Composer Chen Yi wrote Spring Festival as a celebration of the Chinese New Year and all the traditions that accompany this special Chinese festival. While the melody is drawn from a southern Chinese folk ensemble piece called Lion Playing Ball, the form of the piece is based on the idea of the Golden Section.

Instrumentation

1-Conductor
1-Piccolo
4-Flute 1
4-Flute 2
2-Oboe
2-Bassoon
4-B flat clarinet 1
4-B flat clarinet 2
2-B flat bass clarinet
4-E flat alto saxophone
2-B flat tenor saxophone
1-E flat baritone saxophone
4-B flat trumpet 1
4-B flat trumpet 2
3-B flat trumpet 3
4-F horn
4-Trombone 1
4-Trombone 2
2-Baritone B.C.
2-Baritone T.C.
4-Tuba
1-String Bass
2-Percussion 1: 3 congas and tom-tom
2-Percussion 2: Big Beijing Opera Gong or low gong
2-Percussion 3: Small Beijing Opera Gong or high gong
1-Percussion 4: Chinese cymbals

Meet The Composer

As the Cravens/Millsap/Missouri Distinguished Professor at the Conservatory of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Dr. Chen Yi has received bachelor and master degrees in music composition from the Central Conservatory in Beijing, China, and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Columbia University in the City of New York. Her composition teachers have included Chou, Davidovsky, Wu and Goehr. She has served as Composer-in-Residence for the Women’s Philharmonic, the vocal ensemble Chanticleer, & Aptos Creative Arts Center (93-96) supported by Meet The Composer, and as a member of the composition faculty at Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University (96-98). Fellowships have been received from Guggenheim Foundation, American Academy of Arts and Letters, and National Endowment for the Arts in the United States. Honors include a first prize from the Chinese National Composition Competition, the Lili Boulanger Award, the Sorel Medal, the Alpert Award, the Eddie Medora King Composition Prize, a Grammy Award, and the prestigious Ives Living Award (01-04) from the AAAL for music composition. Her music is published by Theodore Presser Company, and recorded on New Albion (97), CRI (99), Teldec (97, 99 with Grammy Award), Nimbus (93/00), Cala (95), Avant (98), Atma (99), Hugo (00), Angel (01), Bis (01), Albany (01) & China Record Corporation (86, 90).

*CHEN Yi’s last name is CHEN, first name Yi. She can be referred to Dr. CHEN, Ms. CHEN, or CHEN Yi.

About The Premiere

Spring Festival was premiered on February 3, 2000 with the Smith-Hale Junior High School Band in Kansas City, Missouri, under the direction of Jan Davis.

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