From a press release:
Du Yun, an internationally acclaimed composer who is currently in residence at the Ucross Foundation, will give a presentation on her music at Sheridan College on Thursday, June 10, from 2:00-3:00 p.m. The event will take place in the CTEL Auditorium and is open to the public at no charge.
Born in Shanghai, China, and now living in New York City, Du Yun was awarded a Ucross Fellowship as part of a new collaboration between the Ucross Foundation and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Elaine Lebenbom Memorial Award for Female Composers. Du Yun was named the winner of this year’s award, which includes a commissioned piece that will be performed by the Detroit Symphony during the 2010-2011 season. Du Yun was also invited to spend time in residence at Ucross to work on her new commission.
The Elaine Lebenbom Award stands alone, internationally, as the only annual symphony-sponsored award competition exclusively for women composers. It was inspired by composer, teacher, poet, artist and lecturer Elaine Lebenbom, a resident of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, who died in 2002. Du Yun says of winning the award, “I am thrilled to work with the musicians of the DSO. I am indebted to all the people, men and women, before me who have worked hard to pave the way for my generation. Hopefully, I might play a role in this, helping, as other composers, musicians, and organizations have, to build a strong lineage within our time and for future generations of composers whose work is respected beyond their gender, race or creed.”
Du Yun is an alumna of the Shanghai Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory and Harvard University. Since 2006, she has served on the composition faculty at the State University of New York, Purchase. She is currently involved in multiple composition projects, including a work for string quartet, a dance and multimedia project with Moving Theater at the Park Avenue Armory in New York, and a multimedia collaboration with visual artist David Michalek for flutist Clair Chase.
Highlights of recent seasons include premieres and performances of her compositions in Switzerland, Finland, Canada, Norway, Argentina, Mexico, Germany, The Netherlands, and China. Her scores for the silent films of Alice Guy-Blache were recently on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and she has written a score for visual artist Shahzia Sikander’s film Interstitial, which will tour India, Laos, Pakistan and Japan in early 2011.
Du Yun is one of ten individuals who have been composers-in-residence at the Ucross Foundation this year. The Foundation provides work space, living accommodations and the gift of uninterrupted time to selected artists, writers and composers who are chosen in a competitive process by an outside jury of experts. Since opening its doors in 1983, Ucross has supported over 1,400 individuals with residencies. Eight to nine artists, writers and composers are in residence at any one time, with approximately 90 individuals supported each year.
FMI: www.ucrossfoundation.org
