Crossings: Contemporary Music for Chinese Instruments

Born out of a 2015 music festival at Rice University focusing on classical, contemporary, and cross-cultural music, this recording offers an interesting set of compositions, performed by the Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra, that embody 21st century interculturality in distinctive ways. Crossings: Contemporary Music for Chinese Instruments features works by six composers who came into contact with Chinese cultural traditions and responded compositionally to that contact in different ways. Two composers (Shih-Hui Chen and Lei Liang) were born in Taiwan and China. The remaining four composers are American-born and non-Chinese, yet each has had varying degrees of engagement with traditional Chinese music. Thus, the recording offers a glimpse into what has become a global network of composers. The Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra is a group from Taiwan whose members perform new music on Chinese instruments. However, in almost every work, the silk and bamboo instruments of the ensemble are joined by additional sonority offering a rich and varied new expression, which is the essence of this recording.