New York Choral Society to Perform with The Detroit Symphony, 9/22

On Sunday, September 22, at 3:00 pm, the New York Choral Society (NYCS) will make a guest appearance with the Detroit Symphony, under the baton of internationally renowned conductor Yongyan Hu, in Avery Fisher Hall. In an evening led by Maestro Hu, the NYCS will perform the world premiere of Twilight of the Himalayas, a symphonic poem by the 2012 Guggenheim Award-winning composer Xiaogang Ye. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the New York Choral Society will premiere this work as part of a concert called Beijing Modern that will feature violinist Cho-Liang Lin, American soprano Measha Brueggergosman, and Chinese vocalists Yijie Shi and Chen-Ye Yuan.

For the creation of Twilight of the Himalayas, Ye spent several years making numerous visits to many temples and deserted ruins in Nepal and Tibet. The piece reflects the composer's observation on life and death: tolerance and kindness in longing for goodness.

The single-movement work The Last Paradise for Solo Violin and Orchestra, composed in 1993, is a picturesque musical revelation on a new era of China's rural areas. In this piece, strong ethnic and local color are perfectly blended into the moving melodies with profound philosophical implications.

The Song of the Earth, a large scaled work for solo soprano, baritone and orchestra, was created using Chinese ancient classical poetry as its lyrics. Ye's insights and ideas in creating this work are faithfully based upon the Chinese original Tang Dynasty poetry. The work has made a breakthrough in integrating ancient classical poetry with the melody of traditional Chinese opera in a novel and imaginative way. It has been performed in major cultural venues such as the Barbican Center London, Philharmonie Hall Berlin, Philharmonic Hall Munich and the San Francisco Davis Symphony Hall. This will be the US premiere of the complete work.

Xiaogang Ye is a prolific composer, having written more than one hundred scores during his career thus far.