Taiwanese percussionist Wu Pei- ching (吳珮菁) is to play 43 instruments in a guest performance with the Portland Symphony Orchestra in the US on Sunday after months of practice that she described as a “rewarding” challenge.
“I have been practicing the piece since mid-2023. The concerto was composed to demonstrate new sounds and rhythms not usually associated with percussion,” Wu said, referring to the piece she is to perform, US composer John Corigliano’s Conjurer.
Wu first received the invitation from the orchestra based in Portland, Maine, in January last year to join it and guest conductor Marco Parisotto in a performance of the Grammy and Oscar-winning composer’s only percussion concerto, she said.
Photo courtesy of Wu Pei-ching via CNA
The 35-minute piece requires a solo percussionist to play 43 instruments corresponding to the titles of its three movements — Wood, Metal and Skin — according to the orchestra’s introduction to the concerto.
The 43 instruments range from a marimba, wood blocks, glockenspiel and tubular bells to various drums, including a “talking drum,” an hourglass-shaped West African instrument Wu had never played before, but which has an important role in the third movement, she said.
“In Corigliano’s composition, the ‘talking drum’ is not played with a stick or under one’s armpit, but with the hands and between the legs. It’s very difficult because each leg has to play it to a different rhythm,” Wu said.
Wu, a senior member of the Ju Percussion Group, spent the Lunar New Year holiday rehearsing the piece at the music group’s headquarters in Taipei rather than returning to Taichung to spend the break with her family, she said, adding that it was time well spent.
“I think I finally kind of feel like I’ve got it,” she said.
Parisotto, artistic director of the Ontario Philharmonic in Canada, said he had never heard Wu play, but many of his colleagues recommended her. The Montreal native said he was drawn to the emotions and exquisite musicality expressed in Wu’s performances.
The concert Wu is to perform in as a soloist is titled American Beats, and is to feature other “uniquely American compositions,” including Leonard Bernstein’s Overture to Candide, Aaron Copland’s Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes and George Gershwin’s Catfish Row: Symphonic Suite from Porgy and Bess, the orchestra said.
The concert is to take place at the Merrill Auditorium in Portland, Maine.
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