Chinese music by contemporary Hong Kong and U.S. composers featuring three world-premiere music and dance performances will make up "Hong Kong at the Fulcrum Point," a landmark concert that is part of the month-long "Hong Kong Comes to Chicago" festival. This collaborative concert by the Fulcrum Point New Music Project will take place at 7:30PM on Tuesday, May 19 at the Thorne Auditorium of Northwestern University (375 E. Chicago Ave.) and is free for the public to attend.
The event marks the Chicago debut of the Chinese Music Virtuosi, a six-member ensemble that specializes in authentic, indigenous instruments, such as the Chinese mouth-organ, dulcimer and plucked lute. "Hong Kong at the Fulcrum Point" will showcase two pieces of music by Hong Kong-based composers specifically commissioned for this concert. "Semblance of Invisible" by Ng King-pan will accompany a performance by Chicago Tai-Chi master Dong Xiao-fei, and "a bliss: day in, day out" by Aenon Jia-en loo will be performed for the grand finale by both ensembles. In addition, new choreography by Melissa Thodos of Chicago's Thodos Dance Company to the score "Yi Zhi Shan" will be performed by soloist Mollie Mock.
The concert line-up will also feature a mix of traditional and contemporary Chinese music, such as "Thunder and Drought," adapted from Triratna Buddha and currently heard in a popular commercial; "Autumn Moon over a Placid Lake" by Lu Wen-cheng, which has appeared in several operas in Hong Kong; "Shiny Moon, Rainy Sky," a familiar folk song based on two popular nursery rhymes in a new arrangement by Chan Hing-yan; "Chanted Rituals" by Asian-American composer Vivian Fung featuring Fulcrum Point core percussionists Jeff Handley and Tina Laughlin and Fulcrum Point artistic director Stephen Burns on trumpet; and "It Is What It Is" by Tang Lok-yin, a three-movement work blending Chinese ritualistic drumming with blues-inspired invocations and dance rhythms.
While the "Hong Kong at the Fulcrum Point" concert is free and open to the public, e-tickets must be reserved in advance by emailing RSVP5-19@fulcrumpoint.org. There is a limit of four tickets per person, and seats will be available on a first come, first served basis.
