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

Mini concerto for flute and chamber ensemble.

Erika Boysen, soloist
Four Corners Ensemble:
Joshua Anderson, clarinet
Christina Adams, violin
Horacio Contreras, cello
Annie Jeng, piano

The Dyad was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s same-titled fairy tale. It depicts a chestnut tree’s migration from the countryside to the modern city, and focuses on the ideas of nostalgia, desire, modernity, old and new homes, and contrast and struggles related. Schubert’s song “Der Lindenbaum” is featured throughout the piece as a representation of nostalgia and old memories that the dryad has when being migrated to a new place with totally new experiences.

The Dryad

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 by the Seattle Times as “a real talent” with “skillful orchestral writing, very colorful language and huge waves of sound,” Shuying Li is an award-winning composer who began her musical education in her native China. In her sophomore year at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, she won a scholarship to continue her undergraduate studies at The Hartt School in Connecticut. She holds doctoral and master’s degrees from the University of Michigan and is a research faculty member at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. A passionate educator, Shuying has taught and directed the Composition/Theory Program at Gonzaga University. She will join the faculty at California State University, Sacramento in Fall 2022.


 Shuying Li’s compositions have been performed by Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Ningbo Symphony Orchestra (China), Alarm Will Sound Ensemble, American Lyric Theater, Argus Quartet, Four Corners Ensemble, Hartford Opera Theater, Composers Conference Ensemble, Donald Sinta Quartet, Orkest de ereprijs (Netherlands), Norfolk Contemporary Ensemble, Avanti! Chamber Orchestra (Finland), ICon Arts Ensemble (Romania), Cecilia Quartet (Canada), 15.19. Ensemble (Italy), Ascanio Quartet (Italy), Atlas Ensemble (Netherlands), among others. Shuying has received awards or grants from OPERA America, China National Arts Fund, ASCAP/CBDNA Frederick Fennell Prize, The American Prize, International Antonin Dvorak Composition Competition, New Jersey Composers’ Guild Commission Competition, International Huang Zi Composition Competition, the Michigan Music Teachers Association Commissioned Composer Competition, Melta International Composition Competition, etc.  

 

A believer that music has the innate power to promote cultural diversity by connecting people through universally human passions and values, Shuying founded the Four Corners Ensemble in 2017. As Artistic Director and Conductor of the ensemble, Shuying’s efforts have led to residencies and performances at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, the Polish Consulate General in New York City, OPERA America, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, the University of Michigan, The Hartt School, and the Hartford Opera Theater. Shuying also pioneered the Operation Opera Festival in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the Jimo Ancient City Classical Music Festival in Qingdao, China. Four Corners’ debut album, World Map, a series of chamber concertos Shuying composed for the members, has received acclaim published in Gramophone, Pizzicato, and Take Effect.  

 

Upcoming projects include performances by Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Chelsea Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Contemporary Ensemble (Russia), and Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia; an opera commissioned by the Shanghai Conservatory of Music with librettist Julian Crouch in development with the Houston Grand Opera supported by OPERA America; as well as a band consortium commission by 20 universities including the Hartt School, University of Michigan, New England Conservatory, Cornell University, and University of Illinois, etc. For more information, please visit http://www.shuyingli.com.

The Dryad

Shuying Li

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