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Lee
Pui Ming | His music
is about going beyond boundaries. It is about transcending the
myriad genres, niches, and pigeonholes that trap music and seek
to name it and tame it. Lee Pui Ming is accustomed to being defined
as indefinable. Critics, presenters and audiences often ask:
What kind of music do you play? Is it classical, jazz, world
music, folk music? Lee Pui Ming could simply answer - Yes! For
all these styles have contributed to her compositions and improvisations.
What does she play? European, North American and Asian music
from the most traditional to the most contemporary; music that
is sometimes composed and often improvised; music that uses the
voice, body and piano in unorthodox ways that challenge preconceptions
about what music should be. Lee Pui Ming plays music of her own
creation that is filtered through the mind, hands, and voice
of an uncommonly fearless artist determined to make her very
own way in the musical world.
Lee Pui Ming was born in Hong
Kong. Her mother was a voice teacher who taught popular Chinese
songs. At the age of three she started to study piano. In 1976,
she left Hong Kong for music studies in the United States, acquiring
a bachelors, masters, and most of a doctorate degree. There she
discovered jazz. McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock joined Prokofiev
and Bartok in her galaxy of influences. But as she grew musically,
Pui Ming decided she wanted to make her own music rather than
reading the scores of others. In 1985, Pui Ming came to Toronto
and a new life as a composer, teacher and performer. In Toronto
all the music in her head came together - Chinese traditional
and pop music she had heard growing up, the European classical
music she had spent almost her entire life studying, and the
jazz she had been listening to more and more of. She finally
found the freedom and confidence to play on the keyboard what
she felt in her heart. In 1991, she released her first recording,
'Ming'. She was launched.
The years since that debut
have been good ones. In Toronto, Winnipeg, Montreal, and Vancouver,
Pui Ming found other experimenters, other refugees from the predictable.
She also found audiences at festivals and concerts, from Whitehorse
and Halifax to Berlin and Zurich - audiences who "got it",
who were prepared to open their ears to something unusual and
special, music that defies all borders. In Vancouver she met
the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble and percussionist Sal Ferreras,
with whom she toured and recorded, winning a JUNO nomination
for their recording. In 1999, she made a long journey to different
regions of China where she studied, composed and recorded with
Chinese traditional artists. The result, 'Taklamakan', won rave
reviews, including the "Top Ten of 1999" list of Vancouver's
Georgia Straight.
In Toronto, she has performed
with percussionist Mark Duggan and violinist David Prentice,
and composed for and played with Forty Fingers Saxophone Quartet.
Montreal's musique actuelle community has embraced her. She has
worked with luminaries including Jean Derome, Pierre Tanguay,
and Rene Lussier and recently has collaborated on a number of
performance projects with saxophonist/vocalist Joane Hétu.
In 2002, Pui Ming released
her latest CD, a series of improvisations, mainly for solo piano,
voice and miscellaneous objects. 'who's playing' was released
on Montreal's Ambiances Magnetiques label and is finding a rapturous
reception both at home and abroad. "Une revelation-ni plus,
ni moins!" (A revelation-no more, no less!) is how one reviewer
from France summed it up.
The same year, in February,
she presented her CD launch concert in Toronto before heading
west to play a series of solo concerts in small Manitoba and
Alberta communities in March. April was taken up with the creation
of 'Hundun'. It marks the most ambitious project Pui Ming has
yet undertaken. Based on an ancient Chinese legend, 'Hundun'
features eight musicians and dancers. 'Hundun' played for three
nights in Toronto in May and was performed at the Guelph Jazz
Festival in September. In May, Pui Ming also performed at the
Musiques de creation festival in Jonquiere, Quebec, and at the
Canvas festival in Montreal. In June, she returned to Montreal
to perform at the first Off Jazz festival and in October her
commission for solo zheng was premiered at Vancouver's New Music
Festival where Pui Ming gave her own solo piano concert as well.
In 2003, Pui Ming composed
the music and performed in a commission from the CanAsian Dance
Festival (Toronto). Shortly after, she gave a concert of composed
and improvised quartet music in Toronto before heading off for
a successful nine-town tour of Saskatchewan that was sponsored
by the Organization of Saskatchewan Arts Councils. The rest of
the year, she was busy fulfilling commissions from Kokoro Dance
(Vancouver) and The Evergreen Club Gamelan Ensemble (Toronto).
2004 saw the premieres of commissions
from erhu virtuoso Chen Jiebing (San Francisco) and The Hong
Kong Chinese Orchestra. In the fall, Pui Ming performed improvised
music concerts at the "suddenListen" series in Halifax
with Norm Adams (cello) and Erin Donovan (percussion) and in
Montréal with Jean Derome (sax/flute) and Joane Hétu
(sax and voice). She also showcased her music in CAPACOA and
CINARS.
Please listen to a sample of following Compositions by Lee Pui Ming
Media Player required to listen to the audio clips
-
Awakening
Instrumentation: Erhu
solo with symphonic orchestra
Composer: Lee Pui Ming
Performers: Chen Jiebing, erhu solo; Bay-Atlantic Symphony with
Jed Gaylin conducting
Date of Composition: 2007
Length of piece: 18:00
Length of sample: 2:58 min
-
The Shepherdess
Instrumentation: Piano
solo
Composer: traditional / Lee Pui Ming
Performer: Lee Pui Ming
Date of Composition: 1996
Length of piece: 6:53min
Length of sample: 2:15 min
-
The Tale of Three Snakes
Instrumentation: Pipa,
Zhong Ruan, Piano
Composer: Lee Pui Ming
Performers: Qiu Li Rong, pipa; Yu Zhi Min, Zhong Ruan; Lee Pui
Ming, piano
Date of Composition: 1993
Length of piece: 6:09
Length of sample: 3:00 min
-
The Phoenix
Instrumentation: Piano
solo
Composer: Lee Pui Ming
Performer: Lee Pui Ming
Date of Composition: 1999
Length of piece: 9:34
Length of sample: 3:41 min
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