The Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society (VAHMS) and the Vancouver Lipont Art Centre are pleased to present Generation One Art Exhibition during the 21st annual explorASIAN festival, which promotes national Asian Heritage Month in May. The Generation One Art Exhibition was created in 2009 as a signature program of the VAHMS festival to feature both established and emerging local artists, who are first-generation Asian Canadians by immigration or birth, and to provide a forum for exploring new expressions of Canadian identity. This year, the exhibition will focus on issues of social integration facing Asian Canadians of various generations.

“First-generation Asian Canadians face unique integration challenges related to language, adaptation, employment and housing issues, just to name a few,” said Candie Tanaka, Chair of the VAHMS Generation One Committee. “This year’s exhibition explores these issues in the context of how this synthesis might mean different things to different people, and promotes cross-generational dialogue about the subject.”

The Generation One Art Exhibition is curated by a committee of experienced art professionals who are passionate about promoting dialogue and engagement through the arts. The free family-friendly exhibition will be on view from May 1 to June 4, 2017 at the newly established Vancouver Lipont Art Centre.

The Lipont Art Centre is located at 4211 No 3 Rd., Richmond, BC, V6X 2C3

All works are available for sale with proceeds to support artists and the new art centre. For more information, please visit www.explorasian.org and www.lipont.com

A Public Workshop with Composer Alan Lau and Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble Director Jirong Huang
Saturday, April 22, 2017, 2:00 pm Chinese Cultural Centre Museum (555 Columbia St., Vancouver)
Free admission. All welcome.

No registration required. Limited Seating. First-come, first-served. Vancouver Chinese Instrumental Music Society presents Write Your Own Chinese Opera 101, an interactive public workshop on Chinese opera, with Composer Alan Lau and Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble Director Jirong Huang. Participants will experience the life of an ancient Chinese literati through interactive activities based on language tones, calligraphy, poetry and lyric writing, and explore the multi-faceted relationship between music and other Chinese art forms. The workshop will be held on Saturday, April 22, 2017 at the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum.
The workshop will survey the development of the Chinese operatic tradition, from Yuan dynasty opera of the 13th century, to kunqu opera during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the birth of Beijing Opera in the late 1700s. Participants will be able to gain hands-on experience with calligraphy, Chinese language tones, and even designing their very own simple poetry and opera skits in an informal setting.
The Write Your Own Chinese Opera 101 workshop is presented as part of the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble’s upcoming concert Future in Past. The concert program includes an original piece by Composer Alan Lau, which he believes to be the first chamber opera written in Vancouver by a ChineseCanadian. Future in Past will be held on Sunday, May 7, 2017 at the Norman Rothstein Theatre. More information can be found on the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble’s website: vancouverchinesemusic.ca
Composer, painter, independent scholar Alan Lau collaborated with Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble on several projects including Autumn Flight (2014) and Sino-Electric Explorations (2015). His artistic involvements include theme and background music for the Interwoven Stories exhibition (2015), presenter/facilitator for the Greeting Fluency Initiative (2010), and curatorial work for a series of musical instrument exhibition/installation projects with the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum and the UBC Asian Library (2012-15). The UBC Music Composition and Visual Arts graduate is currently on the editorial board of the journal, Asian Musicology. He is the co-author/assistant editor of international research projects, including Qupai in Chinese Music (Routledge, 2016) and The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Music.
Jirong Huang is the founder and artistic director of the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble, the first professional Chinese group formed in Canada. The Shanghai Conservatory of Music graduate has been recognized in China for his performance on traditional instruments and has won many awards around the world. He plays erhu (Chinese violin) and other bowstring instruments as well as composes and arranges music.
For more information please contact:
Vancouver Chinese Instrumental Music Society / cenk@dkam.ca / 604 683 8240

Vancouver Chinese Instrumental Music Society gratefully acknowledges the support of Canada Council for the Arts, the City of Vancouver and Government of British Columbia through Direct Access to Charitable Gaming.

Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble Future in Past ~ In the end, there was luminescence ~
Sunday, May 7, 2017 – 7:30 pm Norman Rothstein Theatre (950 West 41st Ave) Tickets $20 general, $10 seniors & students Online at FutureInPast.BrownPaperTickets.com or at the door (box office opens at 6:30 pm)
Vancouver Chinese Instrumental Music Society presents Future in Past, a rare showcase of Chinese music through millennia, from 7th century Tang dynasty to 1930’s Shanghai, to the present and beyond. The concert program features exclusive performance of rarely heard ancient tunes as well as the world premiere of a chamber opera by Alan Lau, based on poetry by Sophi Liang. Future in Past will be held at 7:30 pm at the Norman Rothstein Theatre on Sunday, May 7, 2017.
Future In Past will be performed by the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble featuring Jirong Huang (erhu), Yifei Hu (dizi), Zhongxi Wu (sheng), Sarah Tan (guzheng), Ling Yang (pipa), Qing Chang (sanxian), Bo Peng (cello), and Bruce Henczel (percussion) with guest artists, Lili Lau (vocals), Sylwia Karwowska (vocals) and Carrie Lee (dance). In a bold move, carefully reconstructed period pieces are juxtaposed with new innovative compositions. This concert will feature a special type of nanyin instruments on loan from ethnomusicologist, Dr. Alan Thrasher.
Composer, painter and scholar Alan Lau has collaborated with the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble on several projects including Autumn Flight (2014) and Sino-Electric Explorations (2015). The UBC Music Composition graduate is currently on the editorial board of the journal, Asian Musicology and is the coauthor/assistant editor of international research projects, including Qupai in Chinese Music (Routledge, 2016) and The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Music.
Formed in 1989, the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble is the first professional Chinese music organization established in Canada. The Ensemble consists of highly accomplished instrumentalists who combine technical mastery with a passionate approach to music. Based in Vancouver, BC, they continue to inspire contemporary compositions and interdisciplinary projects for Chinese instruments in Canada.
For more information please contact:
Vancouver Chinese Instrumental Music Society cenk@dkam.ca 604 683 8240

The presenters gratefully acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the City of Vancouver through Cultural Services, the Province of BC through Community Gaming Grants, and explorASIAN.