In this lecture, Professor Ye Guohui of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music discusses his interpretations of historical Chinese music and culture, and shows how he expressed ancient music scenes in his compositions. Specifically, he will discuss his musical rendition of Gu Hong’s (937-975) Night Revels of Han Xizai, a masterpiece of Chinese painting, which vividly portrays five women playing music over a thousand years ago.

Dr. Ye Guohui is a composer, professor and chair of the Composition Department of Shanghai Conservatory of Music. His compositions have been acknowledged in numerous prestigious competitions and music awards. Most notably, his "Late Autumn for Orchestra" won the European Composer Award in 2007, after which he was commissioned to compose the festival hymn "Echo" for Young Euro Classic 2008. This award winning piece was performed by the participating orchestras from all over the world and was highly praised as "fanfare from China" by European media. His representative works include "Sound Space II" for Erhu , "Early Spring" for female chorus, "Sunset in Yangguan" and "A cappella II" for chamber music, "To Mozart" for cello concerto, "Listening to Jiangnan" for Pipa and grand Chinese orchestra, and lastly for symphonic chorus.

This talk is part of CIUM's Chinese Arts and Culture Festival from September 24 to September 27, 2014.