I Care If You Listen: Dai Wei Finds Freedom in Expression in Unconventional Career, with New Orchestral Commission

I Care If You Listen
By Chrysanthe Tane

Dai Wei was a timid child with a giant tape recorder in her room. At age 11, she started recording herself singing and strumming guitar onto a blank cassette, the tape recorder as her personal diary. When her mother discovered the secret tape, Dai Wei felt that she had done something wrong. Fortunately, her mother was supportive and encouraged her to keep pursuing music.

…

With support from Allen R. and Judy Brick Freedman, the Curtis Symphony Orchestra recently commissioned a new orchestral work from Dai Wei for their first-ever West Coast tour (coming up May 12-22). Dai Wei’s idea for Awakening Lion began with the simple realization that she had never represented her Cantonese identity in music before. With that as her starting point, she approached the composition “like a chef,” grabbing different ingredients — short sounds, ideas, and motives — to support the concept of a Cantonese Lion Dance. One of the ingredients in the piece is having two cellists evoke a guqin by plucking their strings with a guitar pick. Another is having the orchestra imitate martial arts calls by shouting “oooooooo a-HA!” “I aimed to provoke the spirit of the awakening lion,” Dai Wei said, “the inner strength which presents in everyone, regardless of where we come from, who we love, or our gender.”

Read more here.

Photo Credit: Sha Tao