I am grateful beyond words!  Through the generous donations of 90 people, this gofundme campaign raised $6280 by the March 1st deadline.  This exceeded our goal of $6000 to pay for the musicians of Burning Bridge, rehearsal studio rentals and transportation costs to record my composition, Blood.   

The recording was completed this past weekend!  I am thrilled with our performance!  More details soon! 

The additional funds will be applied to the CD mastering, which is $1000.    

Here is the link:   Burning Bridge GoFundMe Campaign.  

Thank you! 

Jason Kao Hwang

Jason Kao Hwang/ Spontaneous River
Symphony of Souls

Jason Kao Hwang’s Spontaneous River, based in New York City, is an orchestra of 37 string improvisers plus drum set.  It is only in recent years that more and more string players have engaged in the art of improvisational music. Spontaneous River is an ensemble and a community that represents this emerging movement. The power of Spontaneous River is drawn from both the sonic unity of strings and the undeniable individualism of each musician’s “voice.”
 
Mr. Hwang’s composition, Symphony of Souls is a spontaneous flow of notated passages and conducted improvisations that sing stories of life journey through an abundant sound emanating from blues, jazz, classical and world sources. As Dr. Thomas Stanley writes in the liner notes, “The orchestra is then summoned to explore soul as both a nexus of dialog and as the motive force compelling action and interaction.  “I felt in this one unified sound, I could hear the voice of each soul,” Jason recalls, “The music was a whole tree, but you could hear each individual leaf in motion.”

Musicians:
Composer, Conductor, Violin:  Jason Kao Hwang
Drums:   Andrew Drury
Violin:  Trina Basu, Sarah Bernstein, Charles Burnham, Julianne Carney, Mark Chung, Fung Chern Hwei, Rosi Hertlein, Gwen Laster, Marlene Rice, David Soldier, Curtis Stewart, Elektra Kurtis, Midori Yamamoto, Helen Yee
Viola:  Leanne Darling, Nicole Federici, Judith Insell, Eric Salazar, David Wallace
Guitar:  Cristian Amigo, Bradley Farberman, James Keepnews, Dom Minasi, David Ross, Tor Snyder, Hans Tammen
Cello:  Martha Colby, Loren Dempster, Daniel Levin, Tomas Ulrich, Shanda Wooley
String Bass:  Michael Bisio, Ken Filiano, Francois Grillot, Clifton Jackson, Tom Zlabinger, James Ilgenfritz
 
This video is of the entire recording session, which is available in the Store.  
Please purchase our CD to support this music.  
Thanks!

The Floating Box, A Story in Chinatown
Music by Jason Kao Hwang
Libretto by Catherine Fillous

This video is from the CD recording session


With an orchestration of Chinese and Western instruments, The Floating Box, A Story in Chinatown boldly charts the journey of an immigrant family over continents, languages, and generations. After her father’s sudden death, Eva/Yee-Wa, who was raised in the U.S., struggles with her mother’s fierce silence.  As her father appears in both memory and spirit, she confronts a forbidden box of composite photographs, fragmented images, which unearth a mysterious past. Set in a small apartment in New York City’s Chinatown, tales of love, tragedy and heroism, from both China and America, are unveiled in a story, which flows freely through time.  With music creating a cross-cultural landscape of dreams, memories, and stark realities, The Floating Box, A Story in Chinatown tells an essential and mythic tale of one family’s loss, transformation, and survival. 

The Floating Box, A Story in Chinatown was commissioned by Meet the Composer/New Residencies in partnership with Music From China, the Museum of Chinese in the America and the Asia Society. The Floating Box was performed on October 25, 26 and 27 and November 1, 2 and 3, 2001 at the Asia Society.  The recording took place between performance weekends. The double CD was released by New World Records in 2005 with the support of the Aaron Copland Foundation.

DIRECTOR 
Jean Randich 
  
CAST 
Eva (Yee-Wa)         Sandia Ang, Soprano 
Mother                   Ryu-Kyung Kim, Mezzo-soprano 
Father’s Ghost       Zheng Zhou, Baritone 
Student Voices      Charlee Chiv, Scott Chan, Mona Chiang, Wai Ching Ho, Henry Yuk 
  

ORCHESTRA 
Conductor:   Juan Carlos Rivas 
Piccolo/ Flute/ Alto Flute:   Patti Monson 
Bb clarinet/ Bass clarinet:    Michiyo Suzuki 
Vibraphone:   Diana Herold 
Multiple percussion:   Satoshi Takeishi 
Pipa (Chinese lute):   Min Xiao Fen 
Accordion:   William Schimmel 
Erhu/ Gaohu/ Zhonghu (Chinese two-stringed bowed instruments):    Wang Guowei 
Cello:   Tomas Ulrich

KUNDUN (1997)
Directed by Martin Scorcese

Music by Philip Glass

Additional Music by Jason Kao Hwang

I scored this scene for Chinese traditional orchestra and mixed choir.  The cue starts about 8 seconds in.

With a limited number of Chinese instrumentalists and singers, we recorded many many overdubs to approximate the mass of sound characteristic of China's political music of that epoch.

The music recorded in Phillip Glass's recording studio.

I also scored the scenes  Dalai Lama Beijing scenes, orchestrating traditional Chinese instruments with European orchestra, as well  as children's choir..  These scenes are unavailable on youtube..