Going beyond music

Du Yun visits her hometown, Shanghai, recently to participate in the cross-disciplinary art event, the Shanghai Project. [Photo provided to China Daily]

"You get a clear picture about the serious problem through news reporting with statistics listed on a excel table. And yet a theater experience about it may leave a deeper impact in your mind."

Explaining why she uses the show to focus on the issue, she says that art is the opposite of strict doctrines or hard and loud slogans. It is something "that is soft, full of imagination and lasts very long".

Yet Du is not eager to bring this award-winning piece to audiences in Shanghai but is keen to introduce herself to China's art scene as a versatile musician.

So far, she has been commissioned by such orchestras as the Seattle Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia and the Whitney Museum of American Art. And her music has been presented by the Festival d'Avignon in France and the Musica Nova Helsinki in Finland.

Besides, she has a strong and wide composition portfolio, ranging from classical instrumental pieces and world music to theater, film music and a pop album.

She is also working with Stan Lai Sheng-chuan and his Performance Workshop studio to compose music for a musical called Dim Sum Warriors, meant for a young audience.

The play, based on a graphic novel series created by Colin Goh and Yen Yen Woo, is scheduled to premiere at The Theater Above in Shanghai in August.

In some parts of the musical, Du will adopt the style of traditional Chinese kuaiban, a rap-like performance that combines storytelling with rhythmic music.

Meanwhile, Du plans to compose a symphony for refugees as well as create a music project combining visual presentations of antique Chinese New Year paintings, a folk craft that's hundreds of years old.

Du says that artists need to come "down to earth", and "whatever society cares about, whatever your parents and grandparents are concerned with, you should pay attention to".

Du, who attended the Shanghai Conservatory of Music before moving to the United States in 1997, displayed a passion for music at age 4, when she pressed her father into buying her a piano with money inherited from her grandparents.

But when her teachers felt that Du's tiny hands were not suitable for a career in piano, Du was introduced to Deng Erbo of the middle school attached to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and started to learn composition.

Today, she would not recommend studying the methodology of music composition at a young age, but adds: "It is important to nurture creativity in a young child."

Contact the writer at zhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn