SORCERESS OF THE NEW PIANO: THE ARTISTRY OF MARGARET LENG TAN
Evans Chan
USA, 2004, 92 minutes
Reaching past the keyboard deep into the innards of a grand piano, Margaret Leng Tan plucks its strings like a harp. This striking image and the sounds that accompany it set the stage for a film that is both the biography of a renowned pianist and a history of 20th-century avant-garde music.
Tan was the first woman to graduate from Julliard with a doctorate. A protege of John Cage, she is considered to be the preeminent interpreter of his work. Her performances are as much theater and percussion as traditional keyboarding, combining drumming the frame, speaking and humming, as well as various modifications to the piano itself.
Having achieved a pinnacle in the interpretation of modernist classical music, Tan decided to try a whole new instrument--the toy piano. Seeing the sonic limitations of the diminutive device as more of a challenge to her skills than as an indication that the instrument is flawed, she has created a whole new career for herself. As Charles Schultz commented, "You have joined Schroeder as one of the great toy piano performers of all time."
Evans Chan's film combines a serious interest in the traditions of modern music with the same spirit of whimsy embodied in one of Tan's toy piano concerts. The intensity and joy with which she conjures up the sounds of avant-garde music, whatever the instrument, are what prompted George Crumb to call Tan "a sorceress."
Tad Doyle
Born in China, raised in Hong Kong, Evans Chan is a critic, dramatist, writer and award-winning director of four narrative features and five documentaries. Currently living in New York, Chan has published five books, including Evans Chan's To Liv(e): Screenplay and Essays (University of Hong Kong, 1996), and is the editor/translator into Chinese of two books by Susan Sontag. His writings can be seen in Cinemaya, Asian Cinema, Film International and Postmodern Culture.
Print Source:
Evans Chan
280 Riverside Drive, Suite 10K
New York, NY 10025
Tel: 212.222.7350
Fax: 212.865.6983
Email: Evanschan@aol.com
PRECEDED BY...HKJG03
Jennifer Gauthier
USA/Hong Kong, 2004, 1 minute
A New York filmmaker hits the streets of Hong Kong in search of fallen angels.
Print Source:
Jennifer Gauthier
11 Waverly Place #10F
New York, NY 10003
Tel: 917.699.7574
Email: gauthier2046@hotmail.com
Thursday 6/16 at 5:30 p.m.
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