R e c e n t W o r k :
10
years back, Mark decided to return to more classical/ “serious” contemporary music and has created 5 ground-breaking major works over the past 5 years:小 玩 意 - Silent FIlm Scoring
2 November - Shanghai Concert Hall - 7:30pm
SHANGHAI ARTS FESTIVAL - SINGAPORE SEASON 2007
click here for - > INFO ON LITTLE TOYS < - click here for
Dreaming of Kuanyin, Meeting Madonna
Mark Chan with Angela Liong of the Arts Fission dance Company and Brian Gothong Tan
A wide-ranging exploration of spirituality, fame, truth and materialism created from a text and musical score of Mark's
it takes the audience on a roller-coaster ride
fusing pop with fine art, mantra and sutra with plainchant, dance club with prayer, sacred gesture with modern dance
Commissioned by the Singapore Arts Festival
A sparkling, unconventional production that examines the unresolved collision of the Spiritual and the Mundane in our modern urban life. Music, Dance, Video & Text explore the cohabitation and cross-pollination of East and West using the dynamic triangle of:
The Bodhisattva Kuanyin - all-seeing, all-hearing, all-forgiving in her compassion and far-sight;
The Madonna - gentle as a dove, the receptacle of divine love and the object of human adoration;
The Pop idol - symbol of our modern urban ethos: ambitious, material, questing, fame seeking, achieving, over-reaching, human.
"It would be hard to imagine a more auspicious return to the Singapore Arts Festival by musician Mark Chan than his multimedia performance over the weekend. Dreaming of Kuanyin, Meeting Madonna, which wrapped up its two-night run on Saturday, ended Chan's four-year Artsfest hiatus. It was excellent...Despite the specificity of the project's roots, the universality of its exploration of insomnia, peace and conflict, stood out in performance....
But it was the music that really stood out. Chan's four-octave range was on good display, constantly engaging in all its incarnations, from unearthly falsetto to witty dialogue. Wong's erhu performance was beautiful, and sent chills running up my spine, especially during duets with Chan on Chinese flute, and with pre-recorded electric guitar played by Wil Kolen.
If this is the kind of quality that we can expect from Chan, then his new album should be well worth waiting for. "
Christopher Lim, Business Times 4 June 2007
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< O P I U M E - chamber Opera >
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listen to
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d o w n l o a d
p l a y e r
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< Singapore Arts Festival 2004, Hong Kong New Vision Arts Festival 2004 – Main programme highlight >
His most ambitious work so far. Mark was responsible for both the libretto and the music and, together with Casey Lim, was co-creator of the production.
Inspired by the events of the illicit opium trafficking that took place in China in the 19th century, the opera is a modern view of not only what took place but also a comment on how we live our lives now: the difficulties of cultural interaction, the power play, the dangers and seduction of drug use and also the harsh reality of economic trade and imbalance.
The chamber opera is written in 6 parts:
1) Discovery 2) Intoxication 3) Economics 4) Addiction 5) Conflict 6) Epiphany
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< c l i c k t o v i e w e x c e r p t >
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< c l i c k t o v i e w e x c e r p t >
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< c l i c k t o v i e w e x c e r p t >
Reflections On War & Reflections on Peace:
Commissioned by the Singapore Heritage Board for the permanent war museum at Bukit Chandu.
These 2 Photopoems are a striking fusion of still photographs, text and music providing comment on both present day reality and the fragility of peace and also looking back on the horrors and bravery of the 2nd World War, with specific reference to Singapore.
The photographs for Reflections On War were used with the kind permission of various national museums, press archives, heritage archives and war memorials from around the world.
(for Mark's personal description of his Photopoems click here)
( all music, images, text and video on this webpage composed, created and copyrighted by Mark Chan
archive photographs from various museums used with permission )
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< L I T T L E T O Y S >
c
l i c k t o l i s t e n
to excerpt from Little Toys
Silent Film scoring
(2003 Hong Kong Arts Festival & 2003 Singapore Arts Festival – Main Programme Highlight in both festivals)
A co-commission from the Hong Kong and the Singapore Arts Festivals, it is the first serious and full-scale scoring of a 1930s silent b/w film from China ever created.
Again, using Mark’s trademark blend of Western and Chinese classical instruments (cello, erhu, pipa, guanzi, piano, percussion) it has been hailed a milestone in the moving forward of Asian music.
It opened to resounding response in Hong Kong and followed suit in Singapore and also toured to Copenhagen in the same year. Talks are now underway to bring the production to Paris.
(Dear Mr Chan,My husband and I have attended many Arts Festival performances--Cesaria Evora, the French National Orchestra, the Hagen Quartet, Yundi Li--and as much as we thought we would LIKE Little Toys, we did not expect it to so thoroughly trounce, in our opinion, all of the other performances we had attended. The film itself was a revelation, and your music was sublime. May I ask if you are planning to release a CD with some or all of the music you scored for the film? Because if so, I can already guarantee you several buyers!
With my most sincere appreciation,Jacqueline Deley ... )
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< E M A I L & E T E R N I T Y >
Singapore Chinese Orchestra - 2003
Commissioned by the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, this unusual full-length piece stretches the boundaries of the Chinese classical ensemble, taking the analogy of modern air-travel and using that to reveal the hidden spirituality of modern life.
Strongly modal and mathematical in style, the music is never overwhelmed by the intellectual aspects.
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all music on this website composed and copyrighted by Mark Chan
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