HSING

Music and libretto by Yuan-Keng Ling

Composer: Yuan-Keng Ling

Libretto: Yuan-Keng Ling

Duration: 16min

Instrumentation: sop, mezzo, bari, cl, sax, perc

Director: Nathan Troup

Duration: 2016

Status: Inactive

ABOUT THE OPERA

This story is about Hsing, who had stolen a watch from his classmate in his childhood. His fault was disproportionately magnified and he sort of gives up on being the type of person he is because who he is had led to harsh environment. In the following scene, Hsing is an adult working as a writer who complies with his editor too much. The person from whom he had stolen the watch, Ming, is Hsing's girlfriend now. She misses the playful personality of Hsing and is torn between his stubbornness and what she had loved in Hsing. Meanwhile, Hsing's editor is skeptical of his writing and wants him change when Ming tries to convince Hsing to stand up for himself.

ABOUT THE COMPOSER

Ling YuanKeng is a junior pursuing a B.A. in Music in composition and performance (cello) at Brandeis University. He is from Taiwan and has studied composition with Eric Chasalow, Yu-Hui Chang, David Rakowski, and Wen-Pin Lee. He currently studies cello with Josh Gordon from the Lydian String Quartet. YuanKeng is interested in writing all kinds of music from contemporary classical music, music for traditional Asian instruments, to music for his Taipei-based band, NotforSale. He is most interested in music that considers surroundings (spaces, people, culture) during the compositional process.