TGIF, Sep 4, 5:30pm
Enjoy the imaginatively evocative piano compositions of Tan Dun’s Eight Memories in Watercolor and Maurice Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit. Mimi Tung will be joined by Theater Grottesco’s Founding Artistic Director John Flax, who will recite the Aloysius Bertrand poems that inspired Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit. Doors to the sanctuary open at 5:15pm and the concert begins at 5:30pm. The concert is free with donations accepted.
Program
Tan Dun, b. 1957
Eight Memories in Watercolor
1. Missing Moon
2. Staccato Beans
3. Herdboy’s Song
4. Blue Nun
5. Red Wilderness
6. Ancient Burial
7. Floating Clouds
8. Sunrain
Maurice Ravel, 1875-1937
Gaspard de la nuit
1. Ondine
2. Le Gibet
3. Scarbo
Program Notes
Tan Dun, b. 1957
Eight Memories in Watercolor
Composer’s note:
“Eight Memories in Watercolor was written when I left Hunan to study at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. It was my Opus One. The Cultural Revolution had just ended, China just opened its doors, I was immersed in studying Western classical and modern music, but I was also homesick. I longed for the folksongs and savored the memories of my childhood. Therefore, I wrote my first piano work as a diary of longing.”
Maurice Ravel, 1875-1937
Gaspard de la nuit
Ravel was inspired by 19th century French poet Aloysius Bertrand’s collection of poems, also named Gaspard de la nuit. In Ravel’s words, “My ambition is to say with notes what a poet expresses with words.” The poems themselves are so integral to his composition that he included them in his score.
Ondine is a water nymph who attempts to lure a mortal man to be her husband and join her in her palace “at the bottom of the lake, in a triangle of fire, earth, and air.” If you allow your imagination free rein, you may hear Ondine singing her song through the sounds of water and waves, followed by her “spiteful and sullen” outburst at the end of the movement when the mortal declines her offer.
Le Gibet describes an eerie desert scene with the corpse of a hanged man on the gallows. Ravel portrayed “the bell tolling on a city’s walls” with a repeated note that continues through the entire movement.
Scarbo is a nasty goblin who will haunt and harass you by hopping and spinning around the room, his laughter buzzing in the shadows, his fingernails grating on silk curtains. He grows big and menacing, he disappears, and then he shows up again….
Performers
Mimi Tung (piano)
Mimi Tung has performed as a solo pianist and chamber musician from California to Massachusetts. A recent transplant to New Mexico, she most recently lived in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul where she was a frequent performer in the Schubert Club Courtroom Concert series and the Artist Series of Thursday Musical. She has collaborated with musicians from the Minnesota Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Minnesota Opera Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra. A native of Hong Kong, Mimi began her piano studies at age 4. As a Piano Performance major at Santa Clara University, she was awarded the performer’s certificate for outstanding musical performance. She also holds a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
John Flax (narrator)
John Flax co-founded Theater Grottesco in Paris in 1983 and later brought the company to Santa Fe. He previously performed with the Theatre de la Jeune Lune in Minneapolis and Paris, as well as The Paris Circus, London’s Theatre Complicite, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Choreographer Della Davidson, the Sundance Playwriting Laboratory, the Out of Context Orchestra, the Sevda Balkan Choir and most recently in Godfrey Reggio’s latest film, Once Within a Time. Flax has taught at theaters and colleges internationally along with 8 years as a National Endowment for the Arts artist-in-the-schools. He is a graduate of the Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris where he also studied with Phillipe Gaulier. He holds a BA in Environmental Studies from Prescott College and an ABD Ed.D in Anthropology and Philosophy.