Video: Lee Pui Ming breaks new ground with Bay-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra

A ground-breaking Concerto for Improvised Piano and Orchestra — by Canadian pianist and composer Lee Pui Ming — was performed by the Bay-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Jed Gaylin at Cumberland Community College.

This video is part of a series from New Jersey Arts News

A ground-breaking Concerto for Improvised Piano and Orchestra — by Canadian pianist and composer Lee Pui Ming — was performed by the Bay-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Jed Gaylin at Cumberland Community College.

Entitled “she comes to shore,” the concerto bridges the worlds of improvisation and precise notation; the soloist improvises, while the orchestral accompaniment is structured.

“It’s coming to a different place in one’s life,” says Lee Pui Ming.

This unusual work was commissioned and premiered by Maestro Jed Gaylin and the Johns Hopkins Orchestra in 2009, and recorded by the Bay-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra in 2010.

Improvisation came naturally to Hong Kong-born pianist Lee Pui Ming, whose mother taught voice and created accompaniments to popular Chinese songs. Her first recording, “Ming,” was released in 1991, and led to invitations to perform in jazz and new music festivals throughout Canada, the U.S. and Europe. Lee Pui Ming is a resident of Toronto and a practitioner of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy (BCST).

Serving Southern New Jersey, the Bay-Atlantic Symphony performs subscription concerts at Stockton College, Rowan University, and Cumberland Community College with a summer season in Avalon.

 

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