Players: Christian Kilgore, Angel Soto

Impressions of Chinese Opera, scored for percussion duo, depicts the four major elements of Chinese Opera: Singing, Dancing, Dialogue, and Martial Arts. By fusing together Chinese and Western percussion instruments, playing techniques, and compositional methods, a hybrid sound is created – a representation of “East meets West." While some of the musical material is closely related to actual practices in Chinese Opera, the work itself should only be considered an impression of the art form from an “outsider’s" perspective. Impressions of Chinese Opera was also inspired by other Chinese musical art forms, aside from Opera. Such an example is the Kuai Ban (fast board) tradition, an art form that features spoken word (in storytelling format) accompanied by a pair of Chinese boards, which can be seen in movement II, Nian.