Opening number for Act II of the original musical, "The Dreams Beneath Our Feet"

Immigrant Dream | The Dreams Beneath Our Feet (Demo)

Assignment #1 for Gary Burton's Jazz Improvisation course on Coursera.

Deborah Lau - Week 1 Assignment - What Is This Thing Called Love

*** WORK IN PROGRESS ***

Written for Composers' Collective Valentine's Day meeting (http://www.composerscollective.org/2014/02/meeting-notes-feb-14/) and dedicated to my husband.  See related blog post here: http://leng-lui.info/2014/02/empty-house/

Empty House (Sketch)

An assignment for Jonathan Dawe's Juilliard Evening Composition Class: an athematic quintet in Baroque concerto grosso form for flute, oboe, trumpet in C, violin and cello.  This is a recording of a second reading held on April 7, 2014.

Wedding Dress

"Moment"
Music composed by Deborah Lau
Lyrics by Sarah Guan

Performers:
Madeleine Bouissou - Cello
Neil Johnson - Clarinet
Mary Kathryn Monday - Soprano
Seann Trull - Horn
Mun-Tzung Wong - Piano
Conducted by Alicia Lieu

Spring Concert of the Composers' Collective
May 15, 2014 at the National Opera Center, New York, NY
Audio engineering and recording by Ben Young
Video editing by Mary Kathryn Monday
YouTube: http://youtu.be/p_vNDP5F1Wc



For more information, visit www.composerscollective.org

© 2014 Deborah Lau

------------------------ ABOUT THIS PIECE ------------------------
"Moment" is a duet for voice and cello within a two-act musical. It depicts a turning point in the careers of two young women. Kim, a management consultant, is delivering a presentation to an important client. This project is the key to a major promotion, and eventually, to the corner office she's wanted ever since she joined the company. Kim is determined to become the first female partner in her firm's history, despite the unspoken sexism she faces in the boardroom and her parents' desire that she settle down and raise a family.

Concurrently, Mina, a cellist, plays her final audition for a symphony orchestra. After years of pursuing her dream of playing cello professionally -- against the wishes of her parents, who pressure her to find a more stable, lucrative job -- this is Mina's last chance. If she fails, she will have to resign herself to a desk job she hates and shelve her Carnegie Hall-sized ambitions forever.

Moment

Written for Jonathan Dawe's Juilliard Evening Composition Class of Spring 2014.  The assignment was to write a twelve tone string quartet in sonata form.  The twelve tone row used in this composition is as follows:
P0 = A E D B G C# F#D# G#A# F C

This is the recording of a second reading held on 17 March 2014.

Signal To Noise (Second Reading) - Deborah Lau

"What Are The Odds?"
Composed by Deborah Lau

Fall Concert of the Composers Collective
November 14, 2014 at the National Opera Center, New York, NY
Audio engineering and recording by Ben Young
Video editing by Eimi Tanaka

For more information, visit www.composerscollective.org

©2014 Deborah Lau

Watch the video recording of the performance on YouTube:
http://youtu.be/tpKtgPhKoWQ

Read more on Deborah's blog on the writing process:
http://leng-lui.info/2014/11/what-are-the-odds/

---------- PROGRAM NOTES ----------
"What Are the Odds?" is an instrumental arrangement of a big-band swing number from a new musical exploring identity, family, and love in this modern age.

Neel Gupta celebrates a job offer with his fiancée, Priya, at a fancy restaurant. Having been betrothed since childhood, Neel has sought to impress her ever since--this time by serenading her over dinner. Though Neel's friends find his approach to love incomprehensibly outdated, he is relieved to have escaped the follies of modern dating.

Meanwhile, Neel's friend Marco Garcia dodges the parade of eligible young women his family foists upon him, and tries to convince his parents that he's perfectly capable of finding love on his own.

What Are the Odds?

Performance by Folie à Deux (fa2violas.com - Nora Krohn, Nick Revel)
Recording by Peter Jan
Audio engineering by Eimi Tanaka

PROGRAM NOTES:

"Revolver" is the opening number, for electric cello and video, of the second act in a new musical exploring identity, family, and love in this modern age. After years of struggling in obscurity, having been passed over at countless auditions, Mina -- a cellist with Carnegie Hall-sized ambitions -- decides to make her own career. Her neo-classical pop/rock videos go viral, launching her from her makeshift studio in her parents’ basement to the public stage.

Written as variations on two themes, "Revolver" explores the push/pull dynamics of duo playing.

This acoustic arrangement for two violas is written for Folie à Deux, the viola duo of Nick Revel and Nora Krohn. First publicly performed at the Composers Collective Winter 2015 Showcase at The Gallery, Flushing Town Hall in February 2015.

Revolver

"Jazz and Arancini", premiered at the Composers Collective 2015 Spring Concert at the National Opera Center, New York, NY.

Photography by Doug Bain.

PROGRAM NOTES:

Jazz has always felt like a beautifully familiar mystery to me, like a language I was born with that I've forgotten how to speak. I grew up trained in the rigors and strictures of classical music; I spent countless hours drilling phrases repetitiously so I can meticulously translate each note exactly as written by the composer from page to stage, limiting my contribution to mere interpretation, never creation. And so, the improvisatory nature of jazz - the fact I don't know exactly what I'll play tonight - both terrifies and thrills me. This piece is dedicated to my wonderful husband, Terence Wong.

Jazz and Arancini

Demo track of "What Are The Odds?" recorded for MTF 4x15 submissions in April 2015. Vocals by Peter Budd.

What Are The Odds? | Dreams Beneath Our Feet (Demo)

Official recording of "Jazz and Arancini", as premiered at the Flushing Town Hall during the Composers Collective 2015 Fall Concert, featuring the Composers Collective Orchestra conducted by Maestro David Stech.

Original solo piano version:
https://soundcloud.com/leng/jazz-and-arancini

Full blog post of the composition process to come:
http://leng-lui.info/

PROGRAM NOTES:

"Jazz and Arancini" is dedicated to my husband, Terence Wong. We fell in love during a winter evening of live jazz and shared plates of arancini by Sydney harbour. This piece was originally written for solo piano then later orchestrated as part of the Composers Collective 2015 year. To celebrate our third wedding anniversary, this piece is based on threes, including three musical quotes and three tonal centers.

From silence, muted strings form an ethereal shifting texture, over which a flute melody shimmers, like moonlight on water. A warm brass chord kicks off a flurry of motion before easing into a jazz clarinet solo accompanied by pizzicato strings. A yearning trumpet solo quickly builds up to the full orchestra in unison, evoking passionate fireworks. Trumpet and trombone solos elaborate on the earlier jazz theme, before giving way to a tender violin and cello duet that fades into the moonlit night.

Jazz and Arancini (Live Orchestral Recording)

This is the third song of three in a submission for the East West Players Initiative. This is the thirteenth song in the first act of a semi-autobiographical new musical-in-progress, The Dreams Beneath Our Feet.

Earlier in Act I, we learn that Kim religiously adheres to the ambitious ten-year plan she has devised for her career and her life. She swears that even her engagement to an impeccably-credentialed VP at a rival company won’t throw her off. But while she is clawing her way up the corporate ladder at her prestigious consulting firm, she also juggles wedding planning and advising her roommate, Neel, on his burgeoning startup... and finds her life spiralling dangerously out of her control.

Twenty-Four Hours | The Dreams Beneath Our Feet (Demo)

I'm just a girl with a piano who loves Broadway musicals.

Leng