2011 has been an extremely rewarding year for Shih-Hui who has been living in Taiwan as a Fulbright Scholar for the past year studying Taiwanese culture and music. She gave lectures, attended many events, and spent many hours researching Taiwanese music. A part of these efforts was devoted to studying a traditional form of Taiwanese music, Nanguan 南管. This has been an especially "ear opening" experience. She put her thoughts about this experience together in a short article called Nanguan Lessons. Shih- Hui will return to the US to teach at the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University in the Fall of 2011.
While at Academia Sinica 中研院 in Taiwan, Shih-Hui met award winning anthropologist and filmmaker, Hu Tai-Li 胡台麗. Together, they are collaborating on a new film project titled Bring the Souls Back Home 讓靈魂回家. This film documents customs of the Aboriginal Amis 阿美 tribe and their recovery of a lost tribal icon.
Shih-Hui is adapting the film soundtrack materials to write a solo violin piece to be premiered by Cho-Liang Lin 林昭亮 in the fall.
Family arriving at Taiwan Fulbright Office
In February 2011, Our Names 請恢復我們的姓名 was premiered and performed three times by Network for New Music in Philadelphia (info here). This work features a narrator who speaks a poem written by a blind aboriginal poet, Mo, Na-Neng 莫那能 from the Paiwan 排灣 tribe in Taiwan. The poem grapples with issues of social injustice and inequality.
Shih-Hui attended the concerts and also coached high school chamber music students at the Philadelphia Sinfonia who prepared the first movement (Fantasia) of her string quartet, Mei Hua (YouTube clip on left).
Chen serving on Taiwan Fulbright Selection Panel
photo credit: Scott Shiue
陳士惠 2011
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