Feb 14: Islandia Music Records Releases Composer Lei Liang’s New Album Dui Featuring Maya Beiser, Wu Man, Steven Schick, Mark Dresser, and more
Islandia Music Records Releases
Composer Lei Liang’s Dui
Featuring Performances by Maya Beiser, cello; Wu Man, pipa; Steven Schick, percussion; Cho-Liang Lin, violin; Zhe Lin, percussion; Mark Dresser, contrabass; and loadbang ensemble
Worldwide Release Date: February 14, 2025
CDs or press downloads, including album booklet, available upon request.
bit.ly/ComposerLeiLiang | www.islandiamusic.com
New York, NY – Islandia Music Records announces the release of Dui, a portrait album of the music of Lei Liang, available worldwide on February 14, 2025. The new album features performances by Maya Beiser, cello; Wu Man, pipa; Steven Schick, percussion; Cho-Liang Lin, violin; Zhe Lin, percussion; Mark Dresser, contrabass; and loadbang (Andy Kozar, trumpet; William Lang, trombone; Carlos Cordeiro, bass clarinet; and Jeffrey Gavett, baritone). The album’s title Dui, 對, means “to face.” Lei Liang is a Chinese-born American composer whose works have been described as "hauntingly beautiful and sonically colorful" by The New York Times, and as, "far, far out of the ordinary, brilliantly original and inarguably gorgeous" by The Washington Post.
Dui stages instruments and performance as elements of surprise from distant worlds. Collaborations between the pipa virtuoso Wu Man and the great percussionist Steven Schick offer a musical face-off through an unlikely combination of instruments, revealing a playfulness in their inherent tensions. The innovative techniques of Mark Dresser on the contrabass embody a rich spectrum of extreme opposites – lightness and darkness, angels and ghosts, paradise and inferno – in a singular vibrating body. Cellist Maya Beiser renders songs of the Mongolian steppe in a trancelike elegance, portraying notions of home that resonate over time and space. The ensemble loadbang conveys the tranquil image of a beaver swimming under the moonlight, disturbed by showers of phonetic particles drawn from poetry as the piece traverses through different states of mind. Cho-Liang Lin and Zhe Lin weave together the sonic characteristics of violin and percussion, transforming sound into infinite possibilities.
Liang writes about the music on this album, “Composing offers me a chance to explore and foster deeply personal relationships, including the relationship with my own cultural and spiritual heritage. It also presents me the opportunity to face seemingly insurmountable challenges. Who am I without my cultural heritage and without my friendships? I like to think of my music as the ultimate tribute to the past and present bonds that have shaped my life and given it meaning. All of the works on this album were written for and performed by artists who have inspired me. The challenge in composing each piece, however, is unique.”
Read the complete program notes for the album and artist biographies in the album’s liner notes, available here.
About Lei Liang:
The winner of the 2011 Rome Prize, Lei Liang (b. November 28, 1972) is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Aaron Copland Award, a Koussevitzky Foundation Commission, a Creative Capital Award, and the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His concerto for saxophone and orchestra, Xiaoxiang, was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 2015. His orchestral work, A Thousand Mountains, A Million Streams, won the prestigious 2021 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. As a scholar and conservationist of cultural traditions, he edited and co-edited eight books and editions, and published more than fifty articles.
Lei Liang’s work has received global recognition, with commissions including the New York Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert for the inaugural concert of the CONTACT! new music series. Other commissions and performances come from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fromm Music Foundation, Meet the Composer, Chamber Music America, MAP Fund, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Taipei Chinese Orchestra, the Scharoun Ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Arditti Quartet, the Shanghai Quartet, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the New York New Music Ensemble, and pipa virtuoso Wu Man. Lei Liang’s fourteen portrait discs are released on Naxos, New World, Mode, New Focus, BMOP/sound, Encounter, Albany and Bridge Records.
With interest in our sonic world, Lei Liang’s recent works address issues of sex trafficking across the US-Mexican border (Cuatro Corridos), America's complex relationship with gun and violence (Inheritance), and environmental awareness through the sonification of coral reefs. Lei Liang served as Composer-in-Residence from 2013 through 2016 at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology where his multimedia works preserve and reimagine cultural heritage through combining scientific research and advanced technology. In 2023, the Institute launched "Lei Lab" where he continues to collaborate with engineers, geologists, oceanographers and software developers, to explore what he calls "the unique potential for learning offered by creative listening."
Lei Liang studied composition with Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Robert Cogan, Chaya Czernowin and Mario Davidovsky, and received degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music (B.M. and M.M.) and Harvard University (Ph.D.). A Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, he held fellowships from the Harvard Society of Fellows and the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships. Lei Liang serves as the Chancellor's Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of California, San Diego. His catalogue of more than a hundred compositions is published exclusively by Schott Music.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Maya Beiser: www.mayabeiser.com
Wu Man: www.wumanpipa.org
Steven Schick: www.stevenschick.com
Cho-Liang Lin: www.cholianglin.com
Zhe Lin: www.onepointfm.com/en/zhelin
Mark Dresser: www.mark-dresser.com
loadbang: www.loadbang.com/bios.html
ALBUM TRACK LISTING:
Lei Liang: Dui
Islandia Music Records | Release Date: February 14, 2025
Maya Beiser, cello; Wu Man, pipa; Steven Schick, percussion; Cho-Liang Lin, violin; Zhe Lin, percussion;
Mark Dresser, contrabass; and loadbang: Andy Kozar, trumpet; William Lang, trombone; Carlos Cordeiro, bass clarinet; Jeffrey Gavett, baritone
1. Vis-à-vis [12:28]
Wu Man, pipa • Steven Schick, percussion
2. Mongolian Suite I: Tongliao Mountain [1:59]
3. Mongolian Suite II: Where Is Home? [2:46]
4. Mongolian Suite III: Chifeng Mountain [1:40]
5. Mongolian Suite IV: Mother and Daughter [4:05]
6. Mongolian Suite V: Yin Shan Dance [1:58]
7. Mongolian Suite VI: Feng [4:04]
Maya Beiser, cello
8. déjà vu [14:31]
Cho-Liang Lin, violin • Zhe Lin, percussion
9. Luminosity [18:00]
Mark Dresser, contrabass
10. Lakescape V [10:14]
loadbang: Andy Kozar, trumpet; William Lang, trombone; Carlos Cordeiro, bass clarinet; Jeffrey Gavett, baritone
Total Time: [72:43]
Produced by Lei Liang and Maya Beiser
Engineering by Andrew Munsey (vis-à-vis and Lakescape V)
Engineering by by Andy Bradley (déjà vu)
Engineering by Dave Cook (Mongolian Suite)
Engineering by by Mark Dresser (Luminosity)
Editing by by Andrew Munsey at UC San Diego, Studio A (vis-à-vis, déjà vu, Luminosity, and Lakescape V)
Editing by Dave Cook at Area 52 Studios, Saugerties, NY (Mongolian Suite)
Mastering by Andrew Munsey
Art direction by Denise Burt | elevator-design.dk
Creative direction by Kristen Loring Brennan
All music by Lei Liang is published by Schott Music Corporation, New York (ASCAP).
About Islandia Music Records:
Islandia Music Records is an independent record label founded and spearheaded by cellist and producer Maya Beiser, one of the foremost soloists and avant-garde artists of her generation. Maya Beiser’s desire to be the driving force behind her artistic expression led her to concentrate on an intensely rich and innovative solo career. She has engaged composers, choreographers, dancers, visual artists, filmmakers, sound designers, and technology innovators to create works written for her or by her and interpreted through her singular artistic lens. The freedom to chart her own course made it possible to become a game changer in the contemporary creative landscape. A platform for self-expression and daring artistic adventures, Islandia Music Records allows for a broad palette of collaborative patterns: between the old and the new, the brazen and the subtle, the dark and the hopeful.