Classical Voice North America: Sea To Shining Sea: New Music To Brighten America’s Celebrations
“PERSPECTIVE — A celebration wouldn’t be a celebration without music. So it’s hardly surprising that American composers both well-established and up-and-coming have been commissioned to write works to mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence…
+ Vivian Fung, America the Beautiful?, July 31, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music (Santa Cruz, Calif.), Cristian Măcelaru, conductor.
Fung, 51, grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, where her Chinese-born parents sought to preserve as much of their Asian heritage as possible while also striving to assimilate into Canadian society. She later moved to the United States as a student and became a dual citizen in 2015.
Three previous works by the Kensington, Calif., resident have been performed at the Cabrillo Festival, where she has a good relationship with its artistic leadership and orchestra musicians. “I think it’s a natural fit,” she said, “because I’m also a resident of California and I’ve gotten to know the Cabrillo Festival as part of my family, so to speak.”
Festival leaders invited her to write an orchestral piece to mark the 250th using “The Star-Spangled Banner” as a starting point. The resulting creation, which she finished in mid-May, contains a raucous mix of recognizable quotations from the American national anthem as well as those of China and Canada — a reflection of her mixed heritage.
“I’m an American citizen and I’m proudly so,” Fung said, “but it also comes with a lot of conflict. I wish to air that conflict in the piece. So, at the end of the day, I want to leave this idea of hope, but there is a question mark, because this time is so fraught now. So, this piece is really going to be charged with a lot of the questions about this experiment that is called the United States.”
If that sounds like a lot for a five-minute piece, Fung agrees. “That’s the challenge,” she said.”