Asian American
Composers Project
Juxtapositions, April 2022
Jennifer Lien, soprano
Nicholas Susi, piano
Images of Asia have long sparked the European musical imagination. Musical Orientalism, with its descriptions of exotic landscapes and fetishized female figures, found a ready and receptive audience during the era of European imperialism and colonization that peaked during the two World Wars. These stereotypes of otherness and the Eastern feminine ideal remain in the general Western imagination today. In this recital, Lien and Susi juxtapose examples of French and British musical Orientalism with contemporary works by Asian American women composers, ending with a coda of songs by composers from Southeast Asia. Composers include Maurice Delage, Amy Woodforde-Finden, Kamala Sankaram, and Melissa Dunphy. Performed at The College of St. Scholastica, April 1, 2022.
Juxtapositions on tour in North Carolina, 2023–2024
October 24, 2023, Wake Forest University
March 13, 2024, Elon University
with Douglas Jurs, piano
Commissions Project, 2024
Soprano Jennifer Lien has received a fiscal year 2024 Creative Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board to co-commission three song cycles from three Asian American composers to Asian American texts, and to embark on a recital tour in Minnesota. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage fund.
For more, watch this space!
