Soundtrack music for Canadian digital artist, T.M. Glass' video, "Trees". The music uses MIDI data from oak trees, collected through MIDI sprout in T.M.'s garden in Toronto, Canada, 2021. Video was premiered online at Orillia Centre for Arts and Culture, Orillia, Canada, Feb 7 2021.

If interested in seeing the video, please contact T.M. Glass.

The project was supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.

Trees

Anagenesis (excerpt) - for electric guitar, piano and percussion

Premiered by JACK Quartet on April 24, 2016 at Provincetown Playhouse, New York.

“Birds, Reincarnate” resulted from my own contemplations and experiences on the matter of immigration. At the time I was writing this work I was also strongly inspired and moved by the Korean poet Ko Un’s poem called “Letters”, which I randomly stumbled upon. The poet’s uses of imagery and metaphor were extremely moving, beautiful yet cruel. Below is an excerpt from the poem that struck me the most:

When birds take off by mistake, death resonates all around.
I will reach where the birds call
And receive letters in that high sky.

Birds fall from the sky for me, they die. Such is the life of the lark.
It is certain that in finished works lie the unfinished.
So finally, reincarnate birds weep in glistening letters.

Birds, Reincarnate - for String Quartet

Read by Manhattan Symphonie at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, New York, Nov 2016. 

"Waves, Exile" is a work about journeys of no return. 
It was inspired by poetry excerpts from the American poet Tim Nolan’s "My Dead":

“They live in The Land of Echo, The Land
Of Reverb, and I hear them between
The notes of the birds, the splash of the wave

On the smooth rocks. They show up
When I think of them, as if they always
Are waiting for me to remember”

Waves, Exile - for orchestra

And the Abyss Gazes Back - for orchestra

New Music Ensemble: Chicago Introduction
Fulton Hall, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Nov 5th, 2017

Daniel Pesca (Artist-in-Residence at University of Chicago), piano

Program Notes:
"Isles" resulted from my reading of "the Lost Salt Gift of Blood", a collection of short stories by the Canadian novelist Alistair MacLeod. Drawing inspirations from the writer’s hauntingly beautiful depiction of the Canadian maritime landscapes, this piece displays three musical “isles” in three movements set in contrasting landscapes and moods: shimmering and light, resoundingly violent, and silently turbulent.

III. Undercurrent

II. Salt

I. As Birds Bring Forth the Sun

Performed at "New Music Ensemble: Imani Winds" Concert
By Imani Winds
Rockefeller Chapel, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
May 12, 2018

The piece, "On Light and Birds", was inspired by Elizabeth Jennings’ poem "Bird Sunrise in Winter":

Close eyes. Stay still and you can hear
Rising of sun, ferocious cries
Speaking of birth about your ear,
An eloquence of skies.

Winter perhaps but this is spring
Wrung from cold earth. Harsh life asserts
Its pressure on the air, will sing
Until the singing hurts.

Open your eyes. The light is birds
They bear the sun and clip it round.
Almost they break out into words
In this impulse of sounds.

While composing the work, I imagined the quintet as a flock. The music takes on a flight with free, fluctuating, sometimes unified, and sometimes chaotic movements — movements of lights and shadows, of moments and memories, and of an invincible and vigorous vitality within all living creatures.

On Light and Birds (2017) - for woodwind quintet

World premiere by Ellen Dickinson in Rockefeller Chapel (University of Chicago) on May 25, 2018, as part of the Rockefeller Carillon New Music Festival.

Drawing inspirations from the Spanish poet Juan Carlos Mestre's poem "Pan de Ayer" (Yesterday's Bread), "Pluie" (Rain) is a work on the remembrance of the forgotten, a lament for the lost, and a farewell to the past.

"Pluie" was written by invitation for the Rockefeller Carillon New Music Festival.

Pluie (2018) - for Carillon

Based in Toronto, Canadian composer, musician, and teacher Alison Yun-Fei Jiang explores the intersections of cultures, genres, and identities through composing, performing, and teaching music. Through “musicking,” she connects and communicates with audiences, performers, and students of diverse backgrounds.

As a composer, Alison draws inspirations and influences from life experiences as well as an array of sources such as Asian aesthetics and philosophies, natural landscapes, art, literature, film and popular music, creating musical narratives and experiences in a lyrical, dynamic, and storytelling nature. She has served as the RBC Affiliate Composer with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (2022-24) and was a Carrefour Composer-in-Residence with Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra (2020-22). She has collaborated with ensembles, performers, and artists such as Esprit Orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, JACK Quartet, the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, Imani Winds, Molinari Quartet, pianist Daniel Pesca, carillonist Joey Brink, visual artist T.M. Glass, among others. Her music has been performed in Canada, the US, and Europe, featured on CBC Radio, the Royal Conservatory of Music 21C Festival, as well as the University of Toronto New Music Festival. Awards and recognitions come from the SOCAN Foundation, the Graham Sommer Competition for Young Composers, ASCAP, the American Prize, and International Alliance for Women in Music.

Aside from composing, Alison is a pianist and keyboardist in solo, chamber, and collaborative settings with a focus on performing contemporary piano music by living composers. She runs a pianist-composer concert series titled “Is It Theoretically Possible?” where she annually premieres and performs brand new as well as underrepresented piano works by living composers at the Canadian Music Centre. She also collaborates with composers on recording projects; upcoming recordings include albums by Amy Brandon and Steven Webb.


Performing at Massey Hall for the Roy Thomson Hall Youth Musician Commission (YMC) Charity Event

Alison also runs a private teaching studio where she teaches piano, music theory, composition, and musicianship to students ranging from children to adults from diverse backgrounds. Past teaching experiences include lectureships at the University of Chicago and guest lectures at Manhattan School of Music, University of Ottawa, McGill University, Carleton University, and University of Regina. She has served as a mentor composer for the TSO, NACO, Continuum, and the Roy Thomson Hall Youth Musicians Commission (YMC), and has given masterclasses for the Association of Canadian Women Composers (ACWC).  

Alison holds degrees in music from the University of Chicago (Ph.D.), New York University (M.M.), and Manhattan School of Music (B.M.). Her work has been generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, SOCAN Foundation, the RBC Foundation, the Michael and Sonja Koerner Charitable Foundation, New Music USA, and the Johan Franco Composition Fund. Alison gratefully acknowledges the support of the Chalmers Family Fund administered by the Ontario Arts Council.

When not “musicking,” Alison enjoys listening to J-pop, taking long walks, reading, and grocery shopping in Asian supermarkets.

Alison Yun-Fei Jiang

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