Mo Zhao, composer

Alex Selawsky-Group, soprano
Graham Boswell, cello
Lucy Chen, Piano

Inspired by Rachmaninoff Vocalise Op. 34

Vocalise - Hommage to Rachmaninoff

Alex Selawsky-Group, soprano
Scott Lehmann, electric guitar
Joe Feeney, electric bass
Matthew Mitchner, drum set
 
Lennie Naughton, text
Mo Zhao, music

==========================

My body is not an attraction.

It is not
It is NOT to be
Talked about
Walked over
Gawked at
At all
It is not
It is NOT to be
Roughed up,
Muffled out by the fluff you peddle.
Not
Snuffed out, 
Stuffed in your
Inflexible ideas, wholesale boxes of leaded metal

Do not
Keep away from children; they need to learn
Do not
Handle with care; I am not fragile and I can handle myself
Do not
Put near open flames; because I am flammable
I am damnable and damn sure
I’m already on fire

So
Do not
Forget to say “Caution: Hot Liquid Inside”
Because it is bubbling up, up away
Yes.

Caution.
This body isn’t what you want it to be
Caution.
This body is more than you want it to be
Caution.
This body is not an attraction.

Not fleeting, not flying, but
Crashing through the earth, 
Smashing up your assumptions
Of what you need me to be for you

Because I need you
Because I need you
Because I need you
To take a step back before you embarrass yourself
Because this
Man-woman
Incorrectly colored, shaped,
Used, used up
Constantly hovered just an inch above itself
Body
This. Is not an attraction.

So step out of the line, 
Refund your ticket
‘Cuz this body is mine. 


Caution! -soprano and rock musicians

Performed by the Arneis Quartet at Boston University Tsai Center
Part of Boston Composers' Coalition Concert Series, student call-for-scores winner

Program Notes:
	This string quartet draws influence from the musical traditions of the Uyghur people. The Uyghur people are a Turkish ethnic group that predominately lives in the XinJiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. Music and dance is an important aspect to their culture and their traditional music is often lively and rhythmic. I particularly enjoy the sounds of their music and hope to explore them in this string quartet.  Fantasy and Dance is not an exact imitation of their style; rather, I hope to transfer the same vibrant energy to the string quartet ensemble. 

String Quartet: Fantasy and Dance - Inspired by Uyghur Folk Music

Recordings from "Splashes of Ink," my senior composition recital at Boston University in May 2015.

Disobedience III "Pick Up Thy Brush"

Disobedience II "The Farmer And The Silkworm Breeder"

Disobedience I "The Tyrant"

Tone Poem on the Epilogue of "The Tempest"

"This Dynasty" from "Home(land)" Songset for Soprano and Piano

"February" from "Home(land)" Songset for Soprano and Piano

Baritone - Peter Fallon Brown
Piano - Peter Nelson-King


SWEETHEART, do not love too long:
I loved long and long,
And grew to be out of fashion
Like an old song.
All through the years of our youth
Neither could have known
Their own thought from the other's,
We were so much at one.
But O, in a minute she changed -
O do not love too long,
Or you will grow out of fashion
Like an old song. 

"O Do Not Love Too Long" (W.B Yeats)

       Mo Zhao is an emerging young composer who has written works for ensembles including orchestral, choral, chamber, and soprano with rock musicians. Her music has been performed in United States and United Kingdom. One of her most recent works, “Fantasy and Dance,” was premiered by the award-winning Arneis String Quartet and was a selected composition of Boston Composers’ Coalition’s Call for Scores. Her works have been premiered in, among other venues, the National Portrait Gallery (London, UK), Tsai Performance Center, and Marsh Chapel. In addition, her music has been presented and performed in educational outreach sessions—one sponsored by the Boston-based Emmanuel Music another sponsored by Chengdu Huaxi Hospital (Sichuan Province, China). Mo Zhao currently studies composition at Boston University with Martin Amlin and piano with Linda Jiorle-Nagy. In addition to Boston University, She has been trained in composition and piano from institutions including San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Royal College of Music (London, UK). She has studied composition with Ketty Nez, Samuel Headrick, Alison Kay, Brett Abigaña and Elinor Armer.

         As an active performer, Mo Zhao has played in a broad range of occasions such as concert and recital halls, senior centers, churches, hospital, and musicals. She performs solo concerts annually—including several presented by Sherman Clay Piano in Walnut Creek. She has performed in master classes with Joyce Davies, Frank Wiens, and Roy Bogas. Her piano teachers include Edna Stern, Mack McCray, Linda Jiorle-Nagy and Tanya Heeb. As a member of wind, orchestral, and choral ensembles, she has performed under the baton of renowned conductors such as David Hill, Anne Howard Jones, Keith Lockhart, John Maltester, Robert Longfield, Brian Balmages, and Ranold Bass.

Mo Zhao

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