Journey of 1000 Miles Spotlight: Yangfan Xu
- Leah Froyd
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Hi, and welcome to our spotlight series supporting our upcoming concert series, Journey of 1000 Miles starting May 3rd!!
This week’s spotlight is very special to me— We will be talking to my dear friend, Yangfan Xu. Ms. Xu and I attended music conservatory together and I had the honor of listening to and premiering her pieces during our studies. Since graduating, her career has taken off, winning multiple composition awards like 2023 Boston New Music Initiative Commission Competition, the 2021 Society for New Music's Israel/Pellman Award, and the 1st Prize of the 2020 Hausmann Quartet Quarantine Composition Competition. She is currently pursuing a DMA at the New England Conservatory of Music, studying with Kati Agócs.
Without further ado, here is our interview:
Q. How was Dogon Masks originally commissioned?
I regularly receive commissions for new works, but this one was a part of a project spearheaded by the viola professor at Juilliard, Carol Rodland. The project paired together composers and violists in her studio to create several pieces of new music!
The violist I was paired with was Yuchen Lu who was an amazing partner. He encouraged me to keep elements of my own voice but added a lot of fun new techniques like tapping on the instrument and finding the “pipa pizz” sound. I was afraid of writing for the higher register on the viola but he actually helped me make sure everything I wrote was idiomatic for the instrument.
This project was so influential to me– I realized that my favorite instrument to write for is viola and I recently finished a duet for two violas inspired by my work with Yuchen.
Q. By coincidence, this is the second piece I’ve played by you which was inspired by burial rites and rituals (the first being Ecstatic Burial for Pipa and String Quartet). Is there something particularly fascinating about the way different cultures interpret death?
Yes, I’m obsessed with rituals and different cultures. During my degree, I took an African music class centered on learning about music in Ghana and Mali– where the Dogon people live, so all of this new information gave me the creative spark for this piece.
To me, there is a relationship between the Dogon monkey mask and the Monkey King character in chinese culture, Sun Wukong 孫悟空. His story, Journey to the West 西遊記 was my favorite novel as a kid and I watched, read, and consumed all media that had to do with it. I found all the short stories really fascinating and I even came up with original tunes for all the characters in the story, but my favorite scene is in the beginning where the Monkey King is introduced as the main character living in his monkey tribe. I loved the imagery of the idyllic community with waterfalls and beautiful nature.
Another piece I wrote, Fantastic Creatures of the Mountains and Seas (2022) was inspired by the Shanhai Jin 山海经.The piece is for narration and orchestra and tells the story of a huntress who falls into a parallel universe where she encounters mythical creatures from the Shanhai Jin. Each of the creatures she meets has its own musical motif, but we also follow the huntress’ journey of meeting the characters and befriending them until she eventually turns into a willow tree.
Q. In this piece, you use a lot of techniques that are in your other works, maybe most obvious is the pipa pizz. How do you preserve your compositional voice across different inspirations? What impression do you hope audiences will take from hearing your signature motifs and style?
My compositional voice is very natural and I feel like it is very strongly tied to my identity. At the same time, I wanted to be respectful to other cultures, so while I was writing this piece I took my research very seriously.
My own style is a melting pot of all my inspirations: for example in Dogon Masks, you might hear some rhythmic elements from the Dogon tradition, jazzy chords, and my own Chinese cultural heritage. This is a synthesis that reflects who I have become.
Q. What are some of your favorite moments in the piece?
My favorite part is the slow dream section in the middle. I remember I was asked what I was envisioning during this part of the piece-- as simple as it sounds, my imagery was the Monkey sitting under a tree craving a banana. I love how peaceful and cute they are!
The piece is also dedicated to my cat, Logan. A lot of the sudden movements and gestures in the piece were inspired by watching him run around my apartment.
Q. You’ve had experience holding multiple identities– a woman, asian, immigrant, global citizen– would you mind talking about your experiences so far?
I moved to the states when I was 18 to start school at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, but I always considered myself to be a traveller. I moved a lot growing up in China and moved out when I was 16 to go to a music high school. Since moving to the US, I’ve lived in a total of 4 cities and also travel frequently for musical projects.
I find it quite challenging to be a minority in a field that is still dominated by white men and their achievements. I can tell equal representation is something many places are striving towards, but there are always small roadblocks that I encounter like orchestras advertising an open call for submissions but requiring US citizenship in order to be considered.
Situations like this are particularly frustrating to me since I identify as an American composer having lived my adult life in America yet I don’t always feel the reciprocated acceptance from institutions.
One milestone in my career was about two years ago when my piece premiered with the New Jersey Symphony. It had always been my dream to become a symphonic composer so I was already very excited, but after the concert a young asian girl came up to me and told be how inspired she was and in that moment I realized that was my purpose: my higher calling is to show the younger generation that this is possible. We can do things that everyone else can– we even do it better! I still look back on that memory and keep in touch with that girl to remind myself of this higher calling and to motivate myself after facing rejection.
Q. What do you desire? What’s your next level up?
I consider myself to be very ambitious– I want to be the next big name composer. I’m always asking myself, how do I get my name in the music history textbook?
Moreso, I want to create the kind of artwork that speaks to myself. I believe that if the music speaks to myself it will speak to everyone. I have a string quartet premiering in July that is very special to me titled Letters From Home. The piece is inspired by my father’s compositions– I incorporated some of his work and then created my own variations and interpretations to create a full reflection of our relationship and tribute to his memory.
My next project will be my dissertation to complete my degree– a symphony about aliens. I’ve always been a fan of sci-fi and decided that I needed to write something I feel truly passionate about. For this composition, I wrote my own story line that the piece will illustrate. My hope is that I will be able to collaborate with a local dance company to turn it into a multidisciplinary performance!
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