Jen Shyu – Projecting Tradition into the Future in Three Solo Works

Jen Shyu will offer an inside look into her process behind research, composition, and improvisation that led to her three of her solo ritual-theater-music works: Solo Rites: Seven Breaths (2014) directed by Garin Nugroho; and Nine Doors (2017) and Zero Grasses: Ritual for the Losses (2019), both directed by Alexandru Mihail. These works were inspired by 20+ years of study of traditional music and dance from five countries, including epic storytelling and East Coast shaman music from South Korea; music from East and West Timor; Hengchun Folk Song with moon lute from Taiwan; Ledhekan, which combines Javanese dance with improvisational singing from Indonesia; and the “speaking-the-song” or “katari” with Japanese biwa, the rare 4-stringed instrument originally used by monks and priests.

Event Speaker
Jen Shyu, Composer

Event Information
Free and open to the public; RSVP required via Eventbrite.

Please contact the group organizer, Jessie Cox at jc5036@columbia.edu with any questions. The Comparing Domains of Improvisation series is sponsored by the Presidential Scholars in Society and Neuroscience program at Columbia University.