Shiau-uen Ding

15 minutes to 12: pieces pour la fin du monde

Vox Novus is calling for one-minute works for piano or works for piano and electronic playback (tape) composed for 15-Minutes-of-Fame: Shiau-uen Ding to be performed at the February 12, 2012 on the Composer's Voice concert in New York City. "15 minutes to 12: pieces pour la fin du monde": Fifteen one-minute works for piano or piano and electronics are to be associated with the end of the world in 2012, written specifically for this project for pianist Shiau-uen Ding.

A native of Taiwan, pianist Shiau-uen Ding is a rising presence on the new and electro-acoustic music scenes, and an original and energetic performer of traditional solo and chamber repertoire. She studied piano with Eugene Pridonoff, Elizabeth Pridonoff, and Lina Yeh, computer music with Mara Helmuth and Christopher Bailey, and contemporary improvisation with Alan Bern at National Taiwan Normal University and University of Cincinnati, where she received her doctoral degree. She lives in New York City.

She has performed in France, Germany, Belgium, China, and throughout the US and Taiwan. Her virtuosic and sensitive interpretations have won standing ovations. She was called a "daredevil" by the New York Times for her performance at Bang on a Can Marathon and "a powerful force on the new music scene" by Array for her performance at Spark Festival in Minneapolis. She was a semifinalist in both International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition in Amsterdam and Concours International de Piano d'Orleans. She has collaborated with internationally renowned performers and composers, including Steve Reich, Michael Kugel, George Tsontakis, who refers to her performance of his Ghost Variations as a "monster performance," and Moritz Eggert, who dedicated his Hammerklavier XIX: Hymnen der Welt (Afghanistan bis Zimbabwe) to her. In addition, new compositions have been written for her by Mara Helmuth, Christopher Bailey, Eric Lyon, Burton Beerman, and Naxos artist Gao Ping. She has recorded for Capstone, Centaur, Innova and Electric Music Collective.

Concert Dates

  • February 12, 2012 - 15 minutes to 12: pieces pour la fin du monde - New York City

15 one-minute selections for 15 minutes to 12: pieces pour la fin du monde - New York City

Concert program

  • Prelude on the So-Called Armageddon Chord

    Christopher Bailey

    Christopher Bailey is a freelance composer residing in Boston, MA. His new album, Immolation Ritual, featuring Shiau-Uen Ding, Gabriela Diaz, Marilyn Nonken, and many other amazing performers, is out on Innova Records. For more information, MP3s, projects, aesthetic screeds, and embarrassing 90's-style web design, see his website: Google Christopher Bailey; skip over the fashion guy.

    A Prelude based on the so-called "Armageddon Chord", which first appeared in the work Sand of 2002.

  • After the Rapture-Just Me and the Cat

    John G. Bilotta

    John G. Bilotta lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. His works have been performed around the world and his recordings are distributed by Naxos. He serves on the Executive Committee of the Society of Composers, Inc., and on the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Cabaret Opera.

    The Great Transformation, Endgame, Galactic Convergence, Singularity, what you will, transfigured, envisioning eternity, enraptured, everyone, the world unborn in idyll-and me and the cat languoring in the sun-dappled yard rolling peanuts to the squirrels.

  • Paradox

    Francesco DiFiore

    Pianist and composer born in Palermo, Italy, in 1966, Francesco DiFiore studies at Palermo Conservatory and Prague Music Academy. Winner of internationals competitions. Has performed in Italy, Germany, Austria, Hungary, France, Czech Republic, Austria, Usa, Uk. He is author of contemporary music from postmodern-postminimalist area and contaminations from other genres.

    I presume, with a logical paradox, that the apocalypse will never occur. Musically, the paradox is reported using a time unit which for the performer is different than the one perceived by the listener. Besides, the symbolically associated section to the catastrophic event is immediately denied by the reprise itself.

  • espacio blanco para toda la nieve

    Turkar Gasim-zada

    Turkar Gasim-zada born August 19, 1988 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Winner: "Crystal Kamerton" Moscow ; 3rd "Omnibus Laboratorium", Tashkent; Jordan Berk Memorial Prize, Manhattan School of Music, New York; "Unique Forms of Continuity in Space" Melbourne. MM in composition: Manhattan School of Music, New York/ 2011 - DMA in composition: University of Cincinnati/ recently

    The composition is a musical response to the poem "El future es espacio" by Pablo Neruda. The selected part of the poem indicates the structure of the composition. Whispered text becomes the mystical background consisting of blurry/cloud-colored whispering sound texture for the traditional music sounds.

  • Degrees of Freedom

    John Gibson

    John Gibson's electroacoustic and instrumental music has been performed worldwide and is available on the Centaur, Everglade, and SEAMUS labels. He is Assistant Professor of Composition at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

    The world will end in 2012, but not because the Mayans said so, or because the earth's crust will suddenly shift, or because the sun will cross the midpoint of the Milky Way. It's because of the robots. Yes, the robots -- they're watching (and dancing).

  • Breaking the Rules

    Murray Gross

    An award-winning composer and conductor, Murray Gross studied at New England Conservatory, Oberlin College, and Michigan State University. Currently on the faculty at Alma College (Michigan), his compositions have been performed by the New York New Music Ensemble, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and numerous professional and collegiate ensembles.

    People usually follow the given norms; but if the world was coming to an end, would they be motivated to veer off course and make unexpected choices? Composed for Shiau-uen Ding, this piece does just that: creating expectations, then breaking away with wild abandon - with nothing left to lose.

  • Black & White

    Iman Habibi

    Iman Habibi, MMUS (UBC 2010), is an award-winning composer and pianist, residing in Vancouver, BC. Hailed as a “giant in talent,” his music has been programmed by organizations such as The Marilyn Horne Foundation (New York), The Canadian Opera Company (Toronto), and Tapestry New Opera (Toronto).


    The horrors of history,
    glitter seamlessly
    as their present shadow
    thickens

  • Clash!

    Bert Van Herck

    Bert Van Herck was trained as a pianist and composer at the Lemmensinstitute in Belgium and obtained a PhD in composition from Harvard University. His music has a wide range of variety, with special interest in electronic music and large ensemble/orchestra.

    "Clash!" for piano and tape, is written for Shiau-uen Ding to be included in the project "15 minutes to 12: pieces pour la fin du monde". In this one minute composition, a catastrophe is reached, and everything changes until it is the same again. Absurd or surreal, the clash did happen!

  • Get me a rag!

    Stanley M. Hoffman

    Stanley M. Hoffman (b. 1959, Cleveland, Ohio) holds degrees in Music Composition from Brandeis University (Ph.D.), New England Conservatory of Music (M.M.) and Boston Conservatory (B.M.). His music is published by ECS Publishing, Oxford University Press, Wehr's Music House and Fatrock Ink. He is currently Chief Editor at ECS Publishing.

    People have been saying that the world is going to end since time immemorial. I think the 2012 prediction is hooha. For this call for scores, I composed a "rag" (double entendre intended). "If the world is going to end in 2012, it is going to create quite a mess."

  • The End

    Eric Lyon

    Eric is a composer and developer of computer music software. He is a co-developer of FFTease, and developer of the LyonPotpourri MaxMSP objects. His recent compositional output includes works for the Smith Quartet, NeXT Ens., Kathleen Supové, and a trio for flute, clarinet and computer commissioned for the opening of the NOVARS studio complex at Manchester University.

  • So Long, Seymour

    Mark Neal

    Mark Neal is an Australian composer who began his studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, winning the Doris Burnett Ford Scholarship and the Geoff Bailey Memorial Award. He graduated from the University of Newcastle with a Bachelor of Music and in 2008 was awarded the Music Lovers' Club Prize for Composition.

    To the individual, death is the end of their world. This piece musically represents - from the Kubler-Ross Model - three of the five stages of grief (in order): Anger, Depression, Acceptance. The 'street sounds' accompaniment is an apathetic and absurd world, playing with the piece, but never connecting in any real way.

  • Pulsar

    Sergio Naddei

    Born in Naples in 1981, Sergio Naddei is graduated in Guitar with Ciro Gentile (Conservatory of Salerno) and in Electronic Music with Agostino di Scipio (Conservatory of Naples), also studied composition with Giancarlo Turaccio (Conservatory of Naples). He has attended composition's seminaries with Fabio Vacchi, Alessandro Solbiati and Salvatore Sciarrino. His compositions have been performed in important festivals and in prestigious halls. Currently work as guitarist, performer of electronic music and teacher.He is creator and director of the contemporary music group Collettivo Neaphonis.

    Beat, pulse, start, end, life, transitions.. The vibrations of the electronic part and the vibrations of the piano influence each other for creating a different, (living!) acoustic space, that dissolves in a primordial pulsation.

  • Futuro Oscuro

    Akmal Parwez

    While studying electronics in Tokyo on a Japanese Government scholarship, composer-vocalist Akmal Parwez studied composition with Yasushi Akutagawa and Klaus Pringsheim. After completing his university studies (B.E., M.E.), he felt compelled to devote his life to composing, singing and teaching music. In the U.S. he studied composition with Florence Jolley, Leo Kraft, Samuel Adler(M.A., Queens College; Ph.D., Eastman School of Music).

    'Futuro Oscuro', meaning 'Dark Future', is written to depict feelings of ominous and foreboding despair for the future of mankind. It is built on only 6 pitches, which are used in various permutations and combinations. The work is dedicated to pianist Ding Shiau-uen.

  • The Final Peace

    Paul SanGregory

    Born in Ohio and educated in Ohio and Indiana, Paul SanGregory now lives, teaches and composes in southern Taiwan. While the trajectory of this orbit has taken him physically to the outer reaches of the compositional universe, he remains a prolific and successful composer in his own right.

    "The Final Peace" ...gonna be a long, long time... Technically, this piece is like a pop song bathed in a sparkling pitch-class set. It isn't really about the end of the world. It's about a universe without people. That universe will be much as it is now, but will lack our human consciousness. Peace realized at last.

  • fin du monde

    Nolan Stolz

    Nolan Stolz's music has been performed throughout Europe, North and South America by such groups as the Yale Brass Trio, Avery Ensemble, and the Alturas Duo. Stolz grew up in Las Vegas and now teaches at the University of South Dakota.

    "fin du monde" is based on just two pitches: "A" and "C#. The electronic part uses a sample from a Steinway's "A" and "C#," and is stretched and played backwards and forwards. The piano part illuminates certain overtones of those samples.