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Felix Fan The Symphony’s education activities include specially programmed youth concerts – KinderKonzerts and Felix Fan’s versatility has made him one of the most sought after cellists in classical Young People’s Concerts – performed in the Lyric Theatre, as well as workshops for high school students. Other and contemporary music, as well as improvisatory and rock & roll. As a chamber regular activities include open rehearsals, instrument “petting zoos” at concerts and in schools, and a new program musician, Fan has performed and recorded with the likes of Janos Starker, Yo-Yo Ma, of partnerships with area schools where the KCS performs benefit concerts with all proceeds going to support Gil Shaham and Cho- Liang Lin. His recent solo engagements include the San Diego, music education programs at those schools. The Symphony’s various education programs reach an estimated Pacific and Kansas City Symphonies under Jah- Jah Ling and Michael Stern, as well as 18,000 young people each year. Taiwan’s National Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic with composer Tan Dun. While studying in Germany, Fan was introduced to the foremost Gordon Shi-Wen contemporary composers of Europe, subsequently leading to collaborations with Hans Michael Stern

Werner Henze, Oliver Knussen and Kaija Saariaho, performing in venues such as In 2005 Michael Stern began his tenure as music director of the Kansas City Regnier Photo:Michael Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Royal Festival Hall and the Musikverein. Symphony. Stern is also the founding music director of the acclaimed Iris In 1998, Fan founded the Muzik3 festival in La Jolla, CA, a performance series Orchestra, dedicated to revitalizing all aspects of the concert experience with CHIN dedicated to the advancement of modern music, theater, video and dance. Muzik3’s special emphasis on American contemporary music. Worldwide guest engagements influence on Fan was significant, as it led to innovative projects with musicians Sam have included the major orchestras throughout Europe, Asia, and North America. Rivers and Jonas Hellborg, as well as the birth of Real Quiet, a trio consisting of Fan, He is a regular visitor to the Aspen Music Festival. Until 2000 Michael Stern was David Cossin (percussion) and Andrew Russo (piano). Having worked together on chief conductor of Germany’s Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra, the first previous projects with George Crumb, Philip Glass, David Lang, Terry Riley and the American to hold that post. He was for four years the permanent guest conductor of Double Concerto Bang on a Can All-Stars, Real Quiet has emerged as a group serious about shaping the future of music. the Orchestre National de Lyon in France, and with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra Fan’s interests have also taken him from film to theater to dance. In 2005, he performed a series of radio plays he has recorded works by Stravinsky as well as Prokofiev’s Violin Concertos with written by acclaimed screenwriters Charlie Kaufman and the Coen Brothers, starring actors Steve Buscemi, John Boris Belkin. From 1986 to 1991 he was assistant conductor of the Cleveland for Violin and Cello Goodman, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Meryl Streep. In the same year, Fan collaborated with choreographer Orchestra. He has appeared with major orchestras throughout Europe and the Karole Armitage on her latest work In this Dream That Dogs Me with music by Annie Gosfield. United States, as well as in the Far East. He studied at the Curtis Institute with Max Fan studied cello with Eleanore Schoenfeld (University of Southern California), Janos Starker (Indiana Rudolf, whose textbook, The Grammar of Conducting, he co-edited for its third University), Aldo Parisot (Yale University) and Boris Pergamenchikow (Hochschule Für Musik, Cologne, edition. He also edited a new volume of Rudolf’s collected articles and letters, published by Pendragon Press. A Formosa Seasons Germany). In 1994, Fan was honored by President Clinton as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. graduate of Harvard University, Michael Stern earned a degree in American History in 1981. for Violin and Kansas City Symphony The Kansas City Symphony (KCS) was founded by R. Crosby Kemper, Jr., in 1982, just months after the Strings dissolution of the Kansas City Philharmonic. Today, the KCS is a major force in the cultural life of Kansas City and the region. Now under the dynamic leadership of acclaimed music director Michael Stern, the Kansas City Symphony has experienced impressive artistic growth through its history and under the batons of Russell Patterson (1982-1986), William McGlaughlin (1986-1997), and Anne Manson (1998-2003). Damon Gupton, assistant conductor, conducts Cho-Liang Lin, Violin the Family Series and Symphony Pops. The Kansas City Symphony serves a metropolitan population of 1.8 million people. The orchestra’s 80 full- time musicians are area residents and vital contributors to the artistic life of Kansas City. During its forty-two week Felix Fan, Cello season, the Symphony performs a wide variety of subscription, educational, touring, and outreach concerts. In addition, the KCS performs for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and the Kansas City Ballet. The Kansas City Symphony is governed by a board of trustees under the leadership of Board President Shirley Kansas City Bush Helzberg and is administered by a full-time professional staff. In addition, the KCS benefits from the dedicated efforts of its volunteer associations. The Symphony’s seven auxiliaries, with total membership nearing 650, raise Symphony approximately $700,000 annually, making it one of the most successful orchestra volunteer forces in the nation. Michael Stern 8.570221 5 6 8.570221 570221bk Chin 15/12/06 10:18 am Page 2

Gordon Shi-Wen Chin (b.1957) intensity of the yearning. Since the tempo is almost Girl sits on a bamboo chair ‘impulse’—the exuberance of young artists coming to at its première in San Diego. I am most impressed with Formosa Seasons – Concerto for Violin and Strings always changing, it is very unsettled. The movement the medium. In a way I am returning to the primitive their warmth and their genuine love for music. This starts with a slow tempo, and always works its way back Listening to the crickets instinct in my composition, relying on heart and ears to concerto was also funded in part by the Taiwan Double Concerto for Violin and Cello to the original tempo between and after two large scale engage in the process of imaging new patterns and National Culture and Arts Foundation. The dedication Gordon Chin was born in 1957 in Taiwan, and is among the most active composers in his native country. His accelerations. Formosa Seasons was commissioned by 2nd Movement: Autumn making sense of these patterns. To determine the to Cho-Liang Lin is a tribute to his incredible musical compositions include four Symphonies, a Cantata, Violin Concerto, Piano Concerto, numerous choral works, Joan and Irwin Jacobs (Founder of Qualcomm) and meaning of music, especially new music, I think one gifts, his enthusiasm for new music, and his inspiration, chamber works, five percussion quartets, and works for solo instruments. He has a DMA degree from the Eastman dedicated to Cho-Liang Lin. The original idea of the Returning from a mountain hike with must strip off unnecessary gestures, extravagant outer without which this work would not have been possible. School of Music, where he studied with Samuel Adler and Christopher Rouse, and serves as music director of the Yin- piece came about five years ago, when Cho-Liang Lin A lonely wild flower, that recaptures shells, and return to the essentials with confidence. Qi Chorus and Symphony Orchestra in Taipei, where he is a faculty member of Taiwan National Normal University. asked me to write a concerto for violin and strings that A song collected in childhood, made me I recall with gratitude my meeting with Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Chin’s works have been performed worldwide by ensembles such as the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the could be performed without a conductor. Lin wanted to Gaze backward and listen Irwin Jacobs, who graciously commissioned the work, Gordon Chin Asia Pacific Orchestra in Los Angeles, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, the Yuodia Chorus and Orchestra in include the piece in a programme with Vivaldi’s Four To the decayed wilderness Tokyo, Ensemble 2e2m of France, and the Amadinda Percussion Group of Hungary, among many others. Seasons. Well, there had been quite a few performances of Formosa Seasons since it was completed, but there An intense shrill tails after tenderness Cho-Liang Lin was only one occasion when Cho-Liang Lin appeared Tramples into the heart Cho-Liang Lin is a violinist whose career has spanned the globe for 27 years. He was born Composer’s Note of one person or a brief documentation in that debate with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra that Formosa Abruptly in Taiwan in 1960 and began playing the violin at the age of five. He went on to study in Commissioned by Mr. and Mrs. Chris Fan and Ms. Judy between the body and the soul. In both A parts, a brief Seasons was actually paired with Vivaldi’s Four Sydney and New York City where he was a student of Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard Lee and completed in 2002, my Double Concerto was and unstable state of peace/compromise is expressed, Seasons. 3rd Movement: Winter School. Since his début at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival at the age of nineteen, especially written for the violinist Cho-Liang Lin and and in the B part conflict is magnified. Formosa Seasons is based on a set of poems that I he has appeared with virtually every major orchestra in the world, including the Boston cellist Felix Fan. There are four movements to the A Flowering Sacrifice: When flowers wither and wrote under the same title. Except the ‘summer’, which In the wind Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony, concerto. Each movement has an appropriate title scatter on the ground, the earth becomes an altar. To is my own childhood remembrance in my hometown Withered leaves tremble with men Philadelphia Orchestra and New York Philharmonic. He has over twenty recordings to his inherently tied to the music. The integrity of the music atone for the pain of losing oneself, not unlike that of Dou-Liu, in Yun-Lin County, Taiwan, the other three The afterglow of Mt. Datum credit, ranging from the concertos of Mozart, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, and Prokofiev, to is perhaps accomplished more through an establishment the alchemist, for all our expenditure of physical and poems are reflections on the short trips my family took Cooled, and hardened into a Christopher Rouse and Tan Dun, as well as the chamber music of Schubert, Brahms, of emotional connection than analytical cohesion. To emotional energy, we are left with nothing but piercing to the National Yang-Ming Park in Taiwan. These Sickle that slashes across the Tchaikovsky and Ravel. His recording partners include Yefim Bronfman, Yo-Yo Ma, clarify, I should like to draw a parallel between music pain. With the sin of false promises and further poems are depictions of the time my family shared Fading coastline Wynton Marsalis, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas and Isaac and poetry. In his 1973 article The Anxiety of Influence, deception, we continue to witness the flowering throughout the changing of the seasons. I could Leaves behind Stern. His recordings have been critically acclaimed, winning several Grammy John Hollander said literary critic Harold Bloom’s sacrifice until the day we are united with the flowers on remember the sound of the wind, and the smell of the A single nominations and The Gramophone’s Record of the Year award. He has been a member of interest has never been in the formalist study of poetic the altar. trees; I can easily recall the beauty of the twilight, the the Juilliard School faculty since 1991. He is also the music director of La Jolla SummerFest in California. His language and structure. “In all the years I have known In Expectation: This movement has a style of a intense loneliness in gazing at it, the joyful laughter of Darkened homeward road recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is available on Naxos 8.557920. him (Bloom),” Hollander observed, “ he has responded Rondo. Rhythm is crisp, musical phrases are easy my children, and their for ever happy footsteps. My to and worked with what we might call the deep going, and the tempo is fast-moving. Life is full of joys, children’s enthusiastic embrace of nature, their 4th Movement: Spring structure of poetry, with intentions, impulses, even if it is only serendipitous. For some it is nothing childhood and time has always served as a source of envisionings and desires, rather than with the linguistic but a vain bubble, for others the elixir vitae does exist. comfort and inspiration to me. Skipping, skipping surface, which for most of us — poets and critics and Yearning: A Sweet Torture: “It is that of an The first movement is ‘Summer’ and not ‘Spring’, Children’s dancing steps follow the swinging readers alike — is all there is to talk about.” The “deep unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than mostly because I do not want the work to culminate in Rhythms of cherry flowers structure” Hollander pointed to is the kind of emotional any other satisfaction.” I thought quoting C.S. Lewis the nostalgic elements that come with ‘Winter.’ Below Naughty with childish sound connection that I alluded to, the kind of connection to should be the best way to explain the title of this is the translation from Chinese to English of each be realised by not only analytical and structural designs, movement. Unlike Love Alchymie, which ignored the season. The sky is running, like but also, more importantly, underlying emotions and discrepancy between his expectations and actuality, Dreams spirits of the human heart. For that, the connectedness C.S. Lewis thinks the form of the desired is in the 1st Movement: Summer can only be made when the composer, performers, and desire. C.S. Lewis is talking about joy, and since it is of As not-so-young a composer, I think finally that listeners alike experience the same level of emotion. an “unsatisfied desire”, to use it to explain “a sweet Southern wind blows the wild grass off the road most of the elements of showboating are dismissed in Drifting Shadow: This movement has an A-B-A torture” should be appropriate. Musically I use An old house sank into slumber beside a tree my works. As the poet Robert Hass described poems of structure. Two soloists represent conflicting mind-sets accelerated tempo to symbolize an ever increasing An ice-bar selling Bishop and Schuyler, I hope I am also beyond that

8.570221 2 3 8.570221 4 8.570221 570221bk Chin 15/12/06 10:18 am Page 2

Gordon Shi-Wen Chin (b.1957) intensity of the yearning. Since the tempo is almost Girl sits on a bamboo chair ‘impulse’—the exuberance of young artists coming to at its première in San Diego. I am most impressed with Formosa Seasons – Concerto for Violin and Strings always changing, it is very unsettled. The movement the medium. In a way I am returning to the primitive their warmth and their genuine love for music. This starts with a slow tempo, and always works its way back Listening to the crickets instinct in my composition, relying on heart and ears to concerto was also funded in part by the Taiwan Double Concerto for Violin and Cello to the original tempo between and after two large scale engage in the process of imaging new patterns and National Culture and Arts Foundation. The dedication Gordon Chin was born in 1957 in Taiwan, and is among the most active composers in his native country. His accelerations. Formosa Seasons was commissioned by 2nd Movement: Autumn making sense of these patterns. To determine the to Cho-Liang Lin is a tribute to his incredible musical compositions include four Symphonies, a Cantata, Violin Concerto, Piano Concerto, numerous choral works, Joan and Irwin Jacobs (Founder of Qualcomm) and meaning of music, especially new music, I think one gifts, his enthusiasm for new music, and his inspiration, chamber works, five percussion quartets, and works for solo instruments. He has a DMA degree from the Eastman dedicated to Cho-Liang Lin. The original idea of the Returning from a mountain hike with must strip off unnecessary gestures, extravagant outer without which this work would not have been possible. School of Music, where he studied with Samuel Adler and Christopher Rouse, and serves as music director of the Yin- piece came about five years ago, when Cho-Liang Lin A lonely wild flower, that recaptures shells, and return to the essentials with confidence. Qi Chorus and Symphony Orchestra in Taipei, where he is a faculty member of Taiwan National Normal University. asked me to write a concerto for violin and strings that A song collected in childhood, made me I recall with gratitude my meeting with Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Chin’s works have been performed worldwide by ensembles such as the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the could be performed without a conductor. Lin wanted to Gaze backward and listen Irwin Jacobs, who graciously commissioned the work, Gordon Chin Asia Pacific Orchestra in Los Angeles, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, the Yuodia Chorus and Orchestra in include the piece in a programme with Vivaldi’s Four To the decayed wilderness Tokyo, Ensemble 2e2m of France, and the Amadinda Percussion Group of Hungary, among many others. Seasons. Well, there had been quite a few performances of Formosa Seasons since it was completed, but there An intense shrill tails after tenderness Cho-Liang Lin was only one occasion when Cho-Liang Lin appeared Tramples into the heart Cho-Liang Lin is a violinist whose career has spanned the globe for 27 years. He was born Composer’s Note of one person or a brief documentation in that debate with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra that Formosa Abruptly in Taiwan in 1960 and began playing the violin at the age of five. He went on to study in Commissioned by Mr. and Mrs. Chris Fan and Ms. Judy between the body and the soul. In both A parts, a brief Seasons was actually paired with Vivaldi’s Four Sydney and New York City where he was a student of Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard Lee and completed in 2002, my Double Concerto was and unstable state of peace/compromise is expressed, Seasons. 3rd Movement: Winter School. Since his début at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival at the age of nineteen, especially written for the violinist Cho-Liang Lin and and in the B part conflict is magnified. Formosa Seasons is based on a set of poems that I he has appeared with virtually every major orchestra in the world, including the Boston cellist Felix Fan. There are four movements to the A Flowering Sacrifice: When flowers wither and wrote under the same title. Except the ‘summer’, which In the wind Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony, concerto. Each movement has an appropriate title scatter on the ground, the earth becomes an altar. To is my own childhood remembrance in my hometown Withered leaves tremble with men Philadelphia Orchestra and New York Philharmonic. He has over twenty recordings to his inherently tied to the music. The integrity of the music atone for the pain of losing oneself, not unlike that of Dou-Liu, in Yun-Lin County, Taiwan, the other three The afterglow of Mt. Datum credit, ranging from the concertos of Mozart, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, and Prokofiev, to is perhaps accomplished more through an establishment the alchemist, for all our expenditure of physical and poems are reflections on the short trips my family took Cooled, and hardened into a Christopher Rouse and Tan Dun, as well as the chamber music of Schubert, Brahms, of emotional connection than analytical cohesion. To emotional energy, we are left with nothing but piercing to the National Yang-Ming Park in Taiwan. These Sickle that slashes across the Tchaikovsky and Ravel. His recording partners include Yefim Bronfman, Yo-Yo Ma, clarify, I should like to draw a parallel between music pain. With the sin of false promises and further poems are depictions of the time my family shared Fading coastline Wynton Marsalis, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas and Isaac and poetry. In his 1973 article The Anxiety of Influence, deception, we continue to witness the flowering throughout the changing of the seasons. I could Leaves behind Stern. His recordings have been critically acclaimed, winning several Grammy John Hollander said literary critic Harold Bloom’s sacrifice until the day we are united with the flowers on remember the sound of the wind, and the smell of the A single nominations and The Gramophone’s Record of the Year award. He has been a member of interest has never been in the formalist study of poetic the altar. trees; I can easily recall the beauty of the twilight, the the Juilliard School faculty since 1991. He is also the music director of La Jolla SummerFest in California. His language and structure. “In all the years I have known In Expectation: This movement has a style of a intense loneliness in gazing at it, the joyful laughter of Darkened homeward road recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is available on Naxos 8.557920. him (Bloom),” Hollander observed, “ he has responded Rondo. Rhythm is crisp, musical phrases are easy my children, and their for ever happy footsteps. My to and worked with what we might call the deep going, and the tempo is fast-moving. Life is full of joys, children’s enthusiastic embrace of nature, their 4th Movement: Spring structure of poetry, with intentions, impulses, even if it is only serendipitous. For some it is nothing childhood and time has always served as a source of envisionings and desires, rather than with the linguistic but a vain bubble, for others the elixir vitae does exist. comfort and inspiration to me. Skipping, skipping surface, which for most of us — poets and critics and Yearning: A Sweet Torture: “It is that of an The first movement is ‘Summer’ and not ‘Spring’, Children’s dancing steps follow the swinging readers alike — is all there is to talk about.” The “deep unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than mostly because I do not want the work to culminate in Rhythms of cherry flowers structure” Hollander pointed to is the kind of emotional any other satisfaction.” I thought quoting C.S. Lewis the nostalgic elements that come with ‘Winter.’ Below Naughty with childish sound connection that I alluded to, the kind of connection to should be the best way to explain the title of this is the translation from Chinese to English of each be realised by not only analytical and structural designs, movement. Unlike Love Alchymie, which ignored the season. The sky is running, like but also, more importantly, underlying emotions and discrepancy between his expectations and actuality, Dreams spirits of the human heart. For that, the connectedness C.S. Lewis thinks the form of the desired is in the 1st Movement: Summer can only be made when the composer, performers, and desire. C.S. Lewis is talking about joy, and since it is of As not-so-young a composer, I think finally that listeners alike experience the same level of emotion. an “unsatisfied desire”, to use it to explain “a sweet Southern wind blows the wild grass off the road most of the elements of showboating are dismissed in Drifting Shadow: This movement has an A-B-A torture” should be appropriate. Musically I use An old house sank into slumber beside a tree my works. As the poet Robert Hass described poems of structure. Two soloists represent conflicting mind-sets accelerated tempo to symbolize an ever increasing An ice-bar selling Bishop and Schuyler, I hope I am also beyond that

8.570221 2 3 8.570221 4 8.570221 570221bk Chin 15/12/06 10:18 am Page 2

Gordon Shi-Wen Chin (b.1957) intensity of the yearning. Since the tempo is almost Girl sits on a bamboo chair ‘impulse’—the exuberance of young artists coming to at its première in San Diego. I am most impressed with Formosa Seasons – Concerto for Violin and Strings always changing, it is very unsettled. The movement the medium. In a way I am returning to the primitive their warmth and their genuine love for music. This starts with a slow tempo, and always works its way back Listening to the crickets instinct in my composition, relying on heart and ears to concerto was also funded in part by the Taiwan Double Concerto for Violin and Cello to the original tempo between and after two large scale engage in the process of imaging new patterns and National Culture and Arts Foundation. The dedication Gordon Chin was born in 1957 in Taiwan, and is among the most active composers in his native country. His accelerations. Formosa Seasons was commissioned by 2nd Movement: Autumn making sense of these patterns. To determine the to Cho-Liang Lin is a tribute to his incredible musical compositions include four Symphonies, a Cantata, Violin Concerto, Piano Concerto, numerous choral works, Joan and Irwin Jacobs (Founder of Qualcomm) and meaning of music, especially new music, I think one gifts, his enthusiasm for new music, and his inspiration, chamber works, five percussion quartets, and works for solo instruments. He has a DMA degree from the Eastman dedicated to Cho-Liang Lin. The original idea of the Returning from a mountain hike with must strip off unnecessary gestures, extravagant outer without which this work would not have been possible. School of Music, where he studied with Samuel Adler and Christopher Rouse, and serves as music director of the Yin- piece came about five years ago, when Cho-Liang Lin A lonely wild flower, that recaptures shells, and return to the essentials with confidence. Qi Chorus and Symphony Orchestra in Taipei, where he is a faculty member of Taiwan National Normal University. asked me to write a concerto for violin and strings that A song collected in childhood, made me I recall with gratitude my meeting with Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Chin’s works have been performed worldwide by ensembles such as the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the could be performed without a conductor. Lin wanted to Gaze backward and listen Irwin Jacobs, who graciously commissioned the work, Gordon Chin Asia Pacific Orchestra in Los Angeles, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, the Yuodia Chorus and Orchestra in include the piece in a programme with Vivaldi’s Four To the decayed wilderness Tokyo, Ensemble 2e2m of France, and the Amadinda Percussion Group of Hungary, among many others. Seasons. Well, there had been quite a few performances of Formosa Seasons since it was completed, but there An intense shrill tails after tenderness Cho-Liang Lin was only one occasion when Cho-Liang Lin appeared Tramples into the heart Cho-Liang Lin is a violinist whose career has spanned the globe for 27 years. He was born Composer’s Note of one person or a brief documentation in that debate with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra that Formosa Abruptly in Taiwan in 1960 and began playing the violin at the age of five. He went on to study in Commissioned by Mr. and Mrs. Chris Fan and Ms. Judy between the body and the soul. In both A parts, a brief Seasons was actually paired with Vivaldi’s Four Sydney and New York City where he was a student of Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard Lee and completed in 2002, my Double Concerto was and unstable state of peace/compromise is expressed, Seasons. 3rd Movement: Winter School. Since his début at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival at the age of nineteen, especially written for the violinist Cho-Liang Lin and and in the B part conflict is magnified. Formosa Seasons is based on a set of poems that I he has appeared with virtually every major orchestra in the world, including the Boston cellist Felix Fan. There are four movements to the A Flowering Sacrifice: When flowers wither and wrote under the same title. Except the ‘summer’, which In the wind Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony, concerto. Each movement has an appropriate title scatter on the ground, the earth becomes an altar. To is my own childhood remembrance in my hometown Withered leaves tremble with men Philadelphia Orchestra and New York Philharmonic. He has over twenty recordings to his inherently tied to the music. The integrity of the music atone for the pain of losing oneself, not unlike that of Dou-Liu, in Yun-Lin County, Taiwan, the other three The afterglow of Mt. Datum credit, ranging from the concertos of Mozart, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, and Prokofiev, to is perhaps accomplished more through an establishment the alchemist, for all our expenditure of physical and poems are reflections on the short trips my family took Cooled, and hardened into a Christopher Rouse and Tan Dun, as well as the chamber music of Schubert, Brahms, of emotional connection than analytical cohesion. To emotional energy, we are left with nothing but piercing to the National Yang-Ming Park in Taiwan. These Sickle that slashes across the Tchaikovsky and Ravel. His recording partners include Yefim Bronfman, Yo-Yo Ma, clarify, I should like to draw a parallel between music pain. With the sin of false promises and further poems are depictions of the time my family shared Fading coastline Wynton Marsalis, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas and Isaac and poetry. In his 1973 article The Anxiety of Influence, deception, we continue to witness the flowering throughout the changing of the seasons. I could Leaves behind Stern. His recordings have been critically acclaimed, winning several Grammy John Hollander said literary critic Harold Bloom’s sacrifice until the day we are united with the flowers on remember the sound of the wind, and the smell of the A single nominations and The Gramophone’s Record of the Year award. He has been a member of interest has never been in the formalist study of poetic the altar. trees; I can easily recall the beauty of the twilight, the the Juilliard School faculty since 1991. He is also the music director of La Jolla SummerFest in California. His language and structure. “In all the years I have known In Expectation: This movement has a style of a intense loneliness in gazing at it, the joyful laughter of Darkened homeward road recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is available on Naxos 8.557920. him (Bloom),” Hollander observed, “ he has responded Rondo. Rhythm is crisp, musical phrases are easy my children, and their for ever happy footsteps. My to and worked with what we might call the deep going, and the tempo is fast-moving. Life is full of joys, children’s enthusiastic embrace of nature, their 4th Movement: Spring structure of poetry, with intentions, impulses, even if it is only serendipitous. For some it is nothing childhood and time has always served as a source of envisionings and desires, rather than with the linguistic but a vain bubble, for others the elixir vitae does exist. comfort and inspiration to me. Skipping, skipping surface, which for most of us — poets and critics and Yearning: A Sweet Torture: “It is that of an The first movement is ‘Summer’ and not ‘Spring’, Children’s dancing steps follow the swinging readers alike — is all there is to talk about.” The “deep unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than mostly because I do not want the work to culminate in Rhythms of cherry flowers structure” Hollander pointed to is the kind of emotional any other satisfaction.” I thought quoting C.S. Lewis the nostalgic elements that come with ‘Winter.’ Below Naughty with childish sound connection that I alluded to, the kind of connection to should be the best way to explain the title of this is the translation from Chinese to English of each be realised by not only analytical and structural designs, movement. Unlike Love Alchymie, which ignored the season. The sky is running, like but also, more importantly, underlying emotions and discrepancy between his expectations and actuality, Dreams spirits of the human heart. For that, the connectedness C.S. Lewis thinks the form of the desired is in the 1st Movement: Summer can only be made when the composer, performers, and desire. C.S. Lewis is talking about joy, and since it is of As not-so-young a composer, I think finally that listeners alike experience the same level of emotion. an “unsatisfied desire”, to use it to explain “a sweet Southern wind blows the wild grass off the road most of the elements of showboating are dismissed in Drifting Shadow: This movement has an A-B-A torture” should be appropriate. Musically I use An old house sank into slumber beside a tree my works. As the poet Robert Hass described poems of structure. Two soloists represent conflicting mind-sets accelerated tempo to symbolize an ever increasing An ice-bar selling Bishop and Schuyler, I hope I am also beyond that

8.570221 2 3 8.570221 4 8.570221 570221bk Chin 15/12/06 10:18 am Page 5

Felix Fan The Symphony’s education activities include specially programmed youth concerts – KinderKonzerts and Felix Fan’s versatility has made him one of the most sought after cellists in classical Young People’s Concerts – performed in the Lyric Theatre, as well as workshops for high school students. Other and contemporary music, as well as improvisatory and rock & roll. As a chamber regular activities include open rehearsals, instrument “petting zoos” at concerts and in schools, and a new program musician, Fan has performed and recorded with the likes of Janos Starker, Yo-Yo Ma, of partnerships with area schools where the KCS performs benefit concerts with all proceeds going to support Gil Shaham and Cho- Liang Lin. His recent solo engagements include the San Diego, music education programs at those schools. The Symphony’s various education programs reach an estimated Pacific and Kansas City Symphonies under Jah- Jah Ling and Michael Stern, as well as 18,000 young people each year. Taiwan’s National Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic with composer Tan Dun. While studying in Germany, Fan was introduced to the foremost Gordon Shi-Wen contemporary composers of Europe, subsequently leading to collaborations with Hans Michael Stern

Werner Henze, Oliver Knussen and Kaija Saariaho, performing in venues such as In 2005 Michael Stern began his tenure as music director of the Kansas City Regnier Photo:Michael Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Royal Festival Hall and the Musikverein. Symphony. Stern is also the founding music director of the acclaimed Iris In 1998, Fan founded the Muzik3 festival in La Jolla, CA, a performance series Orchestra, dedicated to revitalizing all aspects of the concert experience with CHIN dedicated to the advancement of modern music, theater, video and dance. Muzik3’s special emphasis on American contemporary music. Worldwide guest engagements influence on Fan was significant, as it led to innovative projects with musicians Sam have included the major orchestras throughout Europe, Asia, and North America. Rivers and Jonas Hellborg, as well as the birth of Real Quiet, a trio consisting of Fan, He is a regular visitor to the Aspen Music Festival. Until 2000 Michael Stern was David Cossin (percussion) and Andrew Russo (piano). Having worked together on chief conductor of Germany’s Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra, the first previous projects with George Crumb, Philip Glass, David Lang, Terry Riley and the American to hold that post. He was for four years the permanent guest conductor of Double Concerto Bang on a Can All-Stars, Real Quiet has emerged as a group serious about shaping the future of music. the Orchestre National de Lyon in France, and with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra Fan’s interests have also taken him from film to theater to dance. In 2005, he performed a series of radio plays he has recorded works by Stravinsky as well as Prokofiev’s Violin Concertos with written by acclaimed screenwriters Charlie Kaufman and the Coen Brothers, starring actors Steve Buscemi, John Boris Belkin. From 1986 to 1991 he was assistant conductor of the Cleveland for Violin and Cello Goodman, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Meryl Streep. In the same year, Fan collaborated with choreographer Orchestra. He has appeared with major orchestras throughout Europe and the Karole Armitage on her latest work In this Dream That Dogs Me with music by Annie Gosfield. United States, as well as in the Far East. He studied at the Curtis Institute with Max Fan studied cello with Eleanore Schoenfeld (University of Southern California), Janos Starker (Indiana Rudolf, whose textbook, The Grammar of Conducting, he co-edited for its third University), Aldo Parisot (Yale University) and Boris Pergamenchikow (Hochschule Für Musik, Cologne, edition. He also edited a new volume of Rudolf’s collected articles and letters, published by Pendragon Press. A Formosa Seasons Germany). In 1994, Fan was honored by President Clinton as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. graduate of Harvard University, Michael Stern earned a degree in American History in 1981. for Violin and Kansas City Symphony The Kansas City Symphony (KCS) was founded by R. Crosby Kemper, Jr., in 1982, just months after the Strings dissolution of the Kansas City Philharmonic. Today, the KCS is a major force in the cultural life of Kansas City and the region. Now under the dynamic leadership of acclaimed music director Michael Stern, the Kansas City Symphony has experienced impressive artistic growth through its history and under the batons of Russell Patterson (1982-1986), William McGlaughlin (1986-1997), and Anne Manson (1998-2003). Damon Gupton, assistant conductor, conducts Cho-Liang Lin, Violin the Family Series and Symphony Pops. The Kansas City Symphony serves a metropolitan population of 1.8 million people. The orchestra’s 80 full- time musicians are area residents and vital contributors to the artistic life of Kansas City. During its forty-two week Felix Fan, Cello season, the Symphony performs a wide variety of subscription, educational, touring, and outreach concerts. In addition, the KCS performs for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and the Kansas City Ballet. The Kansas City Symphony is governed by a board of trustees under the leadership of Board President Shirley Kansas City Bush Helzberg and is administered by a full-time professional staff. In addition, the KCS benefits from the dedicated efforts of its volunteer associations. The Symphony’s seven auxiliaries, with total membership nearing 650, raise Symphony approximately $700,000 annually, making it one of the most successful orchestra volunteer forces in the nation. Michael Stern 8.570221 5 6 8.570221 570221bk Chin 15/12/06 10:18 am Page 5

Felix Fan The Symphony’s education activities include specially programmed youth concerts – KinderKonzerts and Felix Fan’s versatility has made him one of the most sought after cellists in classical Young People’s Concerts – performed in the Lyric Theatre, as well as workshops for high school students. Other and contemporary music, as well as improvisatory and rock & roll. As a chamber regular activities include open rehearsals, instrument “petting zoos” at concerts and in schools, and a new program musician, Fan has performed and recorded with the likes of Janos Starker, Yo-Yo Ma, of partnerships with area schools where the KCS performs benefit concerts with all proceeds going to support Gil Shaham and Cho- Liang Lin. His recent solo engagements include the San Diego, music education programs at those schools. The Symphony’s various education programs reach an estimated Pacific and Kansas City Symphonies under Jah- Jah Ling and Michael Stern, as well as 18,000 young people each year. Taiwan’s National Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic with composer Tan Dun. While studying in Germany, Fan was introduced to the foremost Gordon Shi-Wen contemporary composers of Europe, subsequently leading to collaborations with Hans Michael Stern

Werner Henze, Oliver Knussen and Kaija Saariaho, performing in venues such as In 2005 Michael Stern began his tenure as music director of the Kansas City Regnier Photo:Michael Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Royal Festival Hall and the Musikverein. Symphony. Stern is also the founding music director of the acclaimed Iris In 1998, Fan founded the Muzik3 festival in La Jolla, CA, a performance series Orchestra, dedicated to revitalizing all aspects of the concert experience with CHIN dedicated to the advancement of modern music, theater, video and dance. Muzik3’s special emphasis on American contemporary music. Worldwide guest engagements influence on Fan was significant, as it led to innovative projects with musicians Sam have included the major orchestras throughout Europe, Asia, and North America. Rivers and Jonas Hellborg, as well as the birth of Real Quiet, a trio consisting of Fan, He is a regular visitor to the Aspen Music Festival. Until 2000 Michael Stern was David Cossin (percussion) and Andrew Russo (piano). Having worked together on chief conductor of Germany’s Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra, the first previous projects with George Crumb, Philip Glass, David Lang, Terry Riley and the American to hold that post. He was for four years the permanent guest conductor of Double Concerto Bang on a Can All-Stars, Real Quiet has emerged as a group serious about shaping the future of music. the Orchestre National de Lyon in France, and with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra Fan’s interests have also taken him from film to theater to dance. In 2005, he performed a series of radio plays he has recorded works by Stravinsky as well as Prokofiev’s Violin Concertos with written by acclaimed screenwriters Charlie Kaufman and the Coen Brothers, starring actors Steve Buscemi, John Boris Belkin. From 1986 to 1991 he was assistant conductor of the Cleveland for Violin and Cello Goodman, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Meryl Streep. In the same year, Fan collaborated with choreographer Orchestra. He has appeared with major orchestras throughout Europe and the Karole Armitage on her latest work In this Dream That Dogs Me with music by Annie Gosfield. United States, as well as in the Far East. He studied at the Curtis Institute with Max Fan studied cello with Eleanore Schoenfeld (University of Southern California), Janos Starker (Indiana Rudolf, whose textbook, The Grammar of Conducting, he co-edited for its third University), Aldo Parisot (Yale University) and Boris Pergamenchikow (Hochschule Für Musik, Cologne, edition. He also edited a new volume of Rudolf’s collected articles and letters, published by Pendragon Press. A Formosa Seasons Germany). In 1994, Fan was honored by President Clinton as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. graduate of Harvard University, Michael Stern earned a degree in American History in 1981. for Violin and Kansas City Symphony The Kansas City Symphony (KCS) was founded by R. Crosby Kemper, Jr., in 1982, just months after the Strings dissolution of the Kansas City Philharmonic. Today, the KCS is a major force in the cultural life of Kansas City and the region. Now under the dynamic leadership of acclaimed music director Michael Stern, the Kansas City Symphony has experienced impressive artistic growth through its history and under the batons of Russell Patterson (1982-1986), William McGlaughlin (1986-1997), and Anne Manson (1998-2003). Damon Gupton, assistant conductor, conducts Cho-Liang Lin, Violin the Family Series and Symphony Pops. The Kansas City Symphony serves a metropolitan population of 1.8 million people. The orchestra’s 80 full- time musicians are area residents and vital contributors to the artistic life of Kansas City. During its forty-two week Felix Fan, Cello season, the Symphony performs a wide variety of subscription, educational, touring, and outreach concerts. In addition, the KCS performs for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and the Kansas City Ballet. The Kansas City Symphony is governed by a board of trustees under the leadership of Board President Shirley Kansas City Bush Helzberg and is administered by a full-time professional staff. In addition, the KCS benefits from the dedicated efforts of its volunteer associations. The Symphony’s seven auxiliaries, with total membership nearing 650, raise Symphony approximately $700,000 annually, making it one of the most successful orchestra volunteer forces in the nation. Michael Stern 8.570221 5 6 8.570221 570221 Inlay USA 15/12/06 10:25 am Page 1 NAXOS NAXOS Gordon Chin is among the most active composers in his native Taiwan. His compositions include numerous orchestral, choral and chamber works, five percussion quartets, as well as works for solo instruments. Formosa Seasons, dedicated to the celebrated Taiwanese-American violinist, Cho-Liang Lin, is based on a set of poems the composer wrote with the same title. These depict “the sound of the wind, the smell of the trees… the beauty of the twilight… the joyful laughter of my children”,

Gordon Shi-Wen CHIN: 8.570221 throughout the seasons of the year. The Double Concerto was also written for Cho-Liang Lin, and for Gordon Shi-Wen CHIN: the Taiwanese-American cellist Felix Fan. DDD Gordon Shi-Wen Playing Time CHIN 58:06

(b.1957) 7

Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra 37:01 47313 1 Drifting Shadow 8:04 2 A Flowering Sacrifice 11:58 02217 3 In Expectation 6:53 4 Yearning: A Sweet Torture 10:05 Orchestral Works Orchestral Works

Formosa Seasons for Violin and Strings 21:05 5

5 Summer 4:38 www.naxos.com Made in Canada Booklet Notes in English Naxos Rights International Ltd.

6 Autumn 7:03 & 7 Winter 6:09 8 Spring 3:14 2007 Cho-Liang Lin, Violin • Felix Fan, Cello Kansas City Symphony • Michael Stern

World première recordings This recording was made with the generous support of the Council for Cultural Affairs, Taiwan Recorded at Yardley Hall, Johnson Country Community College, Overland Park, Kansas, USA, on 3rd April, 2006 (tracks 1-4) and on May 11th, 2006 (tracks 5-8) 8.570221 Publisher: YinQi Publishing Company, Taiwan 8.570221 Producer, Engineer and Editor: Adam Abeshouse • Assistant Engineer: Andy Ryder Piano Technician: Ed Court • Special Thanks to Li-Ling Lee, President, Pan Asel (USA) Cover Photo: Jianshiyan, Hsinchu County, Taiwan, by Ding-Lai Yan (by kind permission of Taiwan Tourism Bureau)