Meet the participants
September 2001
MPR's Dan Olson interviewed the four composers and three of the performers. Each individual had something unique to contribute to the concert, but they all felt equally strong about their need to participate. Listen to each of their interviews here, and read along with the accompanying transcriptions.
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"We all remember what happened, but ... we forget, or even if we remember it, we try to ignore it or don't mention it because our wounds are so deep and you don't want to touch it. ... Then do we think that it should happen again? And so we need to think about this."
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"When I heard that idea for this concert, I found that it's very Asian. Because, ... to make a conversation with dead spirit, every dead spirit, is a kind of Asian belief. ... And that expression or that idea is very familiar to me."
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"I think that a piece of music could bring in the beauty of the arts, and could bring in fresh inspiration to our audiences. I would like to ... use my music as a bridge to improve the understandings between audiences from different cultural backgrounds."
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"I think music gets to you directly rather than through metaphor. It's not a metaphor, it's something that's actually happening, and I think it can reach you directly whatever your background may be ... and I think that's how it can heal."
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"I do think of music as a means to locate memory. And I do think of music often as something that has healing powers. I think one of the hardest things to do for people is to be able to acknowledge memory and then to move on."
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"My grandma told me about the tragedy. ... During that time, the [Yangtzee] River was ... the water was red for months."
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"So many friends and my family ... and my teachers, they were surprised about the original concept about this. ... I definitely would like to play these pieces ... in Japan."
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