Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra - Shanghai 2016
Liang Zhang - Conductor
Sun Yaoqi - Erhu

Photo credit: Bayu Anggoro

The concept of a vanishing point has informed the crafting of this work in several ways. On a surface level, the notion of separate entities gradually converging together is crucial to the structure as well as the motivic, harmonic and textural development of the piece. Jonathan Harvey amongst others has remarked upon the spectral predilection for harmony to be subsumed by timbre, and it is this merging of musical parameters that can be understood as the underlying trajectory of the composition. Moreover, this interpretation of a vanishing point as a synthesis between differing ideas also manifests itself in the aesthetic outlook of 'Vanishing Point'. Through the coupling of the Chinese erhu and folksong with a symphonic orchestra as a starting point, a sense of reconciliation between Eastern and Western cultures is attempted.

As a creative impetus, I was interested in the paradoxical implication of closure suggested by a vanishing point. Hence, although the vanishing point of a landscape is literally seen as the end point, the viewer also knows that the landscape continues infinitely further into an unknown realm. 'Vanishing Point', whilst inherently being a piece in its own right, thus hopes to direct the curiosity of the listener toward this unknown realm, and to consider the question: what is beyond the vanishing point?

2016/2017

Vanishing Point for Erhu and Symphony Orchestra (2016)

Winner of the UK Critics' Circle Young Artist Award 2021 for his "compelling and individual" works, Alex Ho is a British-Chinese composer whose music and stage works have been described as “menacing and poetic" (The Guardian), "important and impressive" (Opera Today), and a "fresh, different idea that captured the imagination" (Scottish New Music Awards 2021). Alex is resident composer at Glyndebourne Opera (2023-26) and was formerly Artist-in-Residence at Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier (2021-24) and Associate Composer at Oxford International Song Festival (2022-23). His music theatre piece, Untold, premiered to critical acclaim at Concertgebouw Brugge and O. Festival Rotterdam in Spring 2023 and won the FEDORA Opera Prize 2023 for a "bold and moving creation".

 

Alex has had pieces performed/commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, BBC Radio 3, Royal Philharmonic Society, Royal Opera House, Het Concertgebouw, National Opera Studio, Music Theatre Wales, London Sinfonietta, Riot Ensemble, VOCES8, and National Youth Choirs of Great Britain. His works have featured in venues across the UK, Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Canada, USA and China, on platforms including SoundState Festival (Southbank Centre, London), Sound Unbound (Barbican Centre, London), Hearing China (Shanghai Symphony Hall, Shanghai), nonclassical (London), Cheltenham Music Festival, and BBC Late Junction. Alex is co-director of Tangram, a music collective currently Associate Artists at LSO St Luke's.​ Alex graduated from Oxford and Cambridge universities and completed a doctorate at the Royal College of Music with a full AHRC scholarship (LAHP studentship supported by the RCM).

Alex is represented by Intermusica: https://www.intermusica.co.uk/artist/Alex-Ho