Starring Soprano Xin Wang and Percussionist Ryan Scott,
with a Libretto by Royce Vavrek Based on Fung’s Family History
November 26, 2021 at 7:30pm MST
Live on Edmonton Opera’s Facebook and YouTube
On-Demand on Edmonton Opera’s Website
“One of today’s most eclectic composers” – NPR
Edmonton, Alberta (November 2, 2021) — On Friday, November 26, 2021 at 7:30pm MST, Edmonton Opera presents the digital world premieres of Canadian composer Vivian Fung’s two operatic scenes, Grover and Friends and Alarm, as part of their Wild Rose Opera Project. The libretto is written by Royce Vavrek and Claire Friedrich serves as Stage Manager. The opera streams live on Edmonton Opera’s Facebook and YouTube and will be available on demand on Edmonton Opera’s website.
Starring soprano Xin Wang and percussionist Ryan Scott, Grover and Friends and Alarm are two scenes based on Fung’s family oral history that she gathered during the spring of 2021. Fung explains, “My extended family – including my maternal grandmother, uncles, aunts, and cousins – lived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in the 1970s as part of the overseas Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia. They were there quite happily, in fact, until shortly before the Khmer Rouge stormed the capital in April 1975 and drove everyone out. My family miraculously survived an arduous journey – over a month on foot in the countryside of Cambodia, and then in Vietnam. Ultimately, they ended up in Paris and Canada, but those events changed the course of my family forever. I also was born in 1975, and even though I was born and raised in Canada, my birth and childhood were deeply affected by omnipresent anxiety and uncertainty over my family’s situation and safety.”
Fung describes how only recently she has been able to piece together more completely her family history and how it affected her family members’ subsequent lives. She says, “I went to visit Cambodia for the first time in 2019 with my family – parents, son, and husband – and with some detective work, we were able to find my family’s former home and the hospital that my aunt ran, still standing all these years later but now abandoned. I look forward to returning and to continuing to understand more about their past.” Fung wants to thank Royce Vavrek for his wonderful text and intuitive grasp of what her family went through; and also her family for their contributions to the oral history and text.
Edmonton Opera’s Wild Rose Opera Project is a series of four short operatic works that each explore mental health issues through characters with ties to the Alberta landscape. Librettist Royce Vavrek has collaborated with composers Ian Cusson, John Estacio, Vivian Fung, and Bryce Kulak to create short works that will be premiered online beginning November 19, 2021. The project is made possible through the generous support of EPCOR’s Heart + Soul Fund.
Performance Information
Grover and Friends and Alarm
Friday, November 26, 2021 at 7:30pm MST on Edmonton Opera’s Facebook and YouTube
Free On Demand on Edmonton Opera’s Website
More Information: https://www.edmontonopera.com/
VIVIAN FUNG: Grover and Friends and Alarm
Libretto by ROYCE VAVREK
Xin Wang, soprano
Ryan Scott, percussionist
About Vivian Fung
JUNO Award-winning composer Vivian Fung has a unique talent for combining idiosyncratic textures and styles into large-scale works, reflecting her multicultural background. NPR calls her “one of today’s most eclectic composers.”
Highlights of upcoming performances include the digital world premiere of two operatic scenes based on Fung’s oral family history in Cambodia with librettist Royce Vavrek, part of Edmonton Opera’s The Wild Rose Opera Project; a United Kingdom tour of a new work with the Tangram Collective; the premiere of Fung’s fifth String Quartet by Canada’s Lafayette String Quartet; the French premiere of Earworms by the Orchestre de Paris; and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic’s UK premiere of String Sinfonietta. Mary Elizabeth Bowden tours her Trumpet Concerto and records it with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras for future release on Çedille Records. Fung is currently at work on a new project about identity with soprano Andrea Nunez and Royce Vavrek, an expanded version of her Flute Concerto, and upcoming percussion works for Katie Rife and also for Ensemble for These Times.
Recent season highlights include the world premiere of new flute concerto, Storm Within, by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and principal flutist Christie Reside; the UK premiere of Birdsong, performed by violinist Midori at Kings Place in London; the world premiere of a new trumpet concerto with trumpeter Mary Elizabeth Bowden and the Erie Philharmonic; and the world premiere of String Quartet No. 4 “Insects and Machines,” performed by the American String Quartet. In July 2020, the CBC and Toronto Symphony’s Virtual Orchestra gave the world premiere of Fung’s Prayer, a unique work recorded in isolation for an online performance led by conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin during the COVID-19 pandemic.
With a deep interest in exploring different cultures, Fung traveled to Cambodia in 2019 to connect with her roots and collect research for a new opera. She traveled to Southwest China in 2012 to study minority music and cultures, and has also explored North Vietnam, Spain, and Bali.
Fung has received numerous awards and grants, including the 2015 Jan V. Matejcek New Classical Music Award for achievement in new music from SOCAN, a Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, the New York Foundation for the Arts’ Gregory Millard Fellowship, and grants from ASCAP, BMI, American Music Center, MAP Fund, American Symphony Orchestra League, American Composers Forum, and the Canada Council for the Arts. She is an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre and currently serves on the board of the American Composers Forum.
Passionate about fostering the talent of the next generation, Vivian Fung has mentored young composers in programs at the London Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Forum, San Francisco Contemporary Chamber Players, San José Youth Chamber Orchestra, and Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.
In 2012, Naxos Canadian Classics released a recording of Fung’s Violin Concerto [No.1], Piano Concerto “Dreamscapes,” and Glimpses. The Violin Concerto, commissioned by the Metropolis Ensemble, earned Fung the 2013 JUNO Award for “Classical Composition of the Year.” Several of Fung’s other works have also been released commercially on the Telarc, Çedille, Innova, and Signpost labels.
Born in Edmonton, Canada, Fung received her doctorate from The Juilliard School. She currently lives in California with her husband Charles Boudreau and their son Julian and is on the faculty of Santa Clara University. Learn more at www.vivianfung.ca.
About Royce Vavrek
Royce Vavrek is an Alberta-born, Brooklyn-based librettist and lyricist who has been called “the indie Hofmannsthal” (The New Yorker) a “Metastasio of the downtown opera scene” (The Washington Post), “an exemplary creator of operatic prose” (The New York Times), and “one of the most celebrated and sought after librettists in the world” (CBC Radio). His opera Angel’s Bone with composer Du Yun was awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Learn more at www.roycevavrek.com.
About Xin Wang
Xin Wang was born in Yunnan, a South western province of China. She arrived alone in Canada at the age of 18 to study singing. Her path took her from Winnipeg to Toronto where she settled and built her home of three beautifully loud children and a charismatic husband with many saxophones. Xin is most interested in the mechanism of the singing body and is most stimulated by the learning of intricate music. This has led her to the world of contemporary repertoire. The learning of complex contemporary repertoire has been a gift. These musical puzzles push her towards her threshold while build her up from within, a similar experience as motherhood. Learn more at www.xinwang.ca/bio.html.
About Ryan Scott
Dr. Ryan Scott is a marimba and multi-percussion soloist who has performed extensively in contemporary music festivals, orchestras and chamber groups around the globe. He is a stalwart figure in the Toronto contemporary music community having performed in over 400 world premieres. In addition to his work as a regular guest artist with NEXUS, Principal Percussionist of the Esprit Orchestra and Percussionist in the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra since 1996, he is also a faculty member at the NYOC. A core member of Continuum Contemporary Music, he also serves the organization as Artistic Director. Learn more at ryanscottpercussion.com.
About Claire Friedrich
Claire Friedrich is a Vancouver Island based stage manager who holds a BFA in Theatre from the University of Victoria. She is thrilled to be back working with Edmonton Opera and stage managing The Wild Rose Opera Project after previously working as an ASM on HMS Pinafore and Elektra. This past year Claire has been fortunate to work as the ASM on Bon Appetit, The Italian Lesson and The Garden of Alice, three operas adapted for film and produced by Pacific Opera Victoria. Up next Claire returns to Victoria to ASM Bizet’s Carmen with Pacific Opera Victoria.
