Song of the Fishermen

Chinatown Arts Space presents Classic Film, Contemporary Score(UK/China) In partnership with ROH2 at the Royal Opera House.

A classic silent movie from China, Song of the Fishermen (Yuquang qu, Shanghai, 1934) will inspire four of the most exciting British Chinese composer/musicians in the UK: Chi2 (Liz and Sarah Liew), Jiang Li and Kimho Ip, to compose and perform together the world premiere of a new contemporary score accompanying a special screening of the film. A post-show discussion follows the performance.

Linbury Studio Theatre, Royal Opera House.

Five Circles Arts Festival is a series of groundbreaking international arts exchanges in hip-hop rap, film music cross-artforms, contemporary dance and visual public arts. www.chinatownartsspace.com.

Pictures from live video capture:

…All eyes were on the quartet of musicians as they slowly and gently started with the playing of the piano and both Chinese and European string instruments. As the storyline developed, the percussion (traditional and modern) was introduced with the use of electronic sounds accompanying it… (Dimsum)

…The four British Chinese composers have independently explored the fusion of contemporary music with traditional Chinese instruments… (link chinese UK)

…The musicians captured both the mood and spirit of Song of the Fishermen with the touching and melodramatic soundtrack, reflecting the tragedy playing out before our eyes. It has to be said, Song of the Fishermen is a sad movie and the musicians did not miss an opportunity to skilfully play on the audience’s emotions with their violins… (Dimsum)

…As time went by, slowly my attention switched from the musicians on stage, to the actual movie. Guilty of being too good in a way, the musicians and their performance started to feel more like going to a movie with musical accompaniment rather than a concert with a film in the background! (Dimsum)

…This dialogue between past and present, between East and West, will provide a fascinating insight for London audiences…(East Online)

…The classic silent movie from China, ‘Song of the Fishermen’ (‘Yuquang qu, Shanghai’, 1934) has inspired four British-Chinese composer/musicians: Chi2 (Liz and Sarah Liew), Jiang Li and Kimho Ip, to compose and perform together the world premiere of their new contemporary score to accompany a special screening of the film… (timeout)

Short sample video (youtube)