ROBERT DICK

ROBERT DICK

Award-winning Flutist, Composer, Teacher & Author

I decided that I wanted to explore the flute. I mean really explore the flute. People had known a few multi-phonics where you could play two notes. But they had been basically “special effects”, sort of sprinkled into a traditional line to spice it up. And I thought, why not just go the whole way? So my concept that first of all music is made by people. All art is made by people. Music is not made by instruments. The sound of the flute is silence. The sound of the piano is silence. The mark of a brush is a white canvas until the person makes the mark. So music comes from people. We use instruments.

BRIGHT SHENG

BRIGHT SHENG

MacArthur & ASCAP Award-Winning Composer, Conductor & Pianist
Founder & Artistic Director of Intimacy of Creativity at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

I try to preserve the Chinese music flavor. So, you imagine in Chinese band, the country music that people usually reserve for weddings or for big moments or for funerals. That kind of a feeling. Drums and music playing. I try to preserve it from my memory because what we have now is just a tune. You can probably recognize the tune, but the execution of translating that for a Western orchestra and make it sound like it’s a Chinese band playing Chinese instruments.