Embodied Echoes: A Piano Recital by Tianyu Deng

Please join us in welcoming back Tianyu Deng for a piano recital in conjunction with the exhibition How Asian Is It? Curated by Lilly Wei.

Many artists migrate across geographies, physically and spiritually. Their creative practices unfold in the space between movement and settlement, between departure and arrival. Influence is not a one-way act of absorption, but a dynamic exchange — to be shaped by one’s surroundings and, in turn, to reshape them.

At the same time, an artist enters into dialogue with the self — with upbringing, memory, and environment. What begins as personal experience gradually transforms into collective memory.

This concert reflects on migration, perception, and embodied memory, asking how identity is heard, seen, and felt.

To Listen

Isang Yun’s Interludium A is considered one of the most decisive attempts in the history of piano music to examine a single note — “A.” Sequenzen, an étude by Unsuk Chin, paired with Luciano Berio’s Sequenza IV, offers a perspective on what polyphony means in modern piano literature.

To See

Ravel’s Une Barque sur l’océan was dedicated to Paul Sordes, for whom Ravel owned a gouache entitled Océan. Elliot Teo’s new work, Cross Exam, took its starting point from Diego Velázquez’s St. Thomas, depicting the apostle who refused to accept the Resurrection without physical proof. It also reflects the legal practice of cross-examination, in which the reliability of testimony is methodically tested under opposing counsel’s interrogation.

To Dance

Ravel, the son of a Basque woman, composed Alborada del gracioso (“Morning Song of the Court Jester”) with Spanish-flavored dance rhythms and guitar-like gestures. Continuing the Hispanic influence, Ahmed Alom’s Displaced Étude No. 1 was shaped by the composer’s Cuban roots and his modern musical trajectory. Zhou Long’s Dunhuang Fantasia was inspired by the ancient frescoes found in Dunhuang grottos, where scenes of dance, performance, and musical instruments are vividly depicted.

Program

Isang Yun Interludium A (1982) 13’

Unsuk Chin Sequenzen — Piano Etudes No.2 (1996, revised 2003) 3’

Luciano Berio Sequenza IV (1965) 11’

Maurice Ravel Selections from Miroirs (1904-05) 14’

III. Une barque sur l'océan

IV. Alborada del gracioso

Elliot Teo Cross Exam for solo piano (2026) 7’

Ahmed Alom Displaced Etudes No.1 (2024) 3’

Zhou Long Dunhuang Fantasia (2017) 13’