CLOUD LULLABY
For carillon and trombone
2022
5.5 minutes
Commissioned by the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America with support from the Johan Franco Composition Fund. Premiered by Joey Brink on carillon and Riley Leitch on trombone, Rockefeller Chapel, Chicago, IL, USA, June 16 2022.
Recording:
10 minutes
Commissioned by Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra and the Canada Council for the Arts. Premiered by the principal woodwind quintet of National Arts Centre Orchestra, Fourth Stage at the National Arts Centre, Ottawa, Canada, Nov 16 2021.
“NACO at the Fourth presents the world premiere of Alison Yun-Fei Jiang’s Stray Birds, a two-fold musical flight evoking birds taking wing and the impact of Covid-19 on people who were forced to stay or return home.”
Click HERE for the video recording of world premiere. The piece starts from17:30 to 34:30.
STRAY BIRDS
For woodwind quintet
2021
10 minutes
Commissioned by Pathos Trio with support from New Music USA. Premiered by Pathos Trio, Areté Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, USA, Feb 28 2020.
Inspired by visits to cathedral spaces, Prayer Variations is a theme and variations based on a simple, prayer-like melody. Over time, the original prayer melody is varied and transformed. Music unfolds into a sonic experience in motion, journeying through an imaginary, sonorous, and vertical spatial entity.
Music video:
PRAYER VARIATIONS
For piano and percussion
2020
temporal
For chamber ensemble
2019
For chamber ensemble (fl, ob, cl, bn, hn, tpt, tbn, perc, hp, 2vn, va, vc, cb)
7 minutes
Commissioned by Esprit Orchestra as part of its New Wave Reprise festival. Premiered by members of Esprit Orchestra, guest-conducted by Alison Yun-Fei Jiang at the Trinity St. Paul’s Centre for Faith, Justice and the Arts, Toronto, Canada, April 5 2019.
By cycling and recapitulating melodies and sounds, the work evokes a fragile dream-like state, where the perception of time, events and memories is fragmented.
SOUNDBITE recording (excerpt):
SOUNDBITE INSIGHT: interview on Temporal with Alex Pauk, music director of Esprit Orchestra
WINTER MUSIC
For chamber ensemble
2019
For chamber ensemble (fl, ob, cl doubling bass, baritone sax, hn, 2 perc, hp, pno, 2vn, va, vc)
8 minutes
Commissioned by the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition. Premiered by Grossman Ensemble, guest-conducted by Michael Lewanski in the performance hall at Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, Chicago, IL, USA, Dec 6 2019.
Inspired by Canadian winter, Winter Music is a musical meditation on winter sceneries set in three movements: Snowfall, Footprints, and Prayers.
in absent waters
For piano quintet
2018
10.5 minutes
Commissioned by the inaugural Graham Sommer Competition for Young Composers. Premiered by Sara Laimon and the Molinari Quartet in Pollack Hall, McGill University, Montréal, Canada, Sep 29 2018.
The work is a farewell letter and an elegy to a traveler embarking on a different journey. Written in memory of Peter Longworth.
Video of full performance:
on light and birds
For woodwind quintet
2017
8.5 minutes
Commissioned by the University of Chicago music department for the Imani Winds. Premiered by Imani Winds at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, Chicago, IL, USA, May 12 2018.
Inspired by Elizabeth Jennings’ poem Bird Sunrise in Winter, the quintet was imagined as a flock. Music takes on a flight with free, fluctuating, sometimes unified, and sometimes chaotic movements — movements of lights and shadows, of moments and memories, and of an invincible and vigorous vitality within all living creatures.
Full recording:
birds, reincarnate
For string quartet
2016
8 minutes
Premiered by JACK Quartet at Provincetown Playhouse, New York, NY, USA, April 24 2016.
The work resulted from my own contemplations and experiences on the matter of immigration. At the time I was writing this work I was also strongly inspired and moved by the Korean poet Ko Un’s poem called Letters, which I randomly stumbled upon. The poet’s uses of imagery and metaphor were extremely moving, beautiful yet cruel. Below is an excerpt from the poem that struck me the most:
When birds take off by mistake, death resonates all around.
I will reach where the birds call
And receive letters in that high sky.
Birds fall from the sky for me, they die. Such is the life of the lark.
It is certain that in finished works lie the unfinished.
So finally, reincarnate birds weep in glistening letters.
Full recording: