Lucia Hwong Explained

Lucia Hwong
Occupation:Composer
Birth Place:Hawaii
Mother:Lisa Lu

Lucia Hwong is an American composer and instrumentalist. She has created music for theater, film, television,[1] dance and the concert stage.[2]

Biography

Hwong was born in Hawaii and raised in Los Angeles, California. Her grandmother was a grande dame of Chinese opera and her mother is international actress Lisa Lu. Her first public performance was in concert, playing the pipa, an ancient Chinese lute, at the age of six. She studied ethnomusicology, theater and dance at UCLA and Columbia University from 1978 to 1982, graduating with a B.A. degree cum laude in ethnomusicology.

She has chaired philanthropic events for organizations including the Women's Project,[3] American Theatre Wing,[4] Asia Society and Parrish Art Museum[5] and has been on committees such as Southampton Hospital.[6]

She was married to investment banker Peter Gordon (1942–2020), with whom she had two daughters.[7] [8]

Compositions

Her music for theater includes the scores for the Tony Award-winning Broadway production of M. Butterfly and Tony-nominated Golden Child; as well as David Henry Hwang's New York Shakespeare Festival presentations of Sound and Beauty and The Dance and the Railroad and the Obie Award-winner FOB.[9] She composed the music for Iago and Venus Voodoo at Lincoln Center.

Hwong also scored the Mark Taper and McCarter Theatre premieres of Anna Deavere Smith's Twilight: Los Angeles 1992[10] and created a 12-tone fugue for Joyce Carol Oates' The Perfectionist.[11] Among her dance scores, Fierce Attachments debuted at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival.[12] She also scored Ali MacGraw's Yoga Mindbody and created music for the Guggenheim Museum's Soho video wall.

Her music for television and film include Hiroshima (NBC), Vietnam War Story (HBO), Forbidden Nights (Tiananmen Square massacre) (ABC), Paper Angels (Angel Island) (PBS), Jennifer's in Jail (girl gangs) (Lifetime), Lotus (women's emancipation in China) (AFI),[13] Who Killed Vincent Chin? (racial murder) (1998 Oscar nomination: Best Documentary) and Silverlake Life: the View from Here (AIDS), honored with Sundance Film Festival and Peabody awards.

Concert pieces include The Unwelcome and Rhythm of Your Pulse, commissioned and performed by the Women's Philharmonic.

Her two albums, House of Sleeping Beauties and Secret Luminescence were released on the Private Music label. The Goddess Trilogy CDs of new-age music were released on her own label, Goddess Music, and received a Visionary Award in 2000.

Discography

The works of Lucia Hwong

THEATER1998Golden childComposer, Incidental MusicBroadway New York
1993Twilight :Los Angeles 1992Composer, Arranger, PerformerMcCarter Theater, Princeton, NJ
1993THE PERFECTIONISTComposer, Arranger, PerformerMcCarter Theater, Princeton, NJ
1993TWILIGHT:LOS ANGELES 1993Composer, Arranger, PerformerThe Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles Music Center
1993SNAKE IN THE VEINComposer, Arranger, PerformerBlank Theatre Company, New York, NY
1993THE PERFECTIONISTComposer, Arranger, PerformerMcCarter Theater, Princeton, NJ
1992THE BIG ONE SHOTComposer, PerformerNaked Angels Theatre, New York, NY
1989VENUS VOODOOComposer, Arranger, PerformerLincoln Center, New York, NY
1989M. ButterflyComposer, ArrangerWestbury Theatre, London
1988M. ButterflyComposer, arranger, On-Stage Music DirectorO'Neill Theatre, Broadway New York
1983SOUND AND BEAUTYComposer, Arranger, PerformerNew York Shakespeare Festival
1981THE DANCE AND THE RAILROADComposer, Music Director, PerformerNew York Shakespeare Festival
1980F.O.B.Composer, Music Director, PerformerNew York Shakespeare Festival
1980IAGOComposer, Played DesdemonaMitzi Newhouse Theater - Lincoln Center (NY);
1979IAGOComposer, Played DesdemonaInner City Cultural Center (LA)
FILM2010GIVING BACKMusic ScoreGiving Back Foundation
1999THE VENICE PROJECTMusician
1993SILVERLAKE LIFE:THE VIEW FROM HEREComposer : ScoreSundance Film Festival
1988LAWLESS LANDComposer : ScoreRoger Corman
1988LOTUSActress
1987Who killed Vincent Chin?Composer : Score
1987CHINA GIRLComposer : SongVestron
1987THE LAST EMPERORActress: Featured Role Lady of the Book
1985YEAR OF THE DRAGONComposer : Title Music
1984NOTHING LASTS FOREVERActress : Lunar Maiden
1982HAMMETTMusician : Pipa; Chinese music consultant to John Barry
TELEVISION1993THE WORLD OF LUCIA HWONGComposer : ScoreTime Warner Cable
1991JENNIFER’S IN JAILComposer : ScoreLifetime
1990Composer : ScoreNBC
1990FORBIDDEN NIGHTSComposer : ScoreCBS
1989VIETNAM WAR STORY : THE LAST DAYSComposer : ScoreHBO / The Last Soldier
1985PAPER ANGELSComposer : ScorePBS/AMERICAN PLAYHOUSE
CONCERTS1996DRUM SONGComposer-Lyrics by George C. WolfeBoys Choir of Harlem
1991THE UNWELCOME RHYTHM OF YOUR PULSEComposerWomen’s Philharmonic San Francisco
1989VENUS VOODOOCreator, Composer, PerformerLincoln Center
DANCE & MULTI MEDIA1995AKASHIC WEEKENDPipa performerEvent of Ira Cohen
1994ALI MACGRAW YOGA MIND & BODYComposer : ScoreM32 Music Co.
1987FIERCE ATTACHMENTSComposer : ScoreBAM/Next Wave Festival
RECORDING1999GODDESS MYSTICAL VISIONS Vol.3Composer, arranger, performerM32 Music Co.
1998GODDESS CELESTIAL REALMS VISIONS Vol.2Composer, arranger, performerM32 Music Co.
1998GODDESS AWAKENING VISIONS Vol.1Composer, arranger, performerM32 Music Co.
1994NEUROTRANSMITTER BATHComposerM32 Music Co.
1987SECRET LUMINESCENCEComposer, arranger, performerProduced by Kurt Munkacsi
1987NEO GEOPipa performerAlbum of Ryuichi Sakamoto
1984HOUSE OF SLEEPING BEAUTIESComposer, arranger, performerPrivate Music

Recognition

In 1978, Hwong received a Citation of Outstanding Contribution by the Board of Public Works of the City of Los Angeles. Time magazine (September 1986) and The New York Times (May 1986) included her in a list of America's exceptional new composers; and in 1993, she received the first Asian American Arts award from the Asian American Arts Alliance as Artist of the Year.

Composer Philip Glass wrote, "a young generation of composers has begun to appear. And the thing which distinguishes them...is that they represent...dual tradition...perhaps really for the first time, or something new. Not a borrowing from one tradition or incorporating the sounds of another, but a real blending of Eastern and Western music. Lucia Hwong is such a composer."[14]

Hwong is on the Board of The Women's Project and was honored at its Women of Achievement Awards on March 2, 2009.[15] Mayor Bloomberg declared the day "Women's Project Day" by Proclamation. Lucia has chaired the 21st,[16] 22nd[17] and 23rd[18] Women's Project Galas.

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Movie Tickets - Movie Times - Fandango. fandango.com. 2015-09-10.
  2. Web site: 11 results in SearchWorks. searchworks.stanford.edu. 2015-09-10.
  3. Web site: Women of Achievement Awards . 2010-05-12 . https://web.archive.org/web/20131021004225/http://www.womensproject.org/awards.htm . 2013-10-21 . dead .
  4. Web site: American Theatre Wing - 2009 Annual Spring Gala . https://web.archive.org/web/20090815121443/http://americantheatrewing.org/gallery/gala2009/ . 2009-08-15 . dead . 2015-09-10 .
  5. Web site: Parrish Art Museum: The Great American Family Picnic - :|MANHATTAN SOCIETY|:Manhattan, New York City Event Photo Gallery. manhattan.smugmug.com. 2015-09-14.
  6. Web site: SOUTHAMPTON-AUGUST 1: Lucia Hwong-Gordon "Fashion Committee" wearing Dennis Basso, Jacqueline Murphy Stahl, Sara Herbert-Galloway, Ramona Singer attend Southampton Hospital's 51st Annual Summer Party--A Centennial Celebration on Saturday August 1, 2009, Wickapogue Road, Southampton, New York - :|MANHATTAN SOCIETY|:Manhattan, New York City Event Photo Gallery. manhattan.smugmug.com. 2015-09-10.
  7. Web site: Remembering the life of Peter GORDON . 2022-10-04 . montrealgazette.remembering.ca . en.
  8. Web site: 2012-01-04 . Filmic Finance Scion Buys on Park . 2022-10-04 . Observer . en-US.
  9. News: Review/Theater; Culture Shock in Hwang's 'F.O.B.' . The New York Times . Mel . Gussow . May 20, 1990.
  10. Wald . Gayle . Anna Deveare Smith's Voices at Twilight . Postmodern Culture . 1994 . 4 . 2 . 10.1353/pmc.1994.0013 . 143764009 . .
  11. Web site: Celestial Timepiece | A Joyce Carol Oates Patchwork. jco.usfca.edu. 2015-09-10.
  12. New York Magazine. Newyorkmetro.com. New York Media, LLC. 0028-7369. 177. 2015-09-10. 1987-09-21.
  13. Web site: Arthur Dong - DeepFocus Productions Lotus . Deepfocusproductions.com . 2020-03-10.
  14. Glass album notes for the Private Music CD of “House of Sleeping Beauties,” 1985
  15. Women's Project,” 2009
  16. Web site: The 21st. annual Women of Achievement Gala at Cipriani 23rd. in Manhattan, N.Y. on 5-15-06 all photos by Rob Rich © 2006 robwayne1@aol.com 516-676-3939 . Thenewyorkscene.com . 2020-03-10.
  17. Web site: The 22nd Annual Women of Achievement Gala at the Rainbow Room in Manhattan on 3-12-07. all photos by Rob Rich © 2007 robwayne1@aol.com 516-676-3939 . Imagesofsociety.com . 2020-03-10.
  18. Web site: Search - robrich . Societyallure.com . 2020-03-10.