For the past month, the Victoria Symphony has been honouring the culture of Chinese-Canadians with a series they call Chinatown Celebration. One of the highlights of the series is surely the commissioning of a large-scale new work by Chan Ka Nin, a composer who is genuinely equipped to take on the responsibility of paying tribute to the Chinese-Canadian immigrant story.
Chan was a teenager when he and his parents left Hong Kong in 1965 to start a new life in Vancouver. He had very little English but plenty of optimism and energy — enough, in fact, to earn him twin degrees in electrical engineering and music composition from U.B.C. in fairly short order. He has since become a prolific and celebrated Canadian composer who draws on his Chinese heritage to inspire many of his compositions, including the 2001 award-winning opera, Iron Road, which tells the story of the punishing drudgery of building Canada's first railway.
On Friday, March 15, the Victoria Symphony will unveil Chan's new 45-minute work for orchestra, dancer and actors, called Harmonious Interest. It's part of a tripartite program that also includes a recent composition called Strange Air by the Vancouver-based composer Dorothy Chang, and the Butterfly Lovers' Violin Concerto by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao.
CBC Music reached Chan Ka Nin at his home in Toronto for a conversation about his new work.
Tell us about Harmonious Interest.
About a year and a half ago I got a call from [conductor] Tania Miller asking me to write a piece about Victoria's Chinatown. I thought of telling the story of Chinatown using two actors. So in their conversation we get to see a little bit of Chinatown, and the arrival of an immigrant and his story of making a home here.
How did you structure the piece?
It's in seven movements, each with a different theme. The first is called Cultural Clash and shows the struggle between East and West. Another movement, called Fan Tan Alley, shows us the experience of the opium dens. That's where a dancer enters to try to give us the sense of being under the influence of the drug. There's a movement called The Cook, where the percussionists play on a wok, pans and chopsticks for a fun effect.
Apart from the wok and chopsticks, did you use any other exotic instruments?
Yes. I did convince a player in the orchestra to learn a traditional Chinese wind instrument called the hulusi, which is kind of like a Chinese folk recorder.
Was it someone in the woodwind section?
Initially I thought that would be the case but the wind players tend to shy away from it. It's actually a violinist, Stacey Boal.
What would you like the audience to come away with after they've heard your piece?
I hope they come away with hearing a good story and being entertained, and maybe learning something that has some resonance with the feelings they found in the story and their own lives.
The Victoria Symphony performs Harmonious Interest at the McPherson Playhouse on March 15, 2013, at 8 p.m. For ticket information visit the symphony's website.
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