Symposium: New Frontiers in Music 2: Composers' Voices

Friday, May 13, 2005

PMP’s second panel discussion in the New Frontiers in Music series, Composers’ Voices: Crossing Disciplines and Cultures, brought together five significant composers known for their innovative, boundary-blurring projects. Moderated by Frank J. Oteri, composer and editor of NewMusicBox, the event featured Robert Ashley, Fred Ho, Tania León, Mikel Rouse, and Bright Sheng.

Each panelist was able to take a substantial portion of time to present audio-visual samples of their work, from Ashley’s 1980s opera for television, Perfect Lives (he described a future marriage between the two as “the most natural thing there is”), to Sheng’s mythological Silver River, a music theater work performed by an actress, a Chinese opera singer, a Western baritone, dancers and instrumentalists, including a pipa player. León shared a section of her cross-cultural percussion piece, Drummin’, and Ho presented his comic-book inspired “martial arts ballet” epic, Journey Beyond the West: The New Adventures of Monkey. Rouse acknowledged that Ashley’s work, including Perfect Lives, had been a direct influence on his own composition and offered video from Dennis Cleveland, perhaps the first and only talk show opera.

These extraordinarily inventive composers spoke freely about their aims and visions, often returning to the matter of place, the myth of America. Things heated up during the question and answer session over matters of fighting and dancing, but the group settled down again for a nice lunch in the Bok Room.