East Meets New West

In the music of the increasingly renowned composer Chen Yi, West meets East in the most organic way. The Chinese-born Chen often takes the inspiration of Chinese folk songs and mixes it with Western classical ideas.

Fittingly, her music will be the centerpiece of this Sunday’s “China Alive!” program, the first concert in this year’s “Musics Alive!” series, presented by the New West Symphony. Now in its fourth season, the imaginative series focuses on links between contemporary classical music and the music of non-Western cultures.

On this program, Chen’s “Sparkle” will be performed by a chamber group, featuring piano soloist Gloria Cheng. Also on the program is Chen’s “Set of Chinese Folk Songs,” performed by the Valley-based group Melodica Sinica.

Then, on March 3, Chen’s music will make another Southern California bow when her newly finished piece, commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is performed at the Japan America Theater in downtown Los Angeles.

In a phone interview from her home base in Baltimore, where she is a professor at the Peabody Conservatory, Chen explained how her background shaped her compositional voice. A precocious musician, at age 3 she began studying violin and piano. Her parents, both doctors, loved music and encouraged her training in the foundations of music of the West.

Things changed radically, though, with the onset of the Cultural Revolution in the late ‘60s, when Western culture and ties were viewed as corruptive influences on Chinese life.

Chen’s family was split up--her father practiced medicine in the countryside and her mother was sent to prison. “They considered my parents international spies because they spoke English,” said Chen.

Chen was sent to the countryside to be “re-educated.” Once there, she found herself fascinated by the folk songs she heard the rural farmers singing.

Government policy changed and Chen became concertmaster with Guangzhou Opera and studied at the Beijing Conservatory. She came to the United States to study at Columbia University in 1986, and she has never left.

A bold sampling of her music can be heard on the recent album “The Music of Chen Yi,” released on the New Albion label and performed by the Women’s Philharmonic--the Bay Area-based orchestra for which Yi was a composer-in-residence for three years.

Among her present works-in-progress, Chen is composing music for the Kronos Quartet. She is also writing a flute concerto for James Galway. Does this piece also have a Chinese harmonic flavor? “Yes,” she said with a laugh. “I cannot escape from that. It just comes out.”

Chorale Update

The Los Robles Master Chorale performs at Moorpark College on Saturday night, in a program titled “Music Through the Ages.” In addition to traditional fare from Monteverdi, Mendelssohn, Bruckner and Delius, the chorale will perform music from two of the most celebrated living composers of the moment--both from the Eastern front of the European scene--the Pole Henryk Gorecki and the Estonian Arvo Part.

In addition, the chorale will premiere a piece by Thousand Oaks resident Wilbur Skeels.

BE THERE

“China Alive!” will be presented at 3 p.m. Sun. at GTE Headquarters, 1 GTE Place, Thousand Oaks and at 7:30 p.m. Tue. at the Poinsettia Pavilion, 3451 Foothill Road, Ventura. (805) 643-8646.

Los Robles Master Chorale, “Music Through the Ages,” at 8 p.m. Sat. at Moorpark College Performing Arts Center, 2024 Campus Road. (805) 482-2866.