Crossing between Canada’s new music, improvised music and world music scenes, Lan is the artistic director of the Orchid Ensemble, and at the same time a composer, and concert producer. Originally from Taiwan and trained extensively in Chinese music,Lan enjoys taking culturally specific materials outside its context, fusing together various styles.
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, Hindustani violinist Kala Ramnath in Bombay, and Egyptian violinist Dr. Alfred Gamil in Cairo. Lan has studied graphic score with Barry Guy in Switzerland and improvisation with Mary Oliver in Amsterdam. At the Vancouver Creative Music Institute (2007-2009), she has studied and performed with such luminaries as Han Bennink (Holland), Barry Guy, Evan Parker, John Butcher (UK), Francois Houle, Paul Plimley (Canada).
Lan has premiered numeours contemporary works and performed as a soloist with Orchestre Métropolitain,Symphony Nova Scotia, Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra, Nanjing Jazz Festival Orchestra at pretigious venues such as Place des Arts, the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, and Taiwan's National Concert Hall.
Lan has performed with Magpie Music & Dance Company in Amsterdam, Xu Fengxia in Germany, Hossam Shaker in Egypt, and appeared as a guest with Huun Huur Tu (Tuva), Baka Beyond (UK), Khac Chi Ensemble (Vietnam) and Bill Bourne at fesitvals across Canada. Lan also performs Proliferasian, Tandava, Birds of Paradox, and Mozaico Flamenco Dance Theatre.Lan serves as the vice president of the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra.
Erhu
Originated in Central Asia and introduced to China more than one thousand years ago, the erhu belongs to the
large family of stick fiddles that are found in many countries. The erhu is played while held on the lap. Its two
strings are tuned to a fifth, with the bow placed between them. The erhu has no fingerboard. The player places
the fingers on the strings without pressing them against the wood neck, giving the flexibility to apply different
degrees of pressure on the strings to alter the tone. The erhu is usually made of ebony, sandalwood or rosewood, with a snakeskin resonator. The folk versions vary in the shapes and materials of the sound boxes. A popular instrument in solo and ensemble music, erhu’s expressive sound resembles the human voice and is deeply rooted in the vocal traditions.
Yu-Chen Wang
Yu-Chen graduated from Taiwan's Tainan National University of the Arts , where she studied the zheng with Dong-He Ling and Hao-Yin Huang and composition with Siao-Wun Jhuang and Chao-Ming Tung.Performing with precision and astonishing technique, Yu-Chen has premiered numerous contemporary works by herself and many ground breaking composers in Asia and North America. Her compositions blend western classical and traditional Chinese music and place the zheng in ensembles of unconventional instrumentations.
Yu-Chen has appeared as a soloist with the National Chinese Orchestra, the Kaohsiung City Chinese Orchestra, and the Tainan National University Chinese Orchestra. She has performed many solo recitals and has toured in Germany with the Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra. Yu-Chen was recently a guest artist with Kansas City’s newEar contemporary chamber ensemble, UMKC Music Nova. She is a member of Compost Q, which performs improvised music across the U.S.
Yu-Chen has won numerous awards: the Gold Prize at the “Golden Lotus” International Youth Music Competition in Macau, a three-time First Prize winner at the Taiwan National Music Competition, First Prize at the Chinese Musical Instrument Association’s Competition, and the winner of the Taiwan Young Concert Artist Competition.
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 more than 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.
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. His interests span from orchestral music to contemporary chamber music to World Music. Having premiered over 70 compositions, Jonathan performs with Orchid Ensemble, Tandava, Vancouver New Music, Fringe Percussion, Turning Point Ensemble,and has performed with numerous orchestras including Vancouver, Victoria, Ottawa, National Ballet, CBC Radio Orchestras, and Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra. Jonathan is the principal percussionist with the Vancouver Island Symphony, and he has performed as soloist in Tan Dun’s Water Concerto in April 2011. He studied traditional and contemporary Chinese percussion in Beijing, Arabic percussion in Cairo, Carnatic rhythm in South India, and Flamenco compas in Spain, with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the BC Arts Council. Jonathan has toured in North America, Europe, and Japan.
photo: Nenad Stevanovic
Marimba
The marimba is a wooden keyboard percussion instrument, tuned chromatically. The modern marimba was developed by Japanese and American builders based on the Hispanic-American traditional marimba. However, marimbas originated in Africa hundreds of years ago and were imported to South America in the sixteenth century.
Modern uses of the marimba include solo performances and various chamber and orchestral settings. Contemporary composers have utilized the unique sound of the marimba more and more in recent years.
Other mallet percussion instruments similar to the marimba includes vibraphone and xylophone.
Other percussion instruments used in the ensemble include dumbek, def (frame drum), cajon (wood box shaped 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, water gong, Sichuan opera cymbals, Beijing opera gongs and cymbals, crotales, Chinese temple blocks, ban (Chinese wooden opera clapper), American wood blocks, African log drum, various shakers...etc. However, not all percussion instruments are used on tour.
