This track is from the album Dark Side of the Shadows and is available for purchase on CD Baby here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/stephenyip

Yugen (2008)

Cloud. Color II (2011)

Distant Voices (2013)

Postlude: Etenraku (2012)

What ABLAZE was looking for were simply two things as we approached this first Millennial Masters volume: great compositions and excellent performances that were well recorded. We were stunned at the level of the submissions and first disc features music of superb composers from the USA, Greece, Ukraine and China. Stephen Yip was awarded a place on the disc for his stunning, evocative In the Garden for a small mixed ensemble. David Lipten's muscular, yet elegant set of piano pieces Best Served Cold, Ever Since and Snap won not only because they are marvelous compositions, but because of the tremendously lucid and effortless performances by Mark Tollefsen. The solo oboe work Progressions by Greek composer Michael Travlos brought an exciting, virtuosic dimension to the competition and a compositional voice that we believe deserves to be heard more in the United States and world over. Leading Ukrainian composer Igor Shcherbakov won a place on the disc for his luminous, emotional and virtuosic Piano-Gesang. His authoritative approach to piano writing coupled with a musical language that is forward looking yet with deep roots in the strong traditions of his culture were very impressive to us. Finally, we were delighted and captivated by Jeff Nichols' le trombe d'oro della solarità. This work is so inventive and marked by a fluidity, grace and power from the small instrumental ensemble comprised of the very best performers New York City has to offer. All of this collection of great works, tremendous performers and wonderful recordings were mastered by the superb Grammy Award winning mastering engineer, Silas Brown.

When it comes to new music, quality audio, great performances and bold, dramatic, original conceptions, you don't have to look any further than ABLAZE Records.

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In The Garden by Stephen Yip

桑原ゆう｜影も溜らず (2017) for solo violin and eight musicians
written for the Composer Seminar of the Lucerne Festival Academy 2017
recorded live at KKL Luzern, Lucerne Hall on August 26, 2017
© Schweizer Radio SRF
premiered by Ensemble of LUCERNE FESTIVAL ALUMNI｜Yutaka Shimoda (solo vn), Raoul Cho (fl), Tomonori Takeda (cl/bcl), Kevin Fairbairn (tb), Bill Solomon (perc), Jian Ren (vn), Alfonso Noriega (va), Simon Thompson (vc), Juan Díaz (cb), Johanna Malangré (cond)

Shadowless

Shadowless (2017) for solo violin and 8 musicians

Stephen YIP
Ink. Color (2010)
for Orchestra

WORLD PREMIÈRE
12 April 2014 
Hong Kong Sinfonietta | Conductor: YIP Wing-sie
Concert Hall, Hong Kong City Hall

Stephen YIP: Ink. Colour (2010)

Stephen YIP
Novela (2006)
for Orchestra

Commissioned by Hong Kong Sinfonietta with sponsorship from CASH Music Fund

WORLD PREMIÈRE
10 March 2006 
Hong Kong Sinfonietta | Conductor: YIP Wing-sie
Concert Hall, Hong Kong City Hall

Stephen YIP: Novela (2006)

WHISPERING FRAGRANCE
Stephen Yip

On WHISPERING FRAGRANCE, his first solo album with Navona Records, composer Stephen Yip merges serenity with agitation, earthiness with sophistication and the mundane with the sublime. The result is an original creation that is unapologetically post-modern, yet deeply rooted in Chinese traditionalism.

The instrumentation itself already offers ample proof for this unique blend. "Ding", scored for double bass and the Chinese zither guzheng (an instrument with a 2,500-year history), reflects the nine ancient rulers of the Zhou kingdom in just as many short musical sections.

"Whispering Fragrance," an intuitive, ethereal composition for solo violin, aims to capture the transcendent sensual experiences of interacting with nature – sight, smell, hearing – with the instrument's natural harmonics.

Stephen Yip, who nowadays lives in the United States, does not shy away from jazz instrumentation, either. "In 7th Heaven," a saxophone, double bass and piano seek to create a state of debonair tranquility.

Nevertheless, the influence of Yip's Chinese heritage remains profoundly interwoven with his musical creations. Some of the different meanings of the Chinese word "Ran" are set to sound in the eponymous piece written for solo guzheng, running the gamut from collected composure to fiery agitation. "Tranquility in Consonance", set for flute, saxophone, bassoon and piano, never loses its distinctly Eastern feel, which is partially due to applying playing techniques of Chinese instruments to the Western set-up, partially due to its uninhibited celebration of environmental and natural sounds.

Finally, "Peace of Mind" is an atmospheric development of heterogeneous textures, the conclusion of which mirrors the title.

WHISPERING FRAGRANCE is an exceptional solo debut, bridging the chasm between two vastly different cultures with a musical language that is quite unique.
 
Release Date: August 10, 2018
Catalog #: NV6175
Format: Digital and CD

Whispering Fragrance

Stephen Yip - Whispering Fragrance

Performed by ensemble Sound Icon 

In one of the Chinese cultural heritages, “lunar calendar”, each month has its own particular name and meaning, which allows providing more literary and elegant. Most of the designations and significances are quite related to nature. In the fourth month of the lunar year was called “early summer” and “blossom month”. It has been described into two Chinese synonyms: the first one 清 means: clear, distinct or pure, and the second one 和 means: soft, warm, peace, harmony or union. Composer employed these two literally words: 《清 . 和》as the title of this piece.
Tranquility in Consonance is a place where to find and collect the most natural sound and of their own original or primitive manner. In this single movement piece, it conjures a new sonic environment, of natural airy tones, percussive piano plucking, free sliding tone and some harmonic voice to capture the beauty of nature. Meanwhile, the music unfolds at more than one voice simultaneously, the interactive of each voice creates its own character and somehow the contrast of the sound is related to each other and was mingled gently with a coalition. Repeating musical gestures and passages were mentioned, always transitory, within a process of continuous change in color and tone, in which to demonstrate the changing of the season and time.

很久以前東方文化中已把四季，十二月份等天然時節很細緻地描繪出個中的特色。十二月份中的四月稱為「清和」，大概是
「立夏」之初的節氣與清明春雨和順之間中的美態。中國文化中的不同漢字組合和變化往往可以進入觸不到的的意境。作曲
家借揚雄的作品「劇秦美新」中「鏡純粹之至精，聆清和之正聲」把清和解作「清越和諧」。
曲中主要以簡單清新的音節，淡然優雅的氣象和韻律，以不同的自然發聲演奏技巧中描繪出一幅富於時象氣節的聲、響圖。

Tranquility in consonance II(live)

Awaiting the Dawn
群鶴待曉
 
Program Note

In this piece, the composer tried to use musical notes as a sound element to paint out a visual scenic picture that he saw the flock of long-legged and long necked cranes settled in a natural wood forest.   At the beginning of this piece, he described the quiet and dark long night; and cranes were waiting for the dawn.  Until the daybreak, cranes opened their wings with different beautiful movements and eventually they flew away to continue their journeys.  The first component inspired the composer was the beauty of the cranes’ gestures such as walking with their long-legged, stretching out their necks and wings in shadow water and dancing.   And the second component is important in this piece in which is timing.  This is also the background (structure).   There are three main sections: 1. Cranes land in the forest at night to rest and wait for the dawn; 2. before the daybreak, they prepare to fly with exercising different movements;  3. flock of cranes fly away.  
 
Cranes’ beauty and their mating dances have made them symbolic birds in many cultures.  Over hundreds years, cranes had been featured in many Chinese ink and brush painting in different periods and styles.   Composer used different Chinese instruments to compose this music to express the natural.  He also tried to create an atmosphere as an environmental effect by using different instrumental extended techniques.  Tone color is one of the basic elements in this piece.  Different combinations of the sound made most of the sonorities as the major source in this soundscape.

此曲《群鶴待曉》是為笛子、笙、揚琴、中阮、箏和二胡而譜寫的。全曲為單樂章，音樂上以時間和空間做結構，把大自然生態和群鶴的姿態和美感互相描繪成依不聲響化和色彩化的圖像。

樂曲開頭，以彈撥樂器之低音滑奏、泛音和吹奏樂聲之單薄和弦，變化顫音和氣音/聲作聲響化的效果，做寧靜和黑暗長夜的描述。接著，以群鶴等待黎明，直到黎明為主題的描寫。

靈感的第一元素是群鶴在淡水上他們的倒影，水影上反映他們的舞姿與走步的姿態，第二元素是「時間行走」的結構，從黑夜裡，群鶴在溪邊休息，到黎明破曉時，群鶴展翅和步走運動做飛行旅程，再到他們飛翔的百變姿態和變化飛行的排列。

數百年來，從東方藝術文化看到不同時代以鶴鳥為題的水墨作品，作曲家希望把中國傳統樂器的古色以環境效果，營造氣氛，把色彩繪出群鶴和大自然的美態、靈聲和節韻。


Awaiting the Dawn 群鶴待曉

Biography

"Stephen Yip has an extraordinary way of creating a post-Darmstadtian modernism that incorporates his Chinese roots with a subtlety that gives us a vivid experience of the inner colors of an advanced spatial sense. It leaves us with a feeling of focused tranquility. He is a genuine voice in new music today."
—Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review

“…..abound in colourful texture that take their cue from traditional Asian music….and ….Yip’s splendid ear and sophisticated technique stand him in good stead….”
—Gramophone Review

Stephen Yip was born in Hong Kong and now living in U.S.A. He received his doctor of musical arts (D.M.A.) at Rice University and bachelor of fine arts (B.F.A.) at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.  He has attended major music festivals including: Wellesley Composers Conference, Aspen Music Festival, International Summer Course for New Music Darmstadt, Asian Composers’ League, ISCM World Music Days, Chinese Composers’ Festival, Music X, June in Buffalo, IMPULS Ensemble Akademie, California E.A.R. Unit Composer Seminar, the 13th International Summer Program, Czech Republic, International Composers’ Workshop, Luxembourg, the International Summer Course for New Music, Darmstadt, Germany, Wellesley Composers’ Conference. Residencies include: the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Florida, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Nebraska, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts , Yaddo Colony, NY and the MacDowell Colony, NH.    

Yip’s works have been performed in the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, Israel, Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Philippines.  He has received several composition prizes, included “Earplay”, “Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition Award”, “Taiwan Music Center International Composition Prize”, “Robert Avalon Interantional Prize”, “Singapore International Composition Competition for Chinese Orchestra”,  “Haifa International Composition Prize”, First International EPICMUSIC Composition Prize, Italy, International Biennial composition competition, the Debussy Trio Music Foundation, Molinari Quartet’s Third International Composition Competition, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Emerging, the ALEA III composition Competition, the fourth NACUSA Texas Composition Competition, the International Music Prize for Excellence in Composition 2010, by the National Academy of Music, Thessaloniki, Greece, and the 2010 Alvarez Chamber Orchestra Freestyle Composition Competition, London, England .  

His works have been performed by major ensembles and players such as Alarm Will Sound, Earplay New Music, Mivos String Quartet, New York New Music Ensemble, Great Noise Ensemble, North South Consonance, Brno Philharmonc Orchestra, inFLUX Duo, Windpipe Chinese Orchestra, Little Giant Chinese Orchestra, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, St. Paul Chambr Orchestra, Curious Chamber Players, TIMF Ensemble, Ensemble El Perro Andaluz, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Avanti, Ensemble Kochi, Moscow New Music Ensemble, etc.
  
Yip’s works are recorded in the ERM-Media, PARMA, Capstone, North South recording, Ablaze records, ATMA Classique, and Beauport Classical labels.  Yip is a member of the SCI, NACUSA, and ASCAP. Currently, he is on the music faculty at Houston Community College and works as a freelance composer.

Email: yshukin71@gmail.com 
Web: www.stephen-yip.com

Awaiting the Dawn 群鶴待曉

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