This performance by Li-Chin Li (sheng) with electronics is from the concert series Paradise Laboratory presented by CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing) at the White Room at CRS on June 25, 2023.
PARADISE LABORATORY is a playground for sonic and visual experimentation. Conceived of during the pandemic by the renowned Korean traditional multi-instrumentalist, curator, and scholar gamin, Paradise Laboratory provides musical artists with opportunities to rehearse, record, film, and perform with other musical, visual, and dance artists in an experimental, process-oriented, and artist-centered fashion.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Born in Taichung, Taiwan, Li-Chin Li is a Sheng soloist, composer, and performer. Majored in Chinese Music at the Tainan National University of the Arts, Li-Chin received solid training in traditional music education. After graduation, she worked for the most selective and prestige Orchestra, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra as a Sheng performer. Li-chin soon figured a nine-to-five job doesn’t’ suit her for making her own music and performing. Li-chin is known for her ability to apply Sheng to various art forms and music genres. Through her work, she is committed to exploring musicians’ subjectivity and diversity of roles in the performing arts.
In October 2021, Li-Chin took part in a six-month residency program at the esteemed Cité internationale des arts in Paris. Handpicked by the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan, she seized this opportunity to collaborate with a diverse group of talented composers and musicians residing in France, culminating with her performance in the concert “Rencontre autour du Sheng à Paris” co-presented by the Italian Cultural Centre and Taiwan Cultiral Centre in Paris at the end of her residency there. The concert garnered praise from the French national radio program, “Journal de la Création,” making a significant impact on the exchange of contemporary music between Taiwan and France, as well as elevating Taiwan’s sheng music to an international stage.
Recently, she has been selected as a member of IRCAM concert de l’atelier d’improvisation, ManiFeste-2022, and she has been guested with Ensemble LINEA and Ensemble CAIRN in 2022. Last but not least, she is a grantee of Asian Culture Council in New York 2023.
https://lichinli.art/
Composer Heng Chen was born in Taipei in 1990. He began learning the piano and violin at the age of five, and in high school, he studied composition and music theory under Prof. Hsiao Ching-Yu. He received his Bachelor's Degree in Composition at the National University of Arts, Taipei (TNUA) with Prof. Pan Hwang-Long, and later with Prof. Tsai Ling-Huei. In 2013, he moved to Paris to continue his studies at the Boulogne-Billancourt National Conservatory with Jean-Luc Hervé. He attended classes in orchestration (with Pierre Farago) and electronic-acoustic (with Yan Maresz) and obtained a Diploma of Musical Studies (Diplôme d'études musicales). He also studied composition at the Paris Conservatory (CNSMDP) under Gérard Pesson. Furthermore, he has been taught by Alberto Posadas, Beat Furrer, Bruno Mantovani, Chinary Ung, Joel Hoffman, Deqing Wen, and Kee Yong Chong at various musical academies. His musical works have been performed in Taiwan, Korea, Italy, and France.
https://soundcloud.com/chenhengtw
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
CRS (CENTER FOR REMEMBERING & SHARING) is a spiritual healing and art center founded in 2004 by the writer/lecturer/spiritual counselor Yasuko Kasaki and artist Christopher Pelham. Our mission is guided by A Course in Miracles (ACIM). ACIM says that recognizing that you and your brother are actually one is the only way to experience peace. The mission of CRS is to promote the awareness that limitless creativity lives within each of us. We train minds to recognize the light in themselves and others and provide them opportunities to share their inner vision through the healing and creative arts. Since its founding CRS has provided numerous residencies and performance and exhibition opportunities to artists from all over the world. Currently, CRS is a multi-year sponsor of M³ (Mutual Mentorship for Musicians), a platform created to empower, elevate, normalize and give visibility to women, non-binary musicians and those of other historically underrepresented gender identities in intersection with race, sexuality, or ability across generations in the US and worldwide, through a radical model of mentorship and musical collaborative commissions.
https://crsny.org
4
