sop
A companion to Yi Nuo Cheng's poetry collection, sop

Album: sop
Music & Mixing: Vivian Kwok
Piano: Vivian Kwok
Cello: Nicholas Yee
© 2021 Vivian Kwok

nectar
Know that joy is rarer, more difficult, and more beautiful than sadness. Once you make this all-important discovery, you must embrace joy as a moral obligation.
(Andre Gide)

nectar

sop
A companion to Yi Nuo Cheng's poetry collection, sop

Album: sop
Music & Mixing: Vivian Kwok
Piano: Vivian Kwok
Cello: Nicholas Yee
© 2021 Vivian Kwok

ichor 
You might see nothing in him. I see everything in him. He is never more present in my work than when no image of him is there. He is a suggestion, as I have said, of a new manner. I find him in the curves of certain lines, in the loveliness and subtleties of certain colours. That is all.
(Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray)

ichor

sop
A companion to Yi Nuo Cheng's poetry collection, sop

Album: sop
Music & Mixing: Vivian Kwok
Piano: Vivian Kwok
Cello: Nicholas Yee
© 2021 Vivian Kwok

turpentine
Every one of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That’s part of what it means to be alive.
(Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore)

turpentine

sop
A companion to Yi Nuo Cheng's poetry collection, sop

Album: sop
Music & Mixing: Vivian Kwok
Piano: Vivian Kwok
Cello: Nicholas Yee
© 2021 Vivian Kwok

water
the light is no mystery,
the mystery is that there is something to keep the light
from passing through
(Richard Siken, Crush)

water

Edge
For piano
Written by Vivian Kwok
Performed by Vivian Kwok
Audio by Fish Yu
Recorded at the Electronic Music Studio, Faculty of Music, University of Toronto

Program note: 
This piece was written specifically for my fourth-year recital because I want to bring an edge to the program. It is a celebration of my time at the University of Toronto, and it symbolizes my identity which lies between the old and the new, the East and the West, Classical and Pop, and between reminiscence and looking forward.

Copyright © 2022 Vivian Kwok

Edge

Distant
For mezzo-soprano and piano
Written by Vivian Kwok
Text by Vivian Kwok
Performed by Alex Hetherington (mezzo-soprano) and Geoffrey Conquer (piano)
Recorded and edited by Fish Yu
Recorded at the Electronic Music Studio, Faculty of Music, University of Toronto

Program note: 
Distant was an internal dialogue I frequently had with myself in the heat of the Hong  Kong protests that began in mid-2019, which were triggered by the introduction of the Fugitive Offenders amendment bill, and evolved into a continuation of the public appeal for democracy that has been ongoing since the early 2000s. As a Canadian immigrant who had spent her first 13 years in this city, I felt deeply connected to the issue, yet utterly powerless and physically detached from this place. Due to censorship and countless opposing reports online, I did not know who to trust and who to identify as amidst the conflict. 

However, I cannot deny that many were injured and abused during these demonstrations. I cannot deny that my friends and my family’s safety were jeopardized by both police and protestors’ violence. And ultimately, I cannot deny that the Hong Kong government has been disregarding the millions of voices that have spoken. As I continue to search for my role amidst this conflict, I hope to share a piece of my identity with you and empathize with those who are in a similar situation as I am.

This song quotes three melodies popularly used in the protests: the beginning is Hong Kong rock band Beyond’s “Under a Vast Sky” (海闊天空), painting the context of the protests back in 2014; next is “Do You Hear the People Sing?” from the musical Les Misérables; concluding the song is “Glory to Hong Kong,” written by a musician under the pseudonym “Thomas dgx yhl,” looking forward to a brighter future for all.

Text: 
[Distant]
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KFpEQZD-QluSbqkLnpzXmmzTn_7SEZbV/view?usp=sharing

Distant

Disobedience
2022 Student Composers' Production for the UofT Opera
Full production premiering on January 22, 2023
MacMillan Theatre, University of Toronto

Overture
For mixed chamber ensemble
Written by Vivian Kwok
Conducted by Vivian Kwok
Recorded in Boyd Neel Room, Faculty of Music, University of Toronto

Ensemble credits
Percussion: Amiel Ang
Piano: Benjamin Kersey
Violin I: Raphael Salonga
Violin II: Jess Ng
Viola: Richard Cao
Cello: Erik Kreem
Bass: Adrian Lo

Copyright © 2022 Vivian Kwok

Overture from Disobedience

Renewal
For mixed chamber ensemble
Written by Vivian Kwok
Conducted by Vivian Kwok
Premiered at Changing Landscapes, a Green Room Music concert
Recorded in Geiger Torel Room, Faculty of Music, University of Toronto

Changing Landscapes
Green Room Sound Collective
Online chamber music concert
Full concert link:
https://youtu.be/gDLzw1Uv61U

Program note: 
Interruption, isolation, languishing, reunion – joy renewed after two years of monotony.

Ensemble credits
Flute: Melody Li
Oboe: Jonah Nung
Clarinet: Rowyn Campbell
French Horn: Chun Yu Tam
Percussion: Sam Kerr
Harp: Christina Kant
Piano: Hillary Chu
Violin I: May Yu
Violin II: Jess Ng
Viola: Shreya Jha
Cello: Erik Kreem

Copyright © 2022 Vivian Kwok

Renewal

Six Miniatures for Violin and Baritone Saxophone
Written by Vivian Kwok
Performed by Vivian Kwok (violin) and Ben Rositsan (baritone saxophone)
Recorded during XXII Collective's Eine Kleine Ernstmusik concert, at the University of Toronto
This recording is an excerpt of the piece, including movements I, III, and VI.

Program note: 
The Six Miniatures for Violin and Baritone Saxophone are impressions of scenes, objects, or moods, each exploring a different texture and sound world created by this uncommon instrumentation. Between and within each movement, contrasts are constantly created through varying register, fullness of tone, dynamics, rhythmic activity, and the timbre of the instruments. This work is also a personal composition challenge to do more with less. Using only six pitches in the first movement, each successive movement reduces the number of pitches used by one, eventually arriving at only using one pitch in the end. 

Movements:
I.	Time
II.	Clouds
III.	Waves
IV.	Dance
V.	Symmetry
VI.	Adrenaline

Copyright © 2019 Vivian Kwok

Six Miniatures for Violin and Baritone Saxophone

Highs and Lows
Words and Music by Aodhan King, Ben Tan & Joel Houston
Copyright © 2018 Hillsong Music Publishing

Psalm 139:7-12
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

Lyrics:
When it feels like the dark 
Lingers longer than the night 
When the shadows feel like giants 
Are You chasing me down?
Tell me where could I run?
From Your light, where could I hide?
Hemmed within Your precious thoughts
There's no hiding from You love

Highs and lows
Lord, You're with me either way it goes
Should I rise or should I fall
Even so, Lord Your mercy is an even flow
You're too good to let me go
 
Should I dance on the heights
Or make my bed among the depths
Your mercy waits at every end
Like You planned it from the start
Should the dawn come with wings
Or find me far side of the sea
There Your hand still fastens me
Even closer to Your heart
 
Highs and Lows 
Lord, You're with me either way it goes
Should I rise or should I fall 
Even so, Lord Your mercy is an even flow
Should I rise or should I fall 
You are faithful through it all 
You're too good to let me go 

Highs and lows 
You surround me either way it goes
Should I rise or should I fall 
Lord You're with me through it all 
Highs and lows 
In the rhythms of Your grace I know
Should I rise or should I fall 
You are faithful though it all 
You're too good to let me go

Highs And Lows (Hillsong Young & Free Cover)

Playing piano and writing music at the University of Toronto. Thanks for stopping by!

Vivian Kwok

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