Premiered by Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, August 19, 2021.
Flute: Christian Paquette
Clarinet: Amer Hasan
Violin: Nathan Lowry
Cello: Otávio Manzano Kavakama
Piano: Derek Wang
Percussion: Colin McCall
Conducted by Tim Weiss

Migration is a concerto for chamber ensemble. It draws excerpts from the “World Map Concerti” series, which is a collection of five mini-concertos for quintet, which takes listeners on a journey around the world, opening their ears to music’s evolution as an international unifier. Song of Matilda brings listeners to Australia with a thematic interpretation of the classic bush ballad, “Waltzing Matilda.” The European leg of the journey is represented by the song of Lindembaum, a nostalgic piece inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, The Dryad. Song of Peace is inspired by Korean culture and traditional music, drawing its name from the inter-Korean Peace House. There is also a touch of surrealism with a pianistic depiction of a wintry weather in subtropical Canton, in the fast passage featuring the piano.

Migration

Performed by Aspen Contemporary Ensemble.
Video by Score Follower: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9YyfS3NZGk&list=LL&index=1&t=18s

For Dreams Will Be Cold 别梦寒 (for Flute, Clarinet, 2 Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano)

This track is my debut in using synthesizers and synthesized sounds which is fitting for the topic of the piece! I composed this one as music to accompany a reel of ethereal northern light footage that I edited along with it. The idea was to create a sound world that reflects the personality, character and delicacy of the aurora borealis but also to be ambient enough to carry a documentarian voice-over. I really took my time making this one and I'm entirely happy with how it turned out! Enjoy!

Essence of Wonder

"Letters from Quarantine" for solo clarinet is in three short movements, composed in summer of 2020. #1 “Just a short note to say…” feels somewhat unsettled and enigmatic, allowing the listener to imagine what they might write, and focuses on the low range of the clarinet. #2 “Feeling lonely, isolated…” seemed to be a common thread in many Tweets (along with statements of missing being together with other musicians to rehearse or perform, or missing being in the classroom). #3 “Trying new hobbies during lockdown…” came from seeing the many posts of people taking up baking bread and cookies, or exercising, or other ways of passing the time with some productive activity.

Letters-from-Quarantine

SQ 2: In Microdreams (2014)

"Agnus Dei" from Missa Apuncta. St. Kosta Church, Brooklyn, 11.20.2016

Missa Apuncta (2016) - Agnus Dei

Composed by Shuying Li

Annie Jeng, pianist;
Four Corners Ensemble.

Piano concerto Canton Snowstorm is the first in the “World Map Concerti Series,” a Four Corners Ensemble project, a multi-cultural and multi-national collection with virtuosic soloists and a soloist-level "orchestra”. These concertos focus on each soloist's unique geographical, cultural and personal identities. "Canton Snowstorm" was inspired by the Cantonese opera, waiving with western/romantic influence throughout the pianist's 20+ years piano studies. It's a snowstorm in Canton (the very southern part of China), a fantasy that only exists in the pianist's imagination. And through music, she turns the impossible to the convincing.

Canton Snowstorm

Composed by Shuying Li
Soloist: Richard Narroway

Operas X Concerti Concert, Operation Opera Festival, May 25, 2018, Stamps Auditorium, Ann Arbor, MI.

“Matilda’s Dream” derives its thematic material from the traditional Australian folk song, “Waltzing Matilda.” Fragments of the theme are sprinkled throughout the piece, though it is not until the end that the melody appears in its pure form. After a dark and dramatic opening, the cello presents a brooding soliloquy punctuated by plucked open strings in the left hand. The melodic material in this opening section draws from the contours and intervals of the “Waltzing Matilda” theme, but within a less tonal framework and a much more gloomy character. This cadenza builds in intensity as it travels into the upper registers of the cello, the music being propelled by more urgent, accelerating rhythms. When the ensemble finally enters again, the character is vigorous and rhythmic, with the melodic fragments being rotated throughout the different instruments. Here the cello takes on a more combative role, disrupting the flow of the ensemble with bursts of chromatics, glissando trills, ricochet strokes and harmonics. Gradually, the ensemble begins to make sense of the various fragments, pushing the music in the direction of a more coherent version of the theme. When the melody finally appears at the work’s conclusion, all conflict has dispersed, allowing the lone cello to present the theme with the utmost tenderness and vulnerability.

Matilda's Dream

3333 - 4331 / timp / 3perc / piano / hp / org ad lib / strings

Symphony No. 1  "Concordia" for large orchestra (2016-17)

Solo flute with six stainless steel bowls. Based on the novel _Night Circus_ by Erin Morgenstern. Commissioned by and premiered by Dr. Ginny Tutton. Performed at the MidAtlantic Flute Festival, Kentucky Flute Festival, Fisk University, Univ. of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Murray State University...

Circus of Dreams

for Violin and Piano, performed here by Corinne Stillwell and Heidi Louise Williams. This was commissioned by the Tennessee Music Teachers Association (TMTA) in 2008 when they chose me as their Tennessee Composer of the Year.

Digressions

Praised as “a real talent” (The Seattle Times) with “vivid, dramatic” (San Francisco Chronicle) and “enjoyable” (Gramophone Magazine) scores, and “an incredible span of compositional tool box” (American Record Guide), composer Shuying Li’s music have been performed by Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Ningbo Symphony Orchestra (China), Alarm Will Sound, Orkest de ereprijs (Netherlands), Avanti! Chamber Orchestra (Finland), ICon Arts Ensemble (Romania), Cecilia Quartet (Canada), 15.19. Ensemble (Italy), Ascanio Quartet (Italy), Atlas Ensemble (Netherlands), among others. Shuying holds degrees from the University of Michigan and the Hartt School. A passionate educator, Shuying has taught and directed the Composition/Music Theory Program at Gonzaga University. She joined the faculty as the Assistant Professor of Music at California State University, Sacramento, in Fall 2022. For more information, please visit http://www.shuyingli.com.