Name: An American Soldier – A Powerful Opera Commemorating a Soldier's Racially Charged Suicide
Start: 2024-05-01T19:00:00-04:00
End: 2024-05-01T20:30:00-04:00
Location: China Institute in America

$An American Soldier \u2013 A Powerful Opera Commemorating a Soldier's Racially Charged Suicide$

Join us for a behind-the-scene exclusive discussion with the creative team of An American Soldier, the NYC premiere opera at China Institute
About this Event

An American Soldier – A Powerful Opera Commemorating a Soldier's Racially Charged Suicide

On October 3, 2011, Chinese American Army Pvt. Danny Chen was found dead in a guard tower at his base in Afghanistan. Based on his story and the ensuing courts-martial of Chen’s fellow soldiers, An American Soldier, the New York City premiere opera tells the powerful true story of a young soldier from Manhattan’s Chinatown who sought to serve his country, only to find his biggest threat was the very people who swore to protect him.

Join us for an exploration of exclusive behind-the-scenes stories before its New York premiere at Perelman Performing Arts Center with the stella creative team of An American Soldier, including Tony and Grammy winner David Henry HWANG (M. Butterfly, Soft Power), acclaimed composer HUANG Ruo (M. Butterfly, Book of Mountains and Seas), Obie Award winner Chay YEW (Cambodian Rock Band, Sweatshop Overlord), and versatile conductor Carolyn KUAN.

Speakers:

HUANG Ruo (Composer). Composer Huang Ruo has been lauded by The New York Times for having “a distinctive style.” His vibrant and inventive musical voice draws equal inspiration from Chinese ancient and folk music, Western avant-garde, experimental, noise, natural and processed sound, rock, and jazz to create a seamless, organic integration using a compositional technique he calls “Dimensionalism.” His diverse compositional works span from orchestra, chamber music, opera, theater, and dance, to cross-genre, sound installation, architectural installation, multimedia, experimental improvisation, folk rock, and film. His music has been premiered and performed by the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, National Polish Radio Orchestra, Santa Fe Opera, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, LA Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Royal Danish Opera, Asko/Schoenberg, Ensemble Modern, London Sinfonietta, and conductors such as Wolfgang Sawallisch, Marin Alsop, Andrew Davis, Michael Tilson Thomas, and James Conlon. His opera An American Soldier had its world premiere at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis (2018) and was named one of the best classical music events in 2018 by The New York Times. His installation opera Paradise Interrupted, premiered at the Spoleto Festival USA (2015) and was performed at the Lincoln Center Festival (2016). Another opera, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, premiered at the Santa Fe Opera in 2014. His new opera M. Butterfly (with libretto by David Henry Hwang) had its world premiere with the Santa Fe Opera in 2022. He has future opera commissions with the Met Opera and the San Francisco Opera. Huang Ruo has served as the first composer-in-residence for Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and was the visiting composer for the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra in Brazil.

David Henry HWANG (Libretto). David Henry Hwang’s stage works include the plays M. Butterfly, Yellow Face (Broadway revival upcoming, Fall 2024), Chinglish, The Dance and the Railroad, and FOB, as well as the musicals Aida, Soft Power, Flower Drum Song and Disney’s Tarzan. Called America’s most-produced living opera librettist, he has written thirteen libretti, including five with composer Philip Glass and four with Huang Ruo. Ainadamar with music by Osvaldo Golijov will receive its Metropolitan Opera premiere in Fall 2024. Hwang was a Writer/Consulting Producer for the Golden Globe-winning television series The Affair and is currently creating and show running a new TV series, Billion Dollar Whale. A professor at Columbia University, Hwang is a Tony Award winner and three-time nominee, a Grammy Award winner and two-time nominee, a three-time OBIE Award winner, and a three-time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama.

Chay YEW (Director). New York credits include The Public Theater (Mojada, Oedipus el Rey, Durango, Ameriville, Low), Playwrights Horizons (Cool Dip in a Barren Saharan Crick), Signature Theatre (Cambodian Rock Band), New York Theatre Workshop (Sweatshop Overlord,The Architecture of Loss), Audible Theatre (Good Enemy), Rattlestick Theater (Draw The Circle), Playwrights Realm (My Mañana Comes), Ensemble Studio Theatre (Where Did We Sit on the Bus?), National Asian American Theatre Company (The House of Bernarda Alba) and Ma Yi Theatre (Last of the Suns). His regional credits include the Goodman Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, American Conservatory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Alley Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Hartford Stage, Denver Center Theater, Huntington Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, Kennedy Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, PlayMakers Repertory, Empty Space, Portland Center Stage, East West Players and Singapore Repertory Theatre. His opera credits include the world premieres of Osvaldo Golijov and David Henry Hwang’s Ainadamar (co-production with Tanglewood Music Center, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and LA Philharmonic) and Rob Zuidam’s Rage D’Amors (Tanglewood). He is a recipient of the Obie Award for Direction. Chayyew.com

Carolyn KUAN (Conductor). Recognized as a conductor of extraordinary versatility, Carolyn Kuan has enjoyed successful associations with top tier orchestras, opera companies, ballet companies, and festivals worldwide. She has served as Music Director of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra since 2011. Upcoming and recent engagements include performances with the Baltimore Symphony, the Columbus (OH) Symphony and the Colorado Symphony. Recently she conducted operatic productions that included Philip Glass’ Satyagraha with English National Opera, Harvey Milk with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and Huang Ruo’s M. Butterfly with Santa Fe Opera. Carolyn Kuan holds the distinction of being the first woman to be awarded the Herbert von Karajan Conducting Fellowship by the Herbert von Karajan Centrum and American Austrian Foundation in 2003.

Moderator:

Susan Yuqing Feng is Director of Programs at China Institute. Before joining CI, Susan was the Editor in Chief of Bitpush News, a leading block chain media based in New York and a columnist for the Financial Times Chinese Edition. Throughout her journalism career, Susan conducted interviews with a multitude of world economic and political leaders, including Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Alan Greenspan, Paul Volker, President Clinton, Zbigniew Brzeziński, Michael Bloomberg, Thomas Friedman, and many more. Susan has also directed the documentary series “World Movers” which was released in March 2018. It illustrated the emerging new world order 70 years after WWII, shedding light on what has changed the U.S. and the world and the forces affecting everyone. It focused on the relationships between technology and globalization, the impact on immigration, and the future of U.S.-China relations.