Press
Review of Painted Lights, May 31, 2023
Dong Kui (董夔, Dǒng Kuí, born 1966 in Beijing), or, as she is known in the West, Kui Dong, is a Chinese-American contemporary composer, musician, and teacher, who lives and works in the United States since 1991. She is currently Professor of Music at Dartmouth College. Her music often incorporates traditional Chinese music into contemporary contexts.
Dong has released two albums on the Other Minds record label: Hands Like Waves Unfold (2007, with very dynamic and attractive improvisations for prepared piano played by the composer) and Since When Has the Bright Moon Existed? (2011), and more recently, the album Painted Lights (2022) on the label Kairos.
‘Since when…’ features several pieces with audible references to Chinese culture and sounds: One of these is Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter (2006), written for a string quartet and four Chinese musicians (who play guzheng, yangqin, horsehead fiddle, suona, sheng (mouth organ), and Chinese percussion). Kui Dong says that the work is an homage to John Cage and Antonio Vivaldi, who both wrote music inspired based on the four seasons. The work at times has a ‘minimalist’ feel about it (more Glass than Reich, perhaps), and in some passages may remind one of John Cage. The quirky motifs played on violin remotely remind one of the typical figuration in Vivaldi’s violin concertos. But at other times (as in the movement Autumn) we are mainly in the world of zheng and yangqin, with some koto flavours and Japan-like sounds, until the bowed strings move back in.
Another fine work with Chinese overtones is Shui Diao Ge Tou & Song (2001/2003). The texts for this piece are the 11th century poem “Shui Diao Ge by Su Shi” and a contemporary poem, “Song”, by Denise Newman, a friend of the composer. Dong felt that these two texts balanced each other within the composition, and that her work would not be complete without one or the other. Written for mixed chorus and percussion, the piece was commissioned by the Dale Warland Singers but was deemed too difficult to perform by their conductor and was eventually premiered by Volti (then known as the San Francisco Chamber Singers) in 2003. Dong views this piece as a ‘cultural amalgam of all her life’s experiences’. The piece at times starts off with echoes of Chinese classical poetic recitation as well as traditional opera, soon starkly contrasted with cluster sounds in the choir.
The recent album Painted Lights contains four pieces, none of which involve Chinese instruments or traditional sounds, but they are set for very different forces and offer an interesting and quite varied perspective on Kui Dong’s recent achievements as a composer. California Shoreline (2017) is a short (4-minute) work for soprano, string quartet and prepared piano, with a soaring vocal line above long-held chords on strings and piano. A remarkable mix of high strung drama and mildly romantic sounds.
Scattered Ladder (2009) for two marimbas and four percussionists is a three-movement piece, a dynamic and at times playful exploration of marimba sonorities and antiphonal rhythms, with a clean and pure feel to it.
Differences with Oneness (2009) for string quartet (played by the Arditti Quartet) is more complex and strained, with an almost ‘German’ sternness. The final piece, Painted Lights (2010), in two movements, juxtaposes a mixed chorus with a children’s chorus, and charts a journey from progressing into adulthood to speculations on afterlife. The English language text, both spoken and sung, is once again by the San Francisco-based poet Denise Newman. But in addition, the soloists also read excerpts from the day’s local newspaper, adding an element of indeterminacy to the performance. Painted Lights is an intriguing work. Its second half is an expressive exploration of spatial techniques, with the two ensembles on opposite sides of the stage gradually moving towards the centre and eventually swapping their initial positions.
Kui Dong may be a lesser known poet among Chinese-American composers, but her richly sonorous and eclectic works are definitely worth exploring.
-Frank Kouwenhoven (CHIME, Chief-editor, Leiden, The Netherlands)
Scherzo, Summer 2022
Painted Lights album review by Ismael G. Cabral
(original Spanish)….Los Arditti despachan la obra más exigente, Differences within Oneness (2009), en la que Dong aborda una de sus inquietudes compositivas más acuciantes, la búsqueda de heterofonías, lo que para ella constituye la “diferencia dentro de la unidad o cómo la complejidad surge de la semejanza”. Los cuatro atriles parecen amplificarse de forma natural en una irreal orquesta de cuerdas en una obra de deslizamientos masivos en la que sentimos, por fin en la audición del disco, algo de ese vértigo de la escucha; como si se abrieran las ventanas y entrara aire fresco. Painted Lights (2010) resulta una singular obra para doble coro donde mediante la espacialización y el movimiento escénico se ahonda en esa partición de la simultaneidad.
The Arditti Quartet delivers the demanding work, Difference within Oneness (2009), a piece where Dong addresses one of her main compositional ideas, the search for heterophonies, which, for her, constitutes the “difference within unity or how the complexity arises from similarity”. The four music stands seem to naturally amplify as an imaginary orchestra in a play of massive glides in which we feel towards the end of the recording, the sounds spin through open windows and fresh air gushes in. Painted lights (2010) is a unique work for double chorus where through spacialization and stage movement delves into that partition of simultaneity.
Blow Up., August 2022. Album Review.
“…un caso di artista-equilibrista intenta a camminare su un immaginario filo steso a connettere Oriente e Occidente….La title track, per un doppio coro di adulti e bambini, vive di opposizioni timbriche e magnifiche note “lunghe” capaci di dilatare la normale fisicità delle voci. Rimarchevoli sono anche Scattered Ladder, per due marimba e quattro percussionisti, e Differences Within Oneness (ribaltate il titolo e avrete la perfetta definizione di ciò che si ascolta nel disco), reso dagli archi sempiterni dell’ Arditti Quartet.”
“…an equilibrist artist intent on walking an imaginary thread that connects East and West….
The title track, for a double choir of adults and children, thrives on timbral contrasts and magnificent “long” notes capable of dilating the normal physicality of the voices. Also remarkable are Scattered Ladder, for two marimba and four percussionists, and Differences Within Oneness (reverse the title and you will have the perfect definition of what you hear on the record), rendered by the eternal strings of the Arditti Quartet.”
Percorsi Musicali review Painted Lights, April 23, 2022
https://www.percorsimusicali.eu/2022/04/23/kui-dong-painted-lights/
Laura Stanfield Prichard, The Boston Musical Intelligencer, May 17, 2020
Work reviewed: Dominican
“Brianna Robinson excelled in this close-up medium, bringing the heart-wringing frustration of her opening sung monologue Colonialism intro sharp contrast with the central set of three poems (two of which were spoken). Toni Jackson and Chinese-American composer Kui Dong introduced the fourth song, an autobiographical litany by Dominican student Melody Guerrero, in which twelve of the thirteen lines began with the text ‘Where I’m from…’ Kui Dong’s suspended harmonies were not organized by a clear pulse, but outlined clear tonal centers and created a cloud of sound around the vocalist. The modal interaction between Robinson’s melodic phrases and Agnes Kim’s rhapsodic cello work acted as a salve for the acerbic, often ironic poem Dominican.”
Concert Program Available Here
Podcast 70: IDEA Opera Grants with Laura Lee Everett by Indie Opera Podcast, Feb 3, 2020
Work reviewed: Hu Tong
Hu Tong, other music by Kui Dong, and the IDEA Opera Grants are discussed with Opera America’s Laura Lee Everett and the hosts.
A Tempo: Nurturing Diverse Voices in Opera by Rachel Katz, Dec 12, 2019
Work reviewed: Hu Tong
Interview with Rachel Katz covering the Opera America IDEA grant Hu Tong.
Nelson Brill, Boston Concert Reviews, March 12, 2018
Work reviewed: A Night In Tanglewood
“…The combination of traditional string instruments with crackling sputters from music boxes and reverberant droning sounds (from fingers swirling on glass rims) made for a soundscape of amazingly fresh sounds and colors: firefly sparks and clicks of activity in an airy, celestial nightscape….”
Larry Wallach, The Berkshire Review for the Arts, September 11, 2017
Work reviewed: A Night In Tanglewood
http://berkshirereview.net/festival-contemporary-music-august-10-14-2017
Keith Powers, Classical Voice North America, August 17, 2017
Work reviewed: A Night In Tanglewood
“Kui Dong’s premiere, A Night at Tanglewood, was an elegant structure: quiet, moving, engaging… It was quiet but dense. Still but complex — simultaneously.”
Brian Schuth, The Boston Musical Intelligencer, August 11, 2017
Work reviewed: A Night In Tanglewood
“As exciting as world premieres of new works are, the fact is that most fail to hold the attention after they end. I am happy to report that the premiere on this program, Kui Dong’s A Night at Tanglewood, bucks that trend. Born in China, Dong is based at Dartmouth College. While she has written many works that explore her own East-West dynamic, A Night at Tanglewood does not do so explicitly. Instead, it examines resonance and collaboration within the context of the string quartet. As it opens, only the cellist is in her typical position. She holds long high notes as the remaining three players stand at a table at the far left of the stage, playing water-filled glasses tuned to a microtonal scale. This texture of long, high, gently interfering sounds is the heart of the piece. When one player strikes the glasses with wooden sticks, the effect is electric. Eventually the players leave the glasses and, one by one, pick up their instruments and play, while walking to their traditional positions. Simple music boxes have a role as well, sending cascades of notes into the haze. As music, it holds ear and attention, if one has the patience to wait for the sounds to evolve (but never resolve). The visual aspect of the work is crucial yet not intrusive. Something of a narrative is implied: near the end of the work the cellist rises for the first time, and walks to the glasses, turning the handle of a music box as she walks. The music box is both charming and alienating, as it demands only minimal effort from the musician to achieve its effect. Beautiful and haunting and thought-provoking, the piece was given a thoroughly committed performance by the 2017 New Fromm Players: Samantha Bennett and Xiaofan Liu, violins, Mary Ferrillo, viola, and Francesca McNeeley, cello.”
Martha Ullman West, Oregon Artswatch, May 27, 2015
Works reviewed: Murmur, Spring
“…lovingly and contentiously performed to Kui Dong’s sometimes lyrical, sometimes aggressive, always gorgeous and gorgeously played score…”
Stephen Brookes, Washington Post, Sunday, February 20, 2011
Work reviewed: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter for string quartet and Zheng (Chinese harp), Sheng (mouthpipe organ) Suona, Dulcimer (or Pipa) and Chinese percussion
“The high point of the evening – by some margin – came at its end, with Kui Dong’s “Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter Suite.” It’s a work of exceptional beauty and imagination, from its light-filled opening movement to the powerful and profound close, and Kui wove the sonorities of the quartet and the Chinese instruments together with a delicate, subtle touch. This is a composer to watch.”
Phillip Clark, Gramophone International UK
“Keenly heard improvisations unlock the cage of the prepared piano sound world”
Work reviewed: Hands Like Waves Unfold for prepared piano, Other Minds OM 1011-2
The prepared piano was always meant to play another music. Its clattery, drumming sound world is so overwhelmingly associated with John Cage- fair enough, he did invent it – that anybody else using the instrument wanting to remain themselves is challenged to define their own degrees of separation. Beijing-born pianist and composer Kui Dong, rises to that challenge manfully on this disc of keenly heard, beautifully imagined improvisations, recorded over two sessions in 2005. The opening piece, Magician and Traveler: Ensemble, deploys the instrument to evolve a slipstream of rapid-fire rhythmic modules which are juxtaposed with fidgety, unpredictable scratches and slides. This counterpoint between control and freedom recurs throughout the disc and gives Kui Dong’s improvisations a strategic motor; on the track she called In Between, her sounds fall in between everything- plucked strings morph into random scrapings, as isolated notes and percussive hits accumulate into a hybrid sonic labyrinth. The music hurtles forward with striking velocity, but each sound has been positioned with care and poise of a ballet dancer.
On Floating Stars, she gradually embellishes her sparse harmonic introduction with opulent chords. That brand of harmonic thinking probably won’t have interested Cage much, and Kui Dong’s liberated, in-the-moment improvisations push the basic language of prepared piano music beyond anything he could have imagined. But I’m sure he would have relished the resourcefulness and peachy freshness of this music Cage opened the door, Kui Dong has rearranged the furniture.
Kui Dong: Free-spirited Piano Preparations
January 14th 2010, by Tobias Fischer
http://www.tokafi.com/news/kui-dong-free-spirited-piano-preparations/
Luo Ying, Beijing Evening Newspaper China Feb. 2, 2008 (translation)
Work reviewed: Wind on Earth – for Pipe Organ and Chinese National Instrument Orchestra
“…first-ever combination of Western pipe organ and Chinese national instrument orchestra, Dong’s “Wind On Earth” brought a fresh sound and approach to both instruments. The merging and interplay between the majestic sound of the pipe organ and the subtle, delicate character of Chinese instruments created a new perspective for the audience.”
Xinhua Newspaper (translation) Feb. 2, 2008 China
Work reviewed: Wind on Earth – for Pipe Organ and Chinese National Instrument Orchestra
“… the first composition for pipe organ and Chinese national instrument orchestra. [represents] a journey of communication and exchange of Western and Eastern cultures.”
Roberto Diaz, Music Critic, www.canarias24horas.com, Spain (translation)
Work reviewed: Spring – for string orchestra
“It began the night with the spring environment of “Spring”, a work for string orchestra written by Kui Dong for the Canaries Music Festival, in which tried to honor two authors as unlike as Antonio Vivaldi and John Cage. In this manner, frequent evocations could be perceived of “The Spring” vivaldiana, along with a dissolution of the sound more close to John Cage. The result was not evil, although possibly the technique was too appellant and would be able to have simplified the music occupying the half of time. Nevertheless, it showed the author as a quality creative beyond doubt, and aroused the desire to hear other things exits her hand. It was an unusual bet on the part of the festival Islands, and in this case, a complete success.”
David Lewis, music critic, All Music Guide
CD reviewed: Hands Like Waves Unfold – for Prepared Piano, Other Minds label
“…It is a challenging and charming disc in which discovery and a sense of bold experimentalism unfolds before the listener’s ears….”
David Lewis, music critic, All Music Guide, www.allmusic.com
“Spring” comes from a quartet written around the theme of the seasons and is a riot of colorful patterning; ….and a dazzling one.
David Toub, music critic, Contemporary Music, Sequenza21.com
CD reviewed: Hands Like Waves Unfold – for Prepared Piano, Other Minds label
“…. this music sounds nothing like any of Cage’s prepared piano works. Rather, it has an individual quality all its own, to Dong’s credit. At some points, Dong also seems to go the Henry Cowell route and play the strings of the piano. This is largely very meditative music, and was a pleasure to listen to. What is particularly interesting is the fact that Dong tends to approach the prepared piano less percussively, to my ears at least, than did Cage and others. In all, this is a very fine album of improvisation for the prepared piano, one that is meant to be enjoyed.”
The Wire (p.74) UK 2005
CD reviewed: Pangu’s song, for various chamber ensembles and electronics, New World Records
“…PANGU’S SONG turns convention upside down at one point by contrasting percussive flute writing with gentle turns of phrase in the percussion Unusually fulfilling.”
Guy Rickards, music critic, Tempo, Cambridge University Press issue 59-234-(p.71) UK, 2005
CD reviewed: Pangu’s song, New World Records
“Despite containing pieces entitled Pangu’s Song and Three Voices, the music on New World’s disc devoted Kui Dong (b. 1966) is instrumental – well, up to a point: two movements of her electronic tape/computer piece Crossing (1999-2000) feature voices (including her own in a song learnt in childhood). Like her compatriot Chen Yi, Kui Dong immigrated to the US from China to further her education and qualified from Stanford University. Her works have been performed around the world and received numerous honors and prizes. Her style is a fusion of elements from Chinese traditional and Western avant-garde music, in range covering ballet, film, orchestral, instrumental, multi-media and electronic scores. The earliest here is Blue Melody (1993), a variation-form quintet for flute, clarinet and piano trio. There is no theme as such; rather each variation takes the opening paragraph (in which the instruments only gradually enter) as a kind of thematic reservoir to evolve their own substance. The result sounds like controlled improvisation – something close to her heart -and she has used her own extemporizations as springboards for several works, as in the piano suite Earth, Water, Wood, Metal, Fire (2001). Each movement is a kind of portrait of its element, from which the ancient Chinese believed the world was constructed. Naturally, the five pieces are highly contrasted, Earth strong and solid, Water delicate and shimmering (and not unlike some of Takemitsu’s rain pieces), while in Wood and Metal the composer requires pencils and triangle beaters (placed between the strings) respectively to provide a slightly ‘prepared’, additional range of sonorities. The work’s strength is its diversity, much being drawn together in the blazing finale, Fire, before gently returning to the cycle’s opening by way of close. The duo for flute (doubling on the alto) and percussion Pangu’s Song (1998) won the 2001 ISCM composition competition and requires the wind player to navigate through a kaleidoscopic mosaic of textures across the entire instrumental range. Playing for around nine minutes, it possesses a succinctness which the electronic suite Crossing does not attempt to emulate. Here, maximalism is all, centering on a ‘head-on culture clash’ in the central movement, where pounding rhythms and industrial sounds morph gradually into a manic rock-type music with electric guitar and drums, before a bizarre Chinese-sounding coda. The final span is the most Oriental in atmosphere, evocative perhaps of the composer’s childhood. The trio Three Voices (1998), however, is scored for traditional instruments: er-hu (a fiddle), zheng (a species of zither with an almost harp like sound) and di or xiao (a bamboo flute).The music, though, is quite original: Kui Dong highlights the very different kinds of sounds these instruments make in what amounts to a mesh of accompanied solos, rather than the dialogue of conventional Western chamber music. The sonorities are enchanting, nonetheless, the playing mesmeric. Indeed, the performances are all well focused and Sara Cahill’s of the piano suite and Tod Brody’s flute in Pangu’s Song are brilliantly virtuosic. New World’s recording is nicely balanced throughout and fairly homogeneous, despite the pieces having been set down in three different locations from California to New York.”
Jules Langert, San Francisco Classical Voice
Work reviewed: Fantasia: a Dialogue with Winds for 9-member instrumental ensemble
“…The nine-member instrumental ensemble was treated like a chamber orchestra, with four strings and three woodwinds grouped separately, the harp placed between them, and the percussion located in the rear. The composer’s clean, transparent scoring brought out colors and sounds often evoking a Chinese instrumental ensemble, with new ideas and interesting timbres constantly emerging. The piece was built around changes of tempo and momentum, beginning with a jerky episode of brief, sputtering syncopations.
“Later, in a section for woodwinds, close, dissonant part writing and long-held tones fading into ornamental arabesques achieved a poignant lyrical mood. After a period of prolonged silence interrupted occasionally by a few isolated, arresting sounds, momentum gradually returned, leading to a rapid yet unhurried final section. Often tonal and even diatonic in its last moments, this piece maintained its freshness and vitality to the end.”
Jules Langert, concert review, San Francisco Classical Voice
Work reviewed: Shui Diao Ge Tou and Song – for Mixed chorus, percussion and piano
“…Most remarkable of all was Chinese composer Kui Dong’s Shiu Diao Ge Tou/Song, a setting of two poems, the first by eleventh-century Chinese poet Su Shi and the second by contemporary U.S. poet Denise Newman. Su Shi’s poem is a lyrical fantasy expressing wonder and joyful serenity, as the poet contemplates the moon and his own place in the universe. Dong’s setting is expansive and atmospheric, capturing the humor, spontaneity, and sense of mystery in the verse.
Newman’s poem is a modern fantasy, built around the confusion, alienation, and corrosive materialism bedeviling its characters. Dong sets its stream-of-consciousness outpouring as a chant, softly intoned on a single note, and partly drowned out by the percussion. Its expression remains earthbound and subdued as the Chinese text rises above it, reflecting two distinct ways of being in the world, both treated sympathetically and with detachment by the composer, who somehow blends them into a larger synthesis. Dong’s use of percussion is telling, especially her emphasis on the piano, which bathes the ensemble in an often sustained commentary of long held tones, wayward, sensuous arpeggios, and quick, edgy, repeated notes roaming at large over the keyboard. There are also some sharp, violent outbursts for the drums and a powerfully exciting percussion duel at a climactic point near the end. Dong, who studied in the U.S. and has lived here for fifteen years, now teaches at Dartmouth College. She views this piece as a kind of cultural amalgam of her life’s experience.”
Robert P. Commanday Editor of San Francisco Classical Voice
Work reviewed: Earth, Water, Wood, Metal, Fire (2001) for piano solo
…Unintentionally, no doubt, the works by the two women composers, Ursula Mamlock and Kui (pronounced Kway) Dong, stood out, head and shoulder. For Dong’s work, the cultural source is deep, natural and immediate. A Beijing native and a composer of ballet, film, and television scores in China, in “Earth, Water…” she reveals a distinctive sound and sensibility, with a particular ear for color and sonority. This is apparent differently in each movement: the machine-gun chord alternations of upper register chords in the dramatically contrastive “Earth” movement, the delicacy of the figurations, recalling Debussy, in “Water.” Pencils wedged between some of the piano strings for “Wood,” result in fascinating echoing harmonics as Cahill struck the keys sharply. With metal rods similarly placed for “Metal,” Cahill set up a ringing clangor, the resultant sonorities suggesting Chinese music unmistakably. “Fire” ends the work forcefully, with rapid chord alternations expanding and actually developing harmonically.
S.E. Barcus, Spoleto USA Reviewer (Charleston City Paper)
Work reviewed: Earth, Water, Wood, Metal, Fire (2001) for piano solo
Last Monday, Music in Time kicked off at the Albert Simons Center Recital Hall to a bunch of lucky, lucky ears. Pianist Sarah Cahill performed four Asian-based piano works…
The second piece was the most memorable: the world premiere of Kui Dong’s Earth, Water, Wood, Metal, and Fire, five movements based on Eastern creation myths. This longer work starts with a crashing bang, fortissississississimo (to wake up any dozers). Seems these myths predate Einstein and Hubble regarding the Big Bang. “Water” featured all five of Cahill’s fingers playing the same sequence of notes over and over, creating a literal stream. Later, a dreamy variety of sounds above two repeated notes, reminiscent of Mompou – but with excitingly different rhythms and harmonies.
“Wood” is where we start having fun inside the piano, exploring the possibilities of sound from the instrument, like Cowell or Cage. After inserting pencils between some strings, Cahill sat back down and smacked the keys angrily, producing – magically – a sound like someone giving a hard, quick blow into a didgeridoo. Some of the other keys become “springy,” like a snare drum. The strings without pencils were, of course, “normal.” By herself, Cahill became a trio for piano, wind, and percussion.
“Metal” starts with Cahill running a metal tool on the strings directly, creating more menacing thunder than before. She leaves the metal lying on topof the strings, creating a sound not unlike a sitar! Very metallic. The work ends with “Fire” and has so many quick, jumbled notes all crammed next to each other you’d swear Dong was ripping off Korsakov’s bumblebee or Bartok’s fly. The notes flicker like a fire, licking occasionally out of the center keys like flames to the upper and lower reaches. After the blaze, the piece ends softly, at peace, with tranquil sounds – colors similar to Debussy’s afternoon with Bambi.
Jack Dressler Charleston Post and Courier Reviewer
Work reviewed: Earth, Water, Wood, Metal, Fire (2001) for piano solo
“Earth, Water, Wood, Metal, Fire” (2001) by Kui Dong, the first of two major works on the program similarly employed well-tried technical means to achieve much in a limited compass.
This was the world premiere of the five-movement piece, Ms. Cahill giving all the care and attentiveness to its complexities that a potential masterpiece might warrant. In a closely-focused programmatic sense, rolled tone-clusters represented “earth,” light, sparse tinklings suggested “water,” pencils inserted in the strings dampened the sound for “wood,” while metal rods and beating the strings by hand gave us “metal.” In the last movement, “fire” emerged from racking trills and Webern-like crunches, then jazz-inflected chordings and percussive rhythmic patterns. The total effect was a successful meeting of 20th-century keyboard techniques and perhaps 21st-century sensibilities.
Robert Jones, Charleston.net Spoleto Festival Reviewer
Work reviewed: Earth, Water, Wood, Metal, Fire (2001) for piano solo
“Earth, Water, Wood, Metal, Fire” (2001) by Kui Dong… was colorful music…
Charles Amirkhanian, Composer/sound poet, Executive Director of Other Minds
Works reviewed: Crossing for radio (1999-2000) & Pangu’s Song (1998) for Alto flute/flute and percussion
“…In her recent piece (Crossing), She uses an exciting new software, SuperCollider, to modify ambient sound samples. Once again, she has created stories in sound which draw the listener in with sure, original gestures, not with formulaic cliches.
“She also writes chamber music of great beauty, blending instrumental timbres and color in very inventive combinations. Her use of percussion in combination with wind instruments is particularly stimulating. I find that whatever she undertakes is done with a sure hand and with mastery that belies her youth.”
Timothy Pfaff, Special guest music critic to San Francisco Examiner
Works reviewed: Flying Apples for stereo or more channels tape music
“…The music of (Flying Apples) her carefully composed, arrestingly beautiful 10 minutes piece for four-channel computer tape was already done, Superbly.”
“…Kui (Dong)’s program note cites ” transparent, brilliant stars falling from infinity.” What one hears sounds like sampled, then wondrously manipulated piano, bell and other struck percussion sounds. Although their patterns trace a rhythm of waxing and waning density and complexity, the sounds filled the darkened theater in sprays of colorful sonic droplets.”
“The spatial effects the composer achieves with her exquisitely refracted music are ceaselessly compelling at the local level. But individual effects were enhanced (Thursday) by the cumulative sense that, across the span of the piece, hearing itself had been heightened. As the sound tapered and the room faded to black, the sound of my pen on paper seemed huge (and meager)”
“Elsewhere there was vastly more to listen to, and infinitely less to hear. After Kui(Dong)’s pointillist “Childhood dream,” it seemed like finger painting. Finger painting can make art, and there was an unmistakable….”
Allan Ulrich, San Francisco Examiner Music critic
Work reviewed: Pangu’s Song for Flute/Alto Flute and Percussion
“… Pangu’s Song stood out for (its) rigor and drama. Beijing-born Kui Dong restricts her forces to flutes and percussion and limits their pitches. Yet, the work does not want for color, melody (much of it folk-derived) and, in its surging energy and mounting excitement at the end, a feeling for musical theater. The piece communicates on an almost visceral level.”
Sarah Cahill, Music critic for Express, Classical Voice Contemporary Music Review
Work reviewed: Pangu’s Song for Flute/Alto Flute and Percussion
“…The narrative flow of “Pangu’s Song” by Kui Dong parallels a poem by Denise Newman, but the piece is itself textless. The music evolves fluidly and kept flutist Tod Brody and percussionist Daniel Kennedy constantly busy. Dong uses such a variety of extended techniques for both instruments that one could hardly believe such a spectrum of sounds could come from only two players. This young composer has already developed a distinctive, uncompromising style.”
Paul Hertelendy, artssf.com (the independent observer of SF Bay Area music, guest reviewer of San Jose Mercury News)
Work reviewed: The Blue Melody, quintet for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano
“…Her “Blue Melody” …is a lively, engaging work for varied quintet, with short phrases and rivulets of sound, suggesting mystery through its lack of resolution.”
Joshua Kosman, Music critic, San Francisco Chronicle
Work reviewed: The Blue Melody, quintet for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano
” … The Blue melody proved to be a fascinating, all-too-short quintet by Kui Dong, born in Beijing…”
“…It is (yet) another attempt to fuse Chinese and Western musical elements, but the composer writes with particular dexterity and rhetorical flair.”
“In the opening moments, she passes a spare Asian melody around the ensemble in relay fashion, with each instrument uttering a few notes before ceding to the next. At the center comes a flurry of highly charged counterpoint that casts a shadow on the piece’s placid, symmetrical ending. The music was performed with more rigor than beauty by…”
Edward Green, Music critic, Professor of Music at Manhattan School of Music and New York Aesthetic Realism Foundation
Work reviewed: Three Voices for Chinese bamboo flute, Chinese Koto and Er-hu (Chinese Violin)
“…Her fresh approach to heterophony–is, for example, what members of a family so much are hoping for: to agree and disagree in an honest, friendly manner; to get along deeply with each other, and yet, at the very same time, be utterly individual and free.”
“…In this work of Kui Dong, opposites which often are painfully at war in people’s lives–the desire for quiet and the desire for excitement–are joined.”
“I have heard few composers use heterophony as sensitively and powerfully as does Kui Dong in “Three Voices.” And it is something new in music to hear this venerable technique, so much associated with the open resonance of Chinese pentatonicism, joined to the more conflicted tonalities of modern Western chromaticism. It is an experience!”