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Ink Traces

Julia Glenn violin
Konstantinos Valianatos piano

Release Date: October 4, 2024
Catalog #: NV6670
Format: Digital
21st Century
Chamber
Solo Instrumental
Piano
Violin

Inspiring curiosity, cultural interaction, and deep listening, INK TRACES reflects violinist Julia Glenn’s 15-year journey exploring Chinese culture and interactions between Chinese language and music, fueled by frequent trips and three years living in China. This Navona Records release reflects a greater interdisciplinary approach seen in Chinese arts — one that blends poetry, dance, painting, calligraphy, and music and shows fascinating interchanges between gesture and sound. The title, inspired in part by Pan Kai’s Ink Traces of Sigh for solo violin, is a nod to such interplay.

The album explores three threads: probing the musical-linguistic play possible in the music of Chinese speakers, broadening perspectives on Chinese music, and fostering cultural dialogue between China and the United States. It features works by Chinese and Chinese-speaking composers, stretching traditional Western musical boundaries to create rich, imaginative soundscapes and processes.

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Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 Romance and Dance: Romance Chen Yi Julia Glenn, violin; Konstantinos Valianatos, piano 4:13
02 Romance and Dance: Dance Chen Yi Julia Glenn, violin; Konstantinos Valianatos, piano 4:37
03 Air Yao Chen Julia Glenn, violin 9:34
04 Night Scenery Sang Tong Julia Glenn, violin; Konstantinos Valianatos, piano 6:47
05 Ink Traces of Sigh Pan Kai Julia Glenn, violin 8:41
06 The Road Gao Weijie Julia Glenn, violin; Konstantinos Valianatos, piano 10:06
07 Memory Chen Yi Julia Glenn, violin 3:50
08 Drum and Song Chen Gang Julia Glenn, violin; Konstantinos Valianatos, piano 6:01
09 Suiyuan Suite (Inner Mongolia Suite): II. Nostalgia Ma Sicong Julia Glenn, violin; Konstantinos Valianatos, piano 6:17
10 EHOHE Chen Yihan Julia Glenn, baroque violin; fixed media 11:17

Track 1-9
Recorded July 2022 at Futura Productions in Roslindale MA

Track 10
Recorded September 2022 at Slosberg Hall in Waltham MA

Recording Session Producer & Engineer Brad Michel
Editing & Mixing, Mastering Brad Michel

Cover Photograph by Lydia Winsor Brindamour
Chinese calligraphy on cover by Dong Qichang

Executive Producer Bob Lord

VP of A&R Brandon MacNeil
A&R Chris Robinson

VP of Production Jan Košulič
Audio Director Lucas Paquette

VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming
Publicity Chelsea Kornago
Digital Marketing Manager Brett Iannucci

Artist Information

Julia Glenn

Violinist

With a deep love for music new and old, Chinese culture and music, and exploring crossroads between music and language, Boston native Julia Glenn savors finding and contributing to unique artistic voices as an international performer of modern and baroque violins. Called “remarkable,” “gripping,” and “a brilliant soloist” by the New York Times, she recently joined the Naumburg-winning Lydian String Quartet and the faculty of Brandeis University after teaching for three years at the Tianjin Juilliard School, where she served as violin and theory faculty and was a member of the Tianjin Juilliard Ensemble.

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Konstantinos Valianatos

piano

Konstantinos Valianatos has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in North and South America, Asia, and Europe. As an award-winning musician, he won first prizes at the International Seiler Piano Competition, the International Ibiza Piano Competition, the Senigallia International Piano Competition, the San Gemini International Piano Competition, and the Aspen Music Festival Competition, among others. Valianatos was awarded many scholarships from Gina Bachauer, Yamaha, Onassis, I.K.Y., George and Marie Vergottis Foundation, and the Starr Foundation. He was honored by the President of Greece, Kostis Stefanopoulos, with the highest accolade from the Academy of Athens in Greece for his work and artistic integrity.

Valianatos collaborated with numerous orchestras and performed in venues such as the White House, Salle Cortot in Paris, Carnegie’s Weill and Zankel Recital Halls, Kosciuszko Foundation in New York City, Benedict Music Tent and Harris Concert Hall in Aspen, Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory, O’Neill Hall at the University of Notre Dame, Irving Arts Center, Garland Symphony Orchestra, Thessaloniki Megaron, and Athens Megaron.

He is a founding member of the award-winning Olympus Piano Trio. Valianatos recorded works by Mendelssohn, Ravel, Hatzis, and Smirnov for LP Classics and Naxos. An advocate for new music, he works with living composers and has premiered their works, such as Christos Hatzis’s piano work, Face to Face.

Valianatos held teaching residencies and taught master classes in music institutions, including Texas Christian University, Northern Michigan State University, C’est Bon Chamber Music Festival, and the New Conservatory of Alimos. He taught as a lecturer at West Virginia University and served on the piano faculty at Carnegie Mellon University’s Preparatory Program and WVU’s Community Music Program.

A native of Athens, Greece, Valianatos holds diplomas from the National Conservatory of Greece and the Ecole Normale de Musique “Alfred Cortot” in Paris. He received his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees from Juilliard. His mentors include Agathe Leimoni, Germaine Mounier, Jerome Lowenthal, Julian Martin, and Yoheved Kaplinsky.

tianjinjuilliard.edu.cn/faculty/konstantinos-valianatos

Chen Yi

composer

As a prolific composer who blends Chinese and Western traditions, transcending cultural and musical boundaries, Dr. Chen Yi is a recipient of the Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2001. She has been Lorena Cravens/Millsap/Missouri Distinguished Professor at the Conservatory of Music and Dance in the University of Missouri-Kansas City since 1998. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2005, and the American Academy of Arts & Letters in 2019.

Born in China, Chen Yi received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Central Conservatory in Beijing, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Columbia University in the City of New York. Her composition teachers included Wu Zu-qiang, Chou Wen-chung, and Mario Davidovsky. She has served as Composer-in-Residence for the Women’s Philharmonic, Chanticleer, and Aptos Creative Arts Center (1993–1996) supported by Meet The Composer, and taught on the composition faculty at Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University (1996–1998). She has also been Distinguished Visiting Professor in China since 2006.

Fellowships and commissioning awards were received from Guggenheim Foundation (1996), American Academy of Arts and Letters (1996), Fromm Foundation at Harvard University (1994), Koussevitzky Music Foundation at the Library of Congress (1997), and National Endowment for the Arts (1994). Honors include the first prizes from the Chinese National Composition Competition (1985, 2012), the Lili Boulanger Award (1993), the NYU Sorel Medal Award (1996), the CalArts/Alpert Award (1997), the UT Eddie Medora King Composition Prize (1999), the ASCAP Concert Music Award (2001), the Elise Stoeger Award (2002) from Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Friendship Ambassador Award from Edgar Snow Fund (2002), the UMKC Kauffman Award in Artistry/Scholarship and Faculty Service (2006, 2012, 2019), and Pulitzer Prize Finalist with Si Ji for orchestra (2006). Honorary Doctorates are from Lawrence University (2002), Baldwin-Wallace College (2008), University of Portland (2009), The New School University (2010), and University of Hartford (2016). She has received the Sterling Patron Award of Mu Phi Epsilon International Fraternity in 2011 and the Society for American Music Honorary Member Award in 2018.

Her music is published by Theodore Presser Company, performed world wide, and recorded in over 100 CDs, on Bis, New Albion, Teldec (w/Grammy Award for Colors of Love), New World (w/NPR Top 10 Classical Music Album Award for Sound of the Five), Albany, Naxos, BMOP/sound, XAS Records, Bridge, Centaur, Innova, Delos, Angel, Nimbus, Cala, Avant, Atma, Hugo, Koch International Classics, Eroica, Capstone, Quartz, and China Record Corporation since 1986. Chen Yi, An Accessible Guide to the Composer’s Background and Her Works, by Leta E. Miller and J. Michele Edwards published by University of Illinois Press, 2020.

Recent world premieres of Chen Yi’s works have included Introduction, Andante, and Allegro by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, and Fire for 12 players by Grossman Ensemble at Logan Center Performance Hall in the University of Chicago in 2019; Totem Poles for organ solo at AGO national conference in Kansas City, Pearle River Overture by Guangzhou Symphony in China, and Southern Scenes for flute, pipa and orchestra by the Hawaii Symphony in Honolulu in 2018; and piano concerto Four Spirits by China Philharmonic in Beijing and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2016. The 2020–2021 concert season started with European premiere of Tang Poems Cantata by MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir in Germany (Sept. 27, 2020) and world premiere of Bamboo Song by pianist Zou Xiang at the China National Center for Performing Arts Concert Hall in China (Oct. 5, 2020), followed by world premiere performances of two oboe solo works, Elegy by St Paul Chamber Orchestra’s oboe principal Cassie Pilgrim in MN (Nov. 28, 2020), and Mountain Song by Fergus McCready at Royal Academy of Music in UK (June 8, 2021) to celebrate its 200th anniversary.

conservatory.umkc.edu/profiles/faculty-directory/chen-yi

Yao Chen

composer

In works of various dimensions, Yao Chen seeks paths toward transcendence. His music, always ritual in nature, eschews contemporary vogues and instead aims at a timelessness and an otherness that exists beyond the standard categories — music for the moment, but also music for then and music for what lies ahead. Whether his work is brittle or forceful, or often both in coexistence, melancholy and a sense of wonder are recurring characteristics, as is an internationalist orientation grounded in a quest for maximal musical meaning. His perceptions on musical time, timbre, intonation, pulsation, and expression are always at frontiers: between the old and the new, between the East and the West, between irrational mysticism and rational logic. While devoting himself mainly to the field of contemporary art music, Yao also experiments with other genres, writing music for films and theater productions. Cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary concepts permeate his creative inspiration and compositional output, presenting his understanding of the value of new music in enlivening global cultures.

His creative vision and aesthetic pursuit have resulted in his many compositions, such as orchestral works Two Poems, Garden: Unearthing the Way Home, and From the Vessel of Ancient Souls, the instrumental theater piece Paramita, the three-act theater piece Pipa Plays Opera, pipa concerto Contemplation on Tanyao Caves, oboe concertino The Supplicant, and many Chinese-Western mixed ensemble works including Emanations of Tara for pipa, piano, violin, cello and clarinets, Tsanglang…Tsanglang for flute, zheng, and viola, Yearning for zheng and double bass, Jun for pipa and double bass. These pieces not only demonstrate his talent in navigating situations covering a wide emotional spectrum and dramaturgical elements in music writing, but also reveal his versatility in structuring musical forms that embrace mixed instruments, musical languages and styles.

In recent years, his music has received a significant amount of recognition in many distinguished international arenas. His music has been performed by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (GRAMMY®-winner), Orchestre National de Lorraine, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, China Philharmonic, Beijing Symphony Orchestra, China National Center of Performing Arts Orchestra (China NCPA Orchestra), Suzhou Symphony Orchestra, Pacifica String Quartet (GRAMMY®-winner), Quatuor Diotima, eighth blackbird (GRAMMY®-winner), Tang Quartet, Civitas Ensemble (from Chicago Symphony Orchestra), Camerata Woodwind Quintet, Quintet of the Americas, New Fromm Players, Earplay Ensemble, Israel Contemporary Players, Conundrum, Wild Rumpus New Music Collective, TianYing Chinese Ensemble, Beijing New Music Ensemble, etc. Yao has collaborated with countless artists, including conductors Lv Jia, Cliff Colnot, Jacques Mercier, Rei Hotoda, Chen Lin, Huang Yi and Lio Kuokman, violin virtuoso Siow Lee-Chin and He Wei, viola virtuoso Yunjie (Jay) Liu, Xu Peijun and Veit Hertemstein, double bassists DaXun Zhang, Michael Cameron and Chen Han-Jui, sopranos Tony Arnold and Allison Angelo, flutists Denis Bouriakov and Clara Novakova, pianist Nareh Arghamanyan and Luo Wei, bayan-players Luo Han and Stanislav Venglevski, harpist Nicolas Tulliez, pipa virtuosi Yang Wei, Yang Jing and Lan Weiwei, zheng player Yu-Chen Wang, Kun Opera singer Lu Jia, Xiao Xiangping, Wang Xin, among many others.

He has also received commissions, awards, and fellowships from many prestigious organizations such as the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, Mellon Collaborative Fellowship for Arts Practice and Scholarship at University of Chicago, New Music USA, Radio France (Festival Presence and Alla Breve), ASCAP, Barnett Family Foundation Flute Competition, Leonard Bernstein Fund, Art Institute of Chicago & Silk Road Chicago Project, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Suzhou Symphony Orchestra, China NCPA Orchestra, Axiom Brass Quintet, TMSK Liu Tianhua Composition Competition, Greece International Composition Competition, East Carolina University Orchestral Composition Competition, Aspen Music Festival, Chinese Fine Arts Society International Composition Competition, Viacom-Sumner M. Redstone Foundation in China, Central Conservatory of Music, University of Chicago, etc.

Yao has shared his music with audiences at many music festivals throughout the world, including the Radio France, Tanglewood Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, ISCM’s World Music Days (Slovenia), Centre Acanthes Festival, Pacific Music Festival in Japan, Asian Composers League Festival (Israel, Singapore and Japan), Moscow International Accordion Competition, International Tianjin Accordion Festival, Shanghai Contemporary Music Festival, Hong Kong WestKowloon M+ Pavilion, Deutsch-Chinesisches Classic Music Festival (Germany), Stode Musicvecka(Sweden), Beijing Modern Music Festival, Chicago Contempo Concerts, June In Buffalo Contemporary Festival, Poznan Musical Spring Festival (Poland), SoundField Music Festival (Chicago), soundSCAPE Music Festival (Italy), Random Access Music New Music Festival and the Music of Now Marathon Festival in New York City, East Carolina University New Music Festival, and University of Louisville New Music Festival.

His music can be found not only on many labels such as Cedille Records, Navona Records, Blue Griffin Records, and Beijing Global Audio-Visual Publishing House, but also on Youtube, Spotify, NetEase Music, and other public media. Some of his scores has been published by Central Conservatory of Music Press and distributed by Universal Edition.

Yao embarked on his lifelong musical journey in the People’s Republic of China, where he received training in composition at the Xinghai Conservatory of Music High School and then at the Central Conservatory of Music. He gained his Ph.D. in Music Composition from the University of Chicago. He is currently professor of composition at Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. In the past, he has held lectureships and professorships at the University of Chicago Music Department, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Music, the Illinois State University School of Music, and the Soochow University School of Music in China.

yaochenmusic.com

Sang Tong

composer

Sang Tong (1923–2011), born Zhu Jingqing in Shanghai, was a renowned Chinese music educator, composer, and music theorist and is regarded as a key historical figure and driver of modern Chinese music history. He served as the president and professor of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Sang began his musical education in 1941 at the then National Music Conservatory (later Shanghai Conservatory), studying composition under the German composer Wolfgang Fraenkel, but paused his studies in 1943. In 1946, he continued his studies at the conservatory under Jewish Austrian composer Julius Schloss and attended classes taught by composer Tan Xiaolin. In 1947, Sang composed the violin piece Night Scene and the piano piece In That Distant Place, which were among the earliest attempts by Chinese composers to employ atonal composition techniques. He also collaborated with Qu Xixian on the film music for Nightclub and Sunny Days, conducting the recordings himself.

At the height of the Civil War in 1948 with increasing instability in Shanghai, he moved to Northern Jiangsu and changed his name to Sang Tong to hide from Kuomintang, as he had taken part in Communist resistance against it during his youth. From the autumn of 1949, Sang Tong taught at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music for an extended period, serving as the head of the composition department, professor, vice-president, and president. In 1950, he composed the cello piece Fantasia, which was premiered in 1951 by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. The piece, performed by cellist Wang Lei at the World Festival of Youth and Students and later in Japan, the United States, and other places, has become part of the cello teaching repertoire in music schools.

Sang Tong’s writings include Six Lectures on Harmony, The Theory and Application of Harmony, A Discussion on the Structure of Pentatonic Harmony, and An Introduction to Polytonal Writing Techniques. He passed away on July 24, 2011, in Huadong Hospital in Shanghai at the age of 88.

— Mao Mengdan and Min Lingkang

Pan Kai

composer

Pan Kai (b. 1985) holds a Ph.D. in composition from Shanghai Conservatory of Music and is Associate Professor and Composition Graduate Supervisor at Hangzhou Normal University. He is also a member of the Composition and Composition Theory Society of Chinese Musicians Association and a member of the Hangzhou High Level Talent Special Support Program. His works have received funding from China National Arts Fund and have won awards in multiple important competitions. They have been published multiple times in core Chinese journals.

yyxy.hznu.edu.cn

Gao Weijie

composer

Gao Weijie (b. 1938) is a Distinguished Professor at the China Conservatory of Music, a doctoral supervisor at Shanghai Conservatory, and a visiting professor at Yanbian University and University of Cincinnati. He serves as a member of the editor board of Chinese Music and Musicology.

Gao graduated from the Sichuan Conservatory of Music in 1960. His compositions have been performed at home and abroad and won many awards. Gao has published a large number of articles and monographs, including Studying Harmonic Dynamics, The Musical Form, On the Structure of the Scale with a Catalogue of Its Classification, and A Guide to Great Works of 20th-Century Music, among others. All of these have been warmly received by readers.

He served previously as the dean of the School of Composition at Sichuan Conservatory of Music and China Conservatory of Music. Furthermore, he was a member of the editing board of the People’s Music. In 1983, Gao became the founder, and director of China’s first association of modern music called the “Experimental Association of Composers.”

Gao has been invited to artistic and academic events in New Zealand, Korea, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands, Mexico, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong and has participated in academic conferences, music festivals, as a lecturer as well as a panel member at international events. Over his decades-long teaching career he has mentored composers including Qu Xiaosong, He Xuntian, Jia Daqun, and many others.

His biography is included in the International Who’s Who in Music (17th edition, International Biographical Centre, Cambridge).

Chen Gang

composer

A key composing figure in contemporary China, Chen Gang was born in Shanghai in 1935. He first studied composition with his father Chen Ge Xin, followed by entry to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1955. In his final year of study at the Conservatory he wrote, together with He Zhan Hao, The Butterfly Lovers. The violin concerto became one of the most popular and best loved Chinese compositions ever, winning five Golden Record Prizes as well as a Platinum Record Prize. The Concerto has also achieved enormous international success. Many of his other virtuosic violin compositions are considered classics and are frequently performed in China. Chen is now a Professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. In November 2017, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Chinese Golden Bell for Music.

Ma Sicong

composer

Ma Sicong (1912–1987) was a violinist, composer, and music educator from Haifeng, Shanwei, Guangdong. He is regarded as one of China’s first-generation composers and performers and holds a significant position in the history of modern Chinese music. Ma began his music education at the age of 6 when he entered the Pui Ching Middle School attached to a church in Guangzhou. In 1922, his elder brother Ma Siqi, who had returned from France, gave him a violin, which became a lifelong companion.

During his adolescence, Ma had two opportunities to study music in France. The first was from 1924 to 1929, when he initially attended the Nancy Conservatory (then a branch of the Paris Conservatory). In 1926, he moved to Paris to study violin with Paul Oberdoerffer, a soloist at the Paris Opera. In 1928, he was admitted to the main Paris Conservatory to study in Boucherif’s violin studio.

After returning to China in 1929, Ma held solo violin concerts in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Guangzhou from September to December. At the age of 17, his performances caused a sensation in the music world, and he was hailed as a musical prodigy.

In 1931, with the support of the Guangdong provincial government, Ma went to France again for further study. With the introduction of Oberdoerffer, he studied composition with Bénoni. The following year, he returned to China and became the president of China’s first modern privately established music conservatory, mainly performing in Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Beijing. He also taught at the Guangzhou Conservatory of Music and the Education Department of Nanjing Central University.

From 1932 to 1936, Ma held solo concerts in Hong Kong, Taiwan (1932), Guangzhou (1933), Shanghai (1934), Hong Kong and Shanghai (1935), and Beijing (1936). Newspapers praised his outstanding performances.

After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Ma traveled around South and Southwest China, performing frequently and holding positions such as professor at Sun Yat-sen University, conductor of the China Symphony Orchestra, and director of the Guiyang Art Museum.

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Ma served as the president of the Central Conservatory of Music and vice-chairman of the Chinese Musicians’ Association for a long time. In 1967, he was targeted under the Cultural Revolution and went into exile in the United States, where he passed away from heart disease on May 20, 1987.

Throughout his life, Ma composed a wide range of works, including symphonies, orchestral suites, piano concertos, sonatas, dances, chamber music, ballets, operas, choral works, songs, and violin pieces. His violin compositions from the 1930s and 1940s, such as Lullaby (1935), First Rondo (1937), Inner Mongolia Suite (also known as Suiyuan Suite) (1937), Tibetan Tone Poem (1941), Pastoral Song, and Violin Concerto in F Major (1944) are among his most influential works. After 1949, he composed three Rondos (one in 1950 and two in 1980), Spring Dance (1952), Xinjiang Rhapsody (1954), Amis Suite, High Mountain Suite (1973), and Double Violin Concerto (1982), making significant contributions to the development of Chinese violin music.

— Mao Mengdan and Min Lingkang

Chen Yihan

composer

Chen Yihan’s music engages with the beautiful, timeless, emotive, expressive, and colorful dimensions of human experience. His works often explore cultural practices, stylistic norms, and the essence of music itself, seeking to transcend historical and cultural boundaries with an inclusive spirit. As a composer, Chen’s music has been performed by ensembles such as China Philharmonic Orchestra, China National Symphony Orchestra, China National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of the China National Opera House, the Juilliard Orchestra, and the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra, among others.

His accolades include the Copland House Residency Award, three ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, and the Jacobs School of Music Dean’s Prize. He made his debut as a film composer with the 2023 Chinese-language feature film “Manifesto,” produced by the Shanghai Film Group Corporation.

Currently a Ph.D. candidate in composition at Princeton University, Chen holds a master’s degree in composition from the Juilliard School and bachelor’s degrees in composition and piano from the Jacobs School of Music, where he studied with mentors including Samuel Adler, Claude Baker, Arnaldo Cohen, Don Freund, Christopher Rouse, and Sven-David Sandström.

yihanmusic.com

Notes

INK TRACES is inspired by many of my key paths and convergences of the last 15 years. My studies in Chinese language, linguistics, and music all helped spark a sustained interest in Chinese culture, one I’ve nurtured with near-annual trips and three years of living in China that have allowed me windows into its fascinating cultures, people, and a myriad of musical styles. The more music I’ve discovered, the more I’ve grown to love it and respect its rich and varied roots and present.

The album title stems not only from one of the tracks, Pan Kai’s Ink Traces of Sigh for solo violin, but also from the greater confluence in Chinese arts of genres including poetry, music, dance, and calligraphy — and by extension of image, gesture, and sound. My own perception has been greatly shaped by my time interacting with this art. The character on the cover, 路 (lu), means “road” or “way” and was written by the Chinese calligrapher and painter Dong Qichang (1555–1636). It dances in dialogue here with the moss in Lydia Winsor Brindamour’s stunning photograph Spanish moss against a white wall (2017).

This collection explores three main threads and includes new, recent, and 20th century music by both Chinese and Chinese-speaking composers. The first thread probes the musical and linguistic play possible in works by speakers of Chinese, a tonal language. Such play can be angled for instance towards orthography and calligraphic gesture, towards the direct mapping of phonology onto the violin through pitch, vibrato, and/or timbre, or towards a general textural imitation of a composer’s native dialect.

The second main thread aims to broaden listeners’ horizons with regards to our expectations for and assumptions about music related to China. Labels like “contemporary Chinese music” and “20th century Chinese music” can be of certain use provided they are not constrictive or all-defining, as the vastness of styles and goals that fall within these umbrellas cannot be underestimated. Within the multifaceted approaches considered in this collection, a common trait is a stretching beyond traditional Western palettes of timbre, technique, and texture to create vivid and imaginative soundscapes that blend tradition and novelty. While this is only a small sampling of the diversity of musical styles we can find, I hope it will challenge perceptions and whet appetites for further exploration.

The third and final thread, an important one at this moment in history, is a contribution towards maintaining and broadening cultural portals between the United States and China so that dialogue, progress, and mutual understanding can continue and deepen despite reduced travel opportunities and heightened tensions. There are themes both nuanced and broad with which we can and must meaningfully interact artistically, and increased reflection and discourse are sorely needed going forward. No matter what our backgrounds or levels of interest happen to be, I hope this project inspires an uptick in mutual curiosity, interaction, and most importantly, in listening.

— Julia Glenn

Romance and Dance consists of two independent pieces written first for two violins and string orchestra and later adapted by the composer for violin and piano. Romance (originally titled Romance of Hsiao and Ch’in) invokes the sound-worlds of two instruments that are staples in Chinese traditional music and culture: the Hsiao, a lyrical bamboo flute, and the Ch’in, a 7-string zither played with both hands. In Chen Yi’s words, “[the violin solo part] transmits a lyrical sense to express the composer’s love for humanities, while the [piano] part sounds like an enlarged Ch’in that symbolizes nature.”

Chen adapted Dance from the third movement of her quintet Fiddle Suite (1997) for quartet and Chinese fiddles (Huqin). Here the violin imitates a raspy jinghu, the smallest of Chinese Huqin fiddles often used in Beijing opera to double a singer’s voice. “The image,” says Yi, “came from the dancing ink on paper in Chinese calligraphy and the fiery moving gestures of the Chinese ancient women dancers. The pitch material is drawn from Beijing Opera tunes.”

— Julia Glenn

Yao Chen introduces his music as being guided by “cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary concepts.” He translates the Chinese title of this work 《咏叹》(yong tan) as “Air,” though it also contains sentiments like “intone,” “chant,” “sigh,” and “sing.” He says the following of his piece:

“There are three reasons why I named this piece Air: It is a poignant song longing for ethereal beauty and profoundness. It soars upward into the sky, and at the same time permeates downward to the earth. It is like how a unique life grows and takes root in the world.

When I was composing this piece, I took equal inspiration from Bach’s spiritual melodies and the virtuosity and lyricism of Eugène Ysaÿe’s solo sonatas. At the same time, I also imbedded inside this work some melodic fragments of two Chinese folk songs (one Taiwanese and the other Chinese mainland) that I have been enjoying recently: Yearning in the Spring Wind (望春风) and Jasmine Flower (茉莉花). I hope the piece has the power of conveying the beauty of Asia and its people within the global view.”

— Julia Glenn

Inspired by his studies with Schoenberg and Berg students Wolfgang Fraenkel and Julius Schloss in Shanghai, Sang Tong’s《夜景》(ye jing) Night Scenery was one of the earliest attempts by a Chinese composer to employ atonal composition techniques. Though he composed it in 1947, he did not publish it until after the Cultural Revolution in 1981 when he felt it was safe to disseminate atonal music publicly.

Sang said the following of his piece: “As manifested by its title, [this piece represents] a quiet night by the lake, where a poet is chanting and wandering, in sadness and in excitement alternatively, until nothing exists except the nightingale’s singing and the poet’s lingering plaintive voice.”

Both the musical tenderness and the clear enthusiasm for his newly acquired techniques reflect a broader trend often seen in Chinese culture: an attitude of openness and energy, spirited acceptance and adaptation, and insatiable curiosity.

— Julia Glenn

Pan Kai originally translated his work《墨痕》(mo hen) as “Semi-Cursive Script.” His original program notes follow:

“Semi-cursive script is a cursive style of Chinese characters that mixes regular script and cursive script. Inspired by semi-cursive script’s stroke and lines, I attempted to create a new, unique tone. The tone highlights the major seventh and minor third, avoids [the] minor second, [and] avoids grading interval, sequence and parallel antithesis. In this piece, a branch-like feeling that gradually extends is greatly emphasized as I pursue the variation and beauty of calligraphy’s strokes and lines. As in semi-cursive script, I wanted the tension in the tone to be as ethereal as clouds and as powerful as mountains.”

After I premiered this piece at Juilliard’s 2018 Focus! Festival in New York, Pan made some revisions to the music, removed the above program notes, and changed the piece’s English title to Ink Traces of Sigh. (The two characters in its Chinese title also literally mean “ink” and “traces” respectively). Though the underlying inspiration of semi-cursive script is not invalidated by this title switch, Pan wished to draw more overt attention to the structural spine of sighing that permeates the work. The active gesture of a breath or sigh, including its preparation, ictus, narrative, pace, shape, and conclusion, drives not only this piece but indeed much of the music on this album.

— Julia Glenn

Originally written for pipa and piano,《路》(lu) The Road was completed in early 1996 and premiered in Tokyo, Japan in May of the same year. Gao Weijie later adapted it into a version for violin and piano, which premiered in Korea. The idea of the piece is based on the poem《离骚》(li sao) Encountering Sorrow by Qu Yuan. At the top of the score, Gao quotes the 97th pair of sentences from the poem: “路漫漫其修远兮，吾将上下而求索” (lu man man qi xiu yuan xi, wu jiang shang xia er qiu suo) (“The way ahead is long and has no ending; yet high and low I’ll search with my will unbending”).

Written in free sonata form, the composer expresses his admiration for Qu Yuan’s great strength of character and encourages himself to proceed in this way. He uses a “non-octave cycle” technique of his own invention — inspired by Messiaen’s modes of limited transposition — to “break the law of the natural scale” and further convey the seeking spirit of the poem.

— Julia Glenn

Truly masterful in her ability to marry Western performance ideals with the folk music of China, Chen Yi wrote this plaintive memorial work in tribute to the passing of her teacher, Professor Lin Yaoji. In the program notes, the composer speaks to her mentor: “I wish you could hear the tune in my Memory, which sounds like my painful cry out of your name in our Cantonese dialect. I expressed my deep sorrow in the music, to remember your fatherly mentorship.”

In fact, the entire work is centered around a musical or tonal painting of this “painful cry.” Chen sang the cry for me in Cantonese (“林老师” or “Teacher Lin”), the pronunciation of which would be lin lao shi in Mandarin but is lam lou si in Cantonese with different tones. I was surprised to realize just how direct the musical encoding of this cry is: the exact rhythms and pitches are transcribed as the first gesture. This first gesture is then the basis for gestures two and three, altogether forming a large musical sentence whose building blocks make up the entire rest of the piece. The initial lam lou si gesture appears throughout in different forms — starting on different pitches, compressed or expanded, with altered rhythmic proportions, in canon, in two simultaneous dissonant voices, and finally in ascending, ethereal harmonics. Because of this, my present interpretation seeks as vocal, visceral, and at times crying-like a sound as possible. This piece is a formidable molding of the expressive potential found in musical and linguistic overlaps, ultimately achieving something different from each individual component.

— Julia Glenn

A co-composer of the famous “Butterfly Lovers Concerto” along with He Zhanhao, Chen Gang’s style may seem more familiar to some audiences. 《鼓与歌》(gu yu ge) Drum and Song comes from his collection of virtuosic violin works《红色小提琴》(hong se xiao ti qin) The “Red” Violin, written towards the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). During this period, Western music was largely forbidden in China. The prevailing musical style turned instead to praising political leaders, inspiring optimism, and celebrating the country’s nature and scenery. Many of Chen’s works have endured in their popularity ever since. Here a rousing “Drum” appears at the beginning and end of the piece, with a “Song” in the middle marked in the style of a mountain song to be played freely and expansively.

— Julia Glenn

《思乡曲》(si xiang qu) “Nostalgia” is the inner movement of Ma Sicong’s Suiyuan Suite (Inner Mongolia Suite) Op. 9 and is one of his most beloved works. In 1937 during the Second Sino-Japanese War, Japanese soldiers invaded Manchuria and Northern China. Ma was traveling near this region and took inspiration from the spirit of those fleeing and the folk songs they sang, including the Suiyuan song Running Horses on the City Wall which serves as the basis for the movement’s theme.

The nostalgia in the melody reflects the longing we feel when far from home. During the height of the pandemic, traveling home was difficult for many — and certainly if that meant going between the United States and China. When I was in China I yearned for my family and home, and when I was in the United States I ached for my Chinese friends and home. Konstantinos and I infused our recording with these all-too-relevant sentiments and an extra sense of gravity.

— Julia Glenn

A unique soundscape within the album, Chen Yihan’s EHOHE invokes powerful play between language and music to bring to life the sounds, emotions, and images of Li Bai’s poem 《蜀道难》(shu dao nan) The Difficulty of the Shu Road. I am truly grateful for this fantastic piece. Chen says the following of the work:

“I was deeply honored to be commissioned by Julia Glenn to compose a piece for inclusion in her album. During our initial discussion in 2021, we envisioned a composition for solo violin. However, as the creative process unfolded, it transformed into a more substantial work for baroque violin and electronics.

Our mutual fascination with the interplay between music and language served as the foundation for this collaboration. Julia’s background in linguistics, combined with my experience in traditional Chinese poetry recitation, inspired me to venture into uncharted territory for this composition. I aimed to capture not only the traditional practice of poetry recitation but also the unique sound of the original language. Since I intended for the piece to be based on the Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai’s《蜀道難》Shu Dao Nan, I needed to use reconstructed Middle Chinese pronunciations.

In an effort to convey the 韻味 (feel) of the original work through music, this composition embraces three facets of the poetry: phonology, by translating the original phonology into violin writing; tonal structure, by incorporating the use of traditional recitation; and the emotive power and vivid imagery. In summary, my aim was to translate the entire experience of the original work into a medium devoid of language, allowing for a purely musical expression.”

— Julia Glenn

I thank the Tianjin Juilliard School and Brandeis University for their generous backing of this project. I am profoundly grateful for the support of my engineer and producer, Brad Michel, my creative guidance guru and videographer Daniel Kurganov, and my dear collaborator and friend, Konstantinos Valianatos. My deep thanks go to each of the composers on this album for their music, enthusiasm, and help in crafting my interpretations.

I also thank Professor Aida Wong for her guidance in exploring the calligraphy of Mi Fu and Dong Qichang in designing my cover art as well as for her shared interest in overlaps between calligraphy and sound. Thank you to my friend Lydia Winsor Brindamour for providing her beautiful photograph Spanish moss against a white wall (2017) for the cover.

To the many mentors, friends, and family who have supported me over the years and through this project, I treasure each of you and could not do what I do or be who I am without you. Among these people I especially thank Sarah Levine, Miki Sawada, Clara Lyon, Linda Zheng Yan, my teacher Joseph Lin, my mother Bayla Keyes, my father Paul Glenn, my sister Mary Selby, and my husband Richard Müller.

— Julia Glenn