Nina Flyer and Chen Yi both crack up at a joke that Chen made just before students performed one of Chen's pieces at University of the Pacific on Friday.
Flyer is a grammy-nominated cellist. Chen is a world-famous composer who has written works for Yo Yo Ma, some of the greatest orchestras in the world and for many other world-famous starts. Chen wrote her latest piece for The New Pacific Trio, a group of faculty members at University of the Pacific. Flyer is a member of that group.
So why is this in Teriyaki Donuts? Well, Dr. Chen's music is a fascinating mix of European-style chamber music and Chinese folk music. Chen grew up in Communist China where, as a child, she was forced to work in aggrarian labor camps. But as she would later say in interviews, at night she would play her violin, learning Chinese folks tunes.
As a young adult, she was selected to study music in China shortly after the government reopened the universities there at the tail end of the cultural revolution. She ended up becoming the first female in China and one of the first Chinese citizens to earn a doctorates degree in China in classical composition.
She later moved to the United States where her career really took off. Here, her work started to get international recognition. Her work is now performed around the world by some of the biggest names in music.
I heard several of her pieces played at University of the Pacific Friday and I was blown away. It was really cool to hear the Chinese synchopation and the famed climbing and falling notes that many of us associate with Chinese music to be perfectly blended in such European-style compositions. It was a perfect collision of two different cultures, thus coming up with a totally new and independent sound.
Now, of course, I'm not saying she's the first to do this. She may be, I just don't know. But the combination of two different cultural art forms as done here by Chen Yi in America nominates her for Teriyaki Donuts, at least in my mind.
