Silk and Steel Project 2003

Concert and tour

Liu Fang, Oliver Schroer, Pham Duc Than and Ziya Tabassian

Traditional Chinese Music blends with Canadian modern sound

Concert produced by Radio-Canada and Musique Multi-Montreal

as part of the

Festival des Musiques et du Monde

April 5, 2003, 8pm

Maison de la culture Ahuntsic, Montreal

Ayant place d'affaire au:
10300, rue Lajeunesse, first floor
Montreal (Quebec) H4P 2M3
(Metro Henri-Bourassa)

Free admission / entree libre
Info. Res. Tel.: 514-872-8749

Enjoy the Montreal premiere of original creations where East meets West, and ancient tradition blends with contemporary sound, performed by Liu Fang on pipa (lute) and guzheng (zither), Oliver Schroer on violin, Pham Duc Thanh on Vietnamese monocord (Dan Bau) and Ziya Tabassian on percussion (Persian tombak and Arabic framed drums).

L'émission Radio-concert: PROJET "SILK & STEEL" Jeudi 30 octobre 2003, de 20 h à 21 h 30 Animation : Michel Keable Réalisation : Lorraine Chalifoux.

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Lotus Ensemble

July 2003: Canada tour

July 3-5: Sunfest, LONDON Ont Jul 12:  Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay W. Toronto. Tel.: (416) 973-4000 July 16-20: Vancouver Folk Festival, VANCOUVER Jul 22-24: Atlantic Jazz Festival, HALIFAX July 25 - 27: Hillside Festival, GUELPH

Profile

In the summer of 2002 Liu Fang and Oliver Schroer participated in The Collaboratory an extension of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival. In the context of many days playing together, they discovered a strong musical bond. Plans were made to reunite for a CBC broadcast concert in Montreal next April. But Fang and Oliver began to think about creating a more permanent and extensive performing unit together. Liu Fang collaborates regularly with two talented musicians in Montreal Pham Duc Thanh, a prodigy of traditional Vietnamese music, and Ziya Tabassian, a rising young Persian percussionist. It seemed a natural move for Fang and Oliver to combine forces with these two gifted players from different traditions to form a new World Music supergroup the Lotus Ensemble.
Together the group commands a huge sonic palette that goes far beyond being a mere flavour sampling from foreign lands. It is a truly innovative meeting of different styles, traditions and approaches - East meets East meets West. Each of these players is recognized and respected in their own musical worlds, and each brings a different strength to the collective whole. There are elements of classical Asian music, New Music, jazz, Scandinavian, Appalachian music?We are committed to exploring the fertile meeting ground between these musical cultures, and developing and presenting new repertoire in this light. Individually we have played across Canada and beyond her borders. Collectively, we strive to bring music from the wide world back to Canadian audiences.

Because this is a brand new ensemble, it is important to look at the separate bios of the four players. Individually we have enormous experience, however at this point we do not have a collective history. It is more like the bud of a flower, as yet, furled, but containing within it a petal of great beauty and subtlety.