Vancouver Chinese Instrumental Music Society presents Chinese Music:  A Musical Mosaic

An orientation by guest speaker Alan Lau on the history of Chinese music and its relationship with other musical cultures, 
from Japanese gagaku to Indonesian gamelan, with instrumental music performed by the acclaimed Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble

Thursday, April 23, 2009
6pm

Alice MacKay Room (Lower Level)
Vancouver Public Library - Central Branch
350 West Georgia Street

FREE ADMISSION

Experience a showcase of traditional and contemporary Chinese instrumentation in a workshop on Chinese music and 
its relation to a musical mosaic of cultures. The acclaimed Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble will perform as a part 
of the workshop at 6 pm, on Thursday, April 23, 2009 in the Alice MacKay Room of the Vancouver Public Library Main Branch.
 
Guest speaker, Alan Lau, a graduate of the UBC School of Music in Composition, will be giving a brief talk on four major pillars 
of Chinese music (silk and bamboo music, rituals, court traditions and opera), in respect to their multicultural inter-connectedness.

He will examine various musical cultures such as the Japanese gagaku, the Korean a-ak and the Indonesian-Chinese 
gambang kromong hybrid, which all form a musical atlas, outlining the affects and influences of Chinese music. 

The night will also address Asian elements of music in the development of 20th Century Western music, ranging from impressionism 
and minimalism to jazz and techno. Intermittently throughout the presentation, members of the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble 
will play live instrumental samples, performing selections of genres discussed during the night. 

A question and answer session will wrap up the evening.

The Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble, established in 1989, is the finest professional Chinese music organization in Canada. 
For their first appearance, the ensemble was invited to perform for the Governor General's Concert at the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver. 
Since then, they have performed hundreds of concerts across Canada and in the United States. Each member highly trained and 
accomplished instrumentalists; together they exude technical mastery with a passionate for traditional and contemporary music. 
This versatile group embraces the popular and the classical traditions of China as well as western classical and contemporary music 
performed on Chinese instruments. In addition to presenting their own concerts locally, the ensemble is nationally known, 
performing sold out concerts and broadcasted on the radio and television.

For more information, please contact Angie@dkam.ca at the Vancouver Chinese Instrumental Music Society
tel 604.683.8240 | fax 604.683.7911 | www.vancouverchinesemusic.ca