22 January 2024
Hong Kong, HKSAR

The University of Oxford screening and discussion of Russia: Today (2020) came and went, and the last couple weeks back in Hong Kong have been already full of life and promise. And aside from (or, perhaps, because of?) the record low temperatures due tomorrow, I have rarely been as excited to be back as I am now. Vivacissimo (2023) will be released online later this winter, and the new ‘demo’ work for Hong Kong Ballet will also finally see the light of day in the spring. Meanwhile, I am excited to start writing a new piece for string quartet, pure and simple, for the Paris-based Quatuor Arod, to be premiered at the Eslite Chamber Music Festival in Taipei, Taiwan before going on tour with this wonderful group over the summer. Something different for me, to be sure. 

There’s progress on future performances for The Once and Future (2021) on the horizon in Europe in 2025, and with a reinvigorated staging and, especially, a new, truly tech-forward costume. All this is surely thanks to the continuing and robust support for culture and research in Hong Kong which continues to keep me (mostly happily) here, and quite busy.

After so much of last year spent planning and producing work, I really hope for 2024 to allow me to focus on what, and who, matters to me most. Loved ones, family, music, making the most out of every day. A recent conversation with some European counterparts on courage in the arts was unintentionally indicative of how great a gulf there is between the everyday reality and so much of artistic creation, and not in a good way. This commitment to being grounded and being involved, being true, will, I hope, fill the coming days, weeks, and months, and lead to new compositions that are not only deserving of their own creation, but equally so of the world’s attention.