Melissa Hui

Last updated
Melissa Hui
Born (1966-04-22) April 22, 1966 (age 57)
Hong Kong
Genres
Occupation(s)Composer
Website sites.google.com/view/melissahui/home

Melissa Hui is a Chinese-Canadian composer and pianist. She was born in 1966 in Hong Kong and currently resides in Montreal where she has been a faculty member at McGill University since 2010. Notable works by this artist include and blue sparks burn(2002) for violin and piano, Common Ground (1993) for orchestra, and San Rocco (1991) for oboe d'amore, SATB chamber choir, and chimes. [1]

Contents

Biography

Early life and education

Hui was born in the year 1966 in British Hong Kong (Now Hong Kong, China). In 1974, at the age of eight years old, she immigrated to Canada where she was raised from then on in Vancouver, British Columbia. [2] Hui's college education began at the University of British Columbia, where she earned her undergraduate degree in piano performance. For her graduate studies, Hui pursued and earned both her master's and doctoral degrees in composition from the California Institute of the Arts and Yale University, respectively. Mentors to Hui during her collegiate studies in composition are noted as Jacob Druckman, Mel Powell, Martin Bresnick, Earl Kim, and Morton Subotnick. [2]

Career

In 1993, Hui worked with a small group of composers in collaboration with an eleven-member instrumental ensemble to found the Common Sense Composer's Collective. This organization was founded with a common interest in challenging the way music had been created and shared up until that point in time. Its founding members went on to collaborate with ten more ensembles between their first project and the year 2017. [3] From 1994 to 2004, Hui served as a faculty member at Stanford University before moving back to Canada. In 2010, Hui joined the Schulich School of Music at McGill University in Quebec as associate professor of composition, where she has remained employed to this day. [2]

Music

Aside from her extensive list of chamber music compositions, Hui has also written a number of orchestral and choral works for larger ensembles. Notable orchestral works include Between You (1992), Common Ground (1993), and Aljira (1995) commissioned by the Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Oregon Symphonies, respectively. [2] Among some of Hui's few larger-scale choral pieces are San Rocco (1991), Night on Earth (2001), and the more recent Pax (2019), all of which include non-vocal instrumental parts in addition to the foundational SATB parts in their scoring. [1]

Among the other memorable works from Hui's collection of chamber music compositions is and blue sparks burn (2002) for violin and piano. Commissioned by the Music Teacher's Association of California's program, "Friends of Today's Music", this piece is noted by Hui herself as a commentary from her point of view on the tragic events of September 11, 2001. [1]

Speaking in Tongues(1993) and Foreign Affairs(1994) are two more of Hui's chamber works that are both notable in that they call for a larger ensemble of fifteen parts in their instrumentation. These two works were followed by Lacrymosa (1996), which calls for a soprano vocalist in its scoring, and Woman: Songs on poems by Sandra Cisneros (1997), featuring a mezzo-soprano among the flute, viola, and cello parts. As the name of the latter work implies, this piece is set to the words of a handful of Sandra Cisneros’ poems, including “Loose Woman”, which, in an effort to evoke a bold sense of femininity, Hui set to music inspired by a burlesque dance scene from the Broadway musical, “Sweet Charity”. [1] Additionally, in 1998 Melissa Hui wrote the score to the Oscar-nominated short film, "Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square", which was directed by Shui-Bo Wang. [4]

Works

YearTitleInstrumentation
1988Shadow playflute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, chamber orchestra
Three songs on poems by Longfellowsolo voice with keyboard
1989Tempered glassflute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and percussion
Beyond the momentcello
1990Two sides to the windtrumpet, full orchestra
Absolut cd #1: New Music Canadavariable ensemble
Changesflute, oboe, clarinet, violin, cello, double bass, piano and percussion
1991San Roccomixed chorus, percussion, oboe
One voice for fluteflute
1992Between youfull orchestra, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion, piano
1993Speaking in tongues: Nine miniatures for fifteen instrumentschamber orchestra, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, horn, trombone, percussion, piano, violin, viola, cello, double bass
1994Foreign affairsflute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, harp, violin, viola, cello, double bass, chamber orchestra
Solsticepiano, percussion, piccolo, English horn, oboe
1995Aljirafull orchestra
Inner voicesfull orchestra, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion
1996As I lie stillpiano, percussion
Lacrymosasolo voice with chamber ensemble, woodwinds, keyboards
1997From dusk to dawnchamber orchestra, piano, percussion, flute, oboe, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, double bass, harp
1998Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square
1999In the breath of nightstring orchestra
2000Come as you areflute, clarinet, trumpet, horn, trombone, percussion, violin, viola, pipa, chamber orchestra
When soft voices diesolo piano
2001Night on EarthEnglish horn, mixed chorus, other percussion
2002and blue sparks burnviolin and piano
2008Pimooteewinsoprano, tenor, narrator/actor, mixed chorus, flute, oboe, percussion, violin, viola, cello, double-bass

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Hui, Melissa. "Menu: Program Notes". Melissa Hui: composer. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Melissa Hui". Schulich School of Music, McGill University. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  3. "Common Sense Composers". www.commonsensecomposers.org. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  4. "Composer Showcase -Melissa Hui". Canadian Music Centre. Retrieved 1 May 2021.