THE MUSICIANS
Lan Tung
photo: PeopleShots
Lan Tung Click Here for Lan's Profile

Lan crosses the lines between classical, contemporary, folk, blues and various ethnic styles, such as Indian, Celtic and Middle Eastern, to expand the horizons of the erhu. Lan has performed with Huun Huur Tu (Tuva), Baka Beyond (UK), Khac Chi Ensemble (Vietnam) and Hossam Shaker (Egypt) and shared the stage with many Vancouver's innovative improvisers, such as Ron Samworth and Coat Cooke. She is a member of Vancouver world music ensemble Tandava, and she has premiered numerous compositions by Canadian and US composers. Trained at Taiwan's Chinese Cultural University, Lan went on to study with erhu virtuosi Jiebing Chen in San Francisco and Zhang Funming in Beijing, with Hindustani violinist Kala Ramnath in Bombay and Egyptian violinist Dr. Alfred Gamil in Cairo. The various influences are evident in Lan's compositions and music arrangements. Lan started classical voice training since she was 12, and she continued at Capilano College and with Joseph Shore in Vancouver. A concert producer and arts administrator, Lan also serves as a board director of the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra.

Erhu   

Introduced to China more than one thousand years ago, the erhu is a two-string stick fiddle that is played while held on the lap. The strings are tuned to a fifth, with the bow placed between them. The erhu has no finger board. The player places the fingers on the strings without pressing them against the wood neck. The folk versions of the erhu vary in the shapes and materials of the sound boxes. The erhu is usually made of sandalwood or red wood, with a snake skin resonator. A popular instrument in solo and ensemble music, its expressive sounds resemble the human voice.


Gelina
Gelina Jiang

Multi-instrumentalist Gelina performs on a wide range of Chinese traditional instruments, including zheng, ruan, yuetqin, pipa, jinhu and jin-erhu. For 20 years she performed with the famous Hubei Chime Ensemble, that performs on reproductions of ancient Chinese court instruments. In 2000, Gelina was a visiting artist at the Smithsonian Institution – Sackler Gallery, representing the Hubei Provincial Museum. In 1992, Gelina formed her chamber ensemble, the Wuhan Women’s Plucked Instruments Ensemble. At Hubei Conservatory of Beijing Opera, she studied various instruments in folk and operatic styles. After graduation, she entered Wuhan Conservatory of Music to study classical Chinese music.  She has toured in the United States, Japan and Singapore, and recorded for film, TV and radio. Since arriving to Canada in 2004, Gelina has become an active performer in Chinese orchestral and chamber ensembles.

photo: PeopleShots

Zheng

The zheng is a plucked half-tube wood zither with movable bridges, over which a number of strings are stretched. The parent instrument of the Asian long zither family, the history of the zheng can be traced back to 2500 years ago. While the ancient zheng had 12 or 13 silk strings, modern instruments usually have 16, 21 or 25 strings, constructed of metal, or steel wound with nylon. It is traditionally tuned to an anhemitonic pentatonic scale, but many modern scales range from combinations of different pentatonic scales, to diatonic and semi-chromatic scales.


Lan Tung
Jonathan Bernard  

Jonathan combines his background in western percussion with a fascination for Asian traditions to create a unique sound palette incorporating a myriad of instruments, techniques and styles. Jonathan's interests span numerous genres from orchestral music to New Music, and World Music. Having premiered over fifty chamber works, Jonathan regularly performs with the Orchid Ensemble, Vancouver New Music, Four Gallon Drum, Ensemble Symposium, and numerous orchestras including Vancouver, Victoria, National Ballet and CBC Radio Orchestras. He is currently the principal percussionist with the Vancouver Island Symphony. Jonathan's interest in World Music has led him to perform Chinese, Javanese, Balinese and Korean music and study traditional and contemporary Chinese percussion in Beijing, China. Jonathan has toured throughout North America, Europe and Japan.

photo: PeopleShots

 

Marimba

The marimba is a wooden keyboard percussion instrument, tuned chromatically. Having roots in the Africa balophone via the Central American marimba, it is now found in ensembles throughout the world, in both folk music and on the concert stage.


Other percussion instruments used include: dumbek, def (frame drum), pai-gu (set of 5 Chinese tuned drums), udu (Nigerian percussion pot), Tibetan bells, zils (Egyptian finger cymbals), Turkish bells, kempul (Javanese gamelan gongs), Buddhist temple bowls, Chinese wind gong, Sichuan opera cymbals, Beijing opera gongs and cymbals, crotales, Chinese temple blocks, ban (Chinese wooden opera clapper), American wood blocks, African log drum.