Vivian Fung Interviewed for Migration Music 遷徙之樂
Pianist and composer Han Chen’s “Migration Music 遷徙之樂” interview series features a conversation with Vivian Fung and a performance of Fung’s Glimpses.
"Does that mean that I always have to be, you know, doing XYZ in order to be called an Asian composer?" Vivian disputed after telling me about her journey to finding her Asian heritage through music and travel.
"My philosophy is that, first and foremost, I'm a humanist." Vivian continued to assert, adding that we should not use these categories, such as race and gender, to define a composer.
JUNO award-winning composer, Vivian Fung has been busy with new commissions during the lockdown, in spite of having her five-year-old son needing her all the time and the turmoil going on in the world. "It just evokes something very strong and so I put that into the music," Vivian described the composing of her new flute concerto "Storm Within" which is going to be premiered by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
She also provided a new perspective on the subject of heritage to the Migration Music series. Vivian is the first composer I interviewed to be born into an immigrant family in North America.
Her story confirms the "forever foreigner" stereotype Asian Americans often face, as she could neither identify herself with her white peers nor relate to her mom's nostalgia. "That's why music became an outlet for me because it became something that I could non-verbally explore things that I couldn't express otherwise."
When she was composing the piece Glimpsesfor prepared piano, Vivian started to turn to Balinese Gamelan because its fast-paced interlocking rhythm and heterophonic structure fascinated her. Vivian also magically turned the piano into a Gamelan ensemble, a format she was closely related to as both a composer and a performer.