THE ARTS / MUSIC

KRONOS QUARTET TO PERFORM A CHINESE HOME

Musical inspiration can come from many sources. For internationally acclaimed musician and composer Wu Man, inspiration came during a visit to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.

During a trip to the museum, the Yin Yu Tang house made a particularly strong impression. Yin Yu Tang was an ancient merchant family’s home in a southeastern Chinese village. It was dismantled and re-built at PEM, piece-by-piece, in 2003 and is the only example of vernacular Chinese architecture in North America.

Wu Man later said, “While standing in this meticulously reconstructed home you cannot help but to imagine what life was like for the people who lived there – what they experienced and how they lived from day-to-day. Yin Yu Tang became the key for us to unlock the past and explore the music of China not only from the time of this house, but across the centuries.”

Now the renowned Kronos Quartet and the composer are preparing to perform the world premiere of A Chinese Home, a new Wu Man work that was inspired by the 200-year-old Chinese house. It will be performed at Carnegie Hall on November 3, 2009.

Drawing on the metaphors embodied by Yin Yu Tang of displacement and migration, privacy and public display, A Chinese Home explores China’s evolving identity through works ranging from folk tunes to electronic music, enhanced with staging and video elements by acclaimed stage and film director Chen Shi-Zheng, and with instruments constructed expressly for this work by MacArthur fellow Walter Kitundu.

After A Chinese Home makes its world premiere at New York’s Carnegie Hall on Tuesday, November 3, performances are scheduled in several other cities. More information is available from the PEM.

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About the Peabody Essex Museum
The Peabody Essex Museum presents art and culture from New England and around the world. The museum’s collections are among the finest of their kind, showcasing an unrivaled spectrum of American art and architecture (including four National Historic Landmark buildings) and outstanding Asian, Asian Export, Native American, African, Oceanic, Maritime and Photography collections. In addition to its vast collections, the museum offers a vibrant schedule of changing exhibitions and a hands-on education center. The museum campus features numerous parks, period gardens and 22 historic properties, including Yin Yu Tang, a 200-year-old house that is the only example of Chinese domestic architecture on display in the United States.

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This item was prepared from material contributed by the Peabody Essex Museum. Image courtesy the Peabody Essex Museum.

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