poem, usually symphonic pieces that evoke the mood or the story, and it’s usually inspired by some sort of poem or painting or literary work.
00:48:32 Isabel Li
Broken Ink was commissioned by the city of Hangzhou, who wanted a major piece to celebrate the city’s magnificent cultural heritage. In Zhou’s words, he says, in Broken Ink, a symphonic suite inspired by the poetry of the Song dynasty, I sought to capture the poetic flavor that was lost in translation.
00:48:53 Isabel Li
In the text, the work was built as a mosaic of Chinese musical traditions.
00:48:59 Isabel Li
And the work contains 5 parts, each inspired by a particular poem. We will be listening to the 4th movement titled the Mighty River runs Eastward.
00:53:40 Comp Music – Broken Ink: IV. The Mighty River Runs Eastward
00:55:41 Isabel Li
What you just heard was the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Zhou Tian himself, the composer of his this orchestral suite titled Broken Ink, and this particular movement was the 4th movement, which has its own title because it was based on an individual poem itself from the Song Dynasty, called The Mighty River Runs Eastward.
00:56:04 Isabel Li
I really appreciate how this orchestral suite has textures reminiscent of contemporary cinematic soundtracks, while staying true to Joe’s experimentation and storytelling through music, expressing these timeless stories across cultures, across languages, using his own musical style.
00:56:27 Isabel Li
I want to use the remaining time to talk a little bit about my title of this show, Obbligato. Obbligato is a musical notation that notates that a musical line must not be omitted and must be played.
00:56:42 Isabel Li
I think this is an apt name for highlighting contemporary AAPI composers and their works because there are so many vibrant creative stories of expression that can be told through classical music, expanding AAPI stories in new musical mediums.
00:56:59 Isabel Li
Please check out our website kpfa.org to find out more about classical music in the API community on composer Zhou Tian, whose music we feature tonight. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating and sharing your visions with the world. Your voices are important.
00:57:18 Isabel Li
APEX Express is produced by Ayame Keane-Lee, Anuj Vaidya, Cheryl Truong, Jalena Keane-Lee, Miko Lee, Preeti Mangala Shekar and Swati Rayasam. Tonight’s show was produced by Isabel Li. Have a great night.