Vancouver Symphony Premieres Flute Concerto
Gail Johnson from Stir interviews Vivian Fung about her new flute concerto’s world premiere at Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s upcoming virtual concert.
VIVIAN FUNG WAS about seven years old when she first started writing music and 17 when she left her hometown of Edmonton to study composition at the Juilliard School, where she went on to earn her Doctorate of Musical Arts in Music Composition and join the faculty. It might surprise some to hear that the JUNO-winning composer considers herself a late bloomer of sorts.
Fung—who recently composed a new flute concerto for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra that will soon have its world premiere—explains that during her post-secondary schooling, she was immersed in Western musical concepts. While she loved attending one of the world’s leading arts-education centres, she notes that her studies were largely devoid of any Asian influence representative of her Cantonese culture. It was only when she began travelling abroad that her deepest learning began.
Modern flute concertos are (to say the least), few and far between, and with its combination of modern textures, a virtuoso solo line, and Fung’s fundamental sense of lyricism, one can see this new concerto appealing to audience and players alike. – Edmonton Journal
Neither a lament, at least in a traditional sense, nor a clear-cut vehicle of silvery bravura, Storm Within is a substantial sonic portrait of its solo instrument in a present-day context. Clad in evocative dialogue between the soloist and the orchestra, often manifested in the most intricate instrumental groupings, the concerto constitutes a fabulous sonic entity. – Adventures in Music
Fung’s concerto, on the other hand, was true to her title from beginning to end. She definitely transcended any pun about the depiction of a storm being relegated to a wind instrument. More significantly, there was no shortage of cadenza passages depicting the elements at their fiercest. – The Rehearsal Studio