Cultural Resonance

Overview

Researcher: Tim Zhen Tian

‘What has all of this got to do with coconut and rice?’ This question, asked by the Pilipino pianist Jose Maceda after performing concerts of Western repertoire, possibly summarises the concern faced by many non-Western performers about identity and ownership. As a composer from China, I often draw musical inspirations from my cultural heritage and have always been interested in understanding the cultural resonance my music might evoke among my performers. 

In this research, I work closely with solo instrumentalists from a variety of backgrounds: a Chinese Australian violist, a Chinese pianist, a Czech guitarist and a Hong Kongese clarinettist. The pieces I write will be based on different subject matters from Asian culture: paintings, poetry, folk instruments and pop songs. Using qualitative methods in workshops and interviews, I evaluate how the performers’ sense of identity and ownership evolves throughout our collaboration. As a result, I hope to gain new insights in how to work with performers on solo projects and ways of evoking cultural resonance through the collaborative process. 

Image: by Raymond Yiu