September 2025

Written for 2 female voices, this is whimsical musical conversation between two women meeting up at a cafe, sharing secrets and full of surprises!
Text by Anna Camera
Singers: Tammy Hummel and Laura Pudwell

Cafe Chit Chat for two sopranos

Taking Flight

In Moonlight (feat. Lorna Crozier, Doriann Forrester & Esther Ewing)

"Begin" for unaccompanied girl's choir.

Performers: Raise Her Voice from Oakville Choir for Children and Youth

Performance venue and date: July 1st, Podium on the Edge Canadian Choral Festival "Float" event, St. John's NFL.

Duration: 06:36

Program note: 
Begin is a 6’ composition for SSA a capella chorus. Based on Toronto writer Tanis Rideout’s poem “Begin”, music describes two young woman swimmers swimming across Lake Ontario in the 1950's. Sailing through the geological landscape of Lake Ontario, music expresses how nature and history defines the relationship we have with water. Theatre elements such as making sound effects, body percussion, and “rapping” of swim terminology are used to highlight the drama of the text. Written for “Raise Her Voice” girls chorus, this composition conveys an empowering message how young women faced and conquered huge challenge with perseverance and courage.
This work is commissioned by Choral Canada for Oakville Choir for Children and Youth with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, New Chapter Canada 150 Grant. The work was selected for performance at the 2019 ISCM World Music Days in Tallinn, Estonia; one of the six works representing Canada.

https://www.alicepyho.com/

Alice Ping Yee Ho - Begin

This is a 15 minutes, 4 movement’s composition written for solo cello and strings, with an optional flamenco dancer. The title “Mascarada” is a Spanish word for masquerade, it is inspired by my personal fascination with Spanish music, especially the flamenco dance culture which is passionate, rhythmic, full of spontaneous energy and feminine beauty. The four connected movements Prologue, Ballo, Epilogue, and Masque are constructed with lush melodies, contrasting moods, colorful string and percussive effects to capture the spirit of flamenco dance elements, and to present to the audience a dramatic music journey that is similar to the Spanish oral storytelling tradition.
The recording is a world premiere by cellist Rachel Mercer, flamenco dancer Cyrena Luchkow-Huang, with the Allegra Chamber Orchestra conducted by Janna Sailor.

Mascarada

The title of this work is inspired by the legacy of woman aviators, particularly the tragic disappearance of aviatrix Amelia Earhart (the first woman aviator flew solo across the Atlantic), her life story has intrigued our society with mysteries, theories, and imagination. Beyond her death, the world continues to honor her immense courage, talent, and achievement. As a composer, I am enthused to write a composition dedicated to the women in the past, present, and future who take to the skies.
Conceived as a 12’ single movement composition for solo harp with electronic tape, this work is a musical sketch that evokes an aviatrix’s last but most fantastic journey: traversing the boundless sky with haunting landscape below where fear, loneliness, peace, and beauty intermingle into an ultimate place of depth with enormous reverberations. The choice of solo harp is a symbolic representation of a female voice, used in a coloristic and dramatic manner to depict Earhart’s journey. The electronic tape is a combination of multiple layers of engineered and synthesized acoustic sounds, a polyphonic lace at times textural, at times rhythmic, foreshadowing and enhancing the scenario and emotions of the character.
This piece is written for and recorded by harpist Dr Teresa Suen-Campbell through the generous support of the Toronto Arts Council.

Beyond The Erupting Skies Silver Angels Sing Among The Gold Stars (for Harp And Electronics)

Opening song in Scene 1 from Alice Ping Yee Ho's children's opera "The Monkiest King", unfolding the scenario in the ancient magical world, young Sun Wukong, a monkey born from a stone nourished by the Five Elements who possesses some supernatural powers of transformation and combat.

The Monkiest King - Scene 1 Birth Song

Concerto for piano and orchestra by Alice Ping Yee Ho
The title of this work is borrowed from Greek mythology: the Elysian Fields – a reference to an afterlife paradise where people live in an ideal state of happiness, a place only the brave and good exist. This imaginative utopia is depicted by the two contrasting movements of this piano concerto. The first movement captures the state of serenity and spiritual joy. The use of E major tonality symbolizes purity and harmony find in this unknown paradise. The entire movement is based on a free improvisatory piano figure against an ostinato bass. The second movement is energetic and colorful. A virtuosic piano figure is generated from a contrasting modal scale from the first movement.

Elysian Fields Evergreen Symphony, Taiwan National Concert Hall, Dec. 1, 2009

This composition is written for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano. It has two short contrasting movements titled "Shadows" and "Eternal Light" inspired by the life story of Greta Thunberg, the young Swedish environmental activist who gained international recognition through her campaign on climate change. This work is a poetic imagination of Greta’s inner psyche as a painter who sees the world, almost autobiographical, rises from depression and suffering of nature’s destruction, to the casting of light and humanity that bath the universe with hope.
This recording is the world premiere by the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble ob Oct. 7, 2023, Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall

I Imagined She Who Paints The World

The Birth Song 誕生歌(Bilingual Song)
from children's opera The Monkiest King 淘氣小猴皇
for SA children chorus (2 groups of "Elements" characters)
by Alice Ping Yee Ho 何冰頤 and Marjorie Chan



Song of The Clouds 彩雲之歌
from children's opera The Monkiest King 淘氣小猴皇
for erhu, pipa, piano and SATB chorus
music & Chinese lyrics: Alice Ping Yee Ho
作曲及中文歌詞: 何冰頤


Song of the Clouds

This piece was performed at a student composers concert at Wilfrid Laurier University in the spring of 2017.

Performers: Morgan Lovell, Isaac Maliach, Dylan Murphy, Chris Yoon, Jeremy Hunter

Revolve

Strange Luminescence is an 18’ work for solo piano and chamber orchestra, commissioned and written especially for the Glenn Gould Music School New Music Ensemble and their distinguished graduate, pianist Claudia Chan (winner of 2010 Eckhardt-Gramatte National Piano Competition). Inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s famous painting “Starry Night”, this evocative composition is a psychedelic depiction of the images in the painting and beyond.
The title “Strange Luminescence” is identified with a prominent piano figure which symbolizes the central entity of an infinite gloom through darkness, casting different reflections or influences on its surroundings. The woodwinds, brass, strings, and percussion represent the broad bands of shadowy colors of a distorted nature, reacting to the moon’s struck. Both soloist and accompanying ensemble play equal partners engaging intense musical dialogues, fusing and unraveling of contrasting textures and instrumental colors to create idiosyncratic chemistry.

Strange Luminescence Premiere Dec. 8, 2015. Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, Claudia Chan And GGSNME

Performers:

Amanda Lowry (flute), Erik McKintyre (trumpet), Veda Hingert-McDonald (violin), Carl Ng (saxophone), Morgan Lovell (cello), Gregory Turner (piano), Brayden Krueger (marimba), Max Lindsay (percussion)

This composition is made up of a collection of different guidelines ranging in specificity, so that the resulting music is left up to the various improvisatory choices of the performers. 

This piece was performed on April 6th 2019 at the composition students' Grad Festival at Wilfrid Laurier University.

what I heard through your ears

As the title suggested, it is a fancy, virtuosic piece for unaccompanied solo violin. The sections with double stops and rhythmic figures are contrasted with a slower enigmatic section. The melodic structure of the work emphasizes the interval of fifths, also constantly outlines the tonal area based on the open strings of the violin. The work is a showcase of the performer’s spontaneous energy and musicality.
The work is performed and recorded by violinist Gillian Smith

Caprice For Solo Violin

This work is inspired by the “Four Seasons” poems by Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty.
 “Spring” is a sweet lament expressing the sentiment of a young woman: while calmly plucking mulberry and admiring the beautiful landscape in early spring, she sadly watches the departure of their loved ones going to war. “Summer” communicates optimism through the sunny portrayal of blooming lotus in a lake: she awaits effortlessly in a boat, but can only catches a glimpse at the royal house afar. “Autumn” depicts the yearning heart of a young woman: under the moonlight and feeling the soft blow of autumn wind, she laments the passing of time and wishes the safe return of her loved one from war. “Winter” describes an anxious woman sewing a winter coat late at midnight: she dreams the coat will be sent to her husband, keeping him warm and safe from the brutal winter wind in a war zone.
The vocal line captures the bleak but romantic poetic essence of the stories. The piano accompaniment is written in a dramatic manner, coloristic and dynamic. Music evolves from the lyrical and impressionistic figures in “Spring”, to the intense and angular gestures in “Winter”. The centered voice of a female character reminiscences elements of Kunqu opera, an old form of Chinese opera of passionate and melodious character. 
The track features soprano Katy Clark with pianist Denise Jung, who sung beautifully in Mandarin.
子夜四時歌     李白
春歌
秦地羅敷女		采桑綠水邊
素手青條上 		紅妝白日鮮
蠶飢妾欲去 		五馬莫留連
		
夏歌
鏡湖三百里 		菡萏發荷花
五月西施采 		人看隘若耶
回舟不待月 		歸去越王家

秋歌

長安一片月 		萬戶擣衣聲
		
秋風吹不盡		總是玉關情
		
何日平胡虜 		良人罷遠征		

冬歌

明朝驛使發 		一夜絮征袍
	
素手抽鍼冷     		那堪把剪刀
	
裁縫寄遠道		幾日到臨洮	


SPRING

The lovely Lo Fo of the western land 
Plucks mulberry leaves by the waterside. 
Across the green boughs stretches out her white hand; 
In golden sunshine her rosy robe is dyed. 
"my silkworms are hungry, I cannot stay. 
Tarry not with your five-horse cab, I pray." 

SUMMER

On Mirror Lake outspread for miles and miles, 
The lotus lilies in full blossom teem. 
In fifth moon Xi Shi gathers them with smiles, 
Watchers o'erwhelm the bank of Yuoye Stream. 
Her boat turns back without waiting moonrise 
To royal house amid amorous sighs.

AUTUMN

A slip of the moon hangs over the capital; 
Ten thousand washing-mallets are pounding; 
And the autumn wind is blowing my heart 
For ever and ever toward the Jade Pass.... 
Oh, when will the Tartar troops be conquered, 
And my husband come back from the long campaign! 

WINTER

The courier will depart next day, she's told. 
She sews a warrior's gown all night. 
Her fingers feel the needle cold. 
How can she hold the scissors tight? 
The work is done, she sends it far away. 
When will it reach the town where warriors stay?

Four Seasons Ballade for soprano and piano

Alice Ping Yee Ho 何冰頤 is a distinguished Chinese Canadian composer renowned for her unique voice 
and diverse works across opera, orchestra, chamber music, dance, and theatre. Her accolades include 
the 2024 Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music, 2022 Symphony Nova Scotia’s Maria Anna Mozart 
Award, 2022 Barlow Endowment Commissioning Award, 2019 Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize, 
and the 2013 Mavor Dora Moore Award for The Lesson of Da Ji. A two-time JUNO Award nominee, Ho 
has released 10 solo albums. Her compositions have been performed by prominent ensembles and 
orchestras including the Toronto Symphony, Finnish Lapland Chamber Orchestra, Shanghai 
Philharmonic, National Taiwan Symphony, the Polish Radio Choir, and Luxembourg Sinfonietta

Association of Canadian Women Composers

The ACWC is a professional organization for Canadian women composers, their supporters, and the performers of their music.

Song of the Clouds

alicehopingyee

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