Event
EarShot Reading
Naples Philharmonic Special Event
Naples Philharmonic
Radu Paponiu, conductor
Jing Jing Luo, composer
Meilina Tsui, composer
Mengmeng Wang, composer
Mengmeng Wang — Onomatopoeia – The Architecture of Sound
Jing Jing Luo — Hakka
Meilina Tsui — Scenes at the Uralsk Fair from Nomadic Trails for Orchestra
In partnership with the American Composers Orchestra, Artis—Naples presents EarShot, a new music reading and composer development program featuring an open rehearsal and performance of works by three of today’s most promising emerging women composers. Following a workshop under the guidance of mentoring composers Molly Joyce and Melinda Wagner, Associate Conductor Radu Paponiu and the Naples Philharmonic perform works by Mengmeng Wang, Jing Jing Luo and Meilina Tsui.
Jing Jing Luo
Jing Jing Luo
Jing Jing Luo a native of Beijing, China, a multi faceted artist whose breadth of work spans classical, opera, sound installations, film scoring, avant-Chinese pop, ensemble and chorale writing, a ink brush visual artist, a pianist and a multiple instrumentalist. who was described as one of “the first generation of avant-garde composers… whose music muses over the remote past and then depicts the results of her cultural wealth of reflections…” by the music critic from the Hong Kong Arts Festival. Recently, New York Times critic Steven Smith wrote that her new work “Tsao Shu” was “suspended stark, deliberate daubs, fidgets and jolts against copious silence…”
Luo’s musical language connects East and West and transcends traditional boundaries. She has received a commissioning award from the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, three times of artistic fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters award, and dozens of other awards. Luo is celebrated in both her homeland and the West for her distinctive and original musical language. The American Academy of Arts and Letters praised her as “…expressive, a fascinating mixture of sources, and exciting virtuosity. …refining her special language with each new score...”
Ms. Luo was recently named as the composer-in-residence by the American League Orchestras and Music Alive with the Princeton Symphony (2015-16), a recipient of Discovery Grant Award for Female Composers supported by The Virginia Toulmin Foundation from The National Opera Center America (2015-16). America Opera Project will produce her new opera Ashima in the fall of 2016 in Brooklyn, NY. Her music can be heard in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Germany, France, England, Greece, Israel, Japan, Mexico, and Hong Kong. The China National Publishing House, New World Records, INNOVA, CRI, Innocent Eyes & Lenses, Subito Music Corp, Ravello Records LLC and the C.F. Peters Publisher.
Luo was a Visiting Professor in Music Composition at Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 2001-04. She has served on the panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music of America, Ohio Arts Council. In addition, she has taught and lectured throughout the United States and around world. She resides in Brunswick, Maine.
Meilina Tsui
Meilina Tsui
Meilina Tsui (b. 1993) is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and educator based in Orlando, Florida. Born in Almaty, Kazakhstan and raised in Hong Kong, Meilina is a composer who “popularizes Kazakh music tradition” (Kazakhstan International News Agency, Kazinform) and creates works that uniquely combine elements of Central Asian and East Asian cultures. Meilina's music, described by The Aspen Times as "irresistible, and emotionally convincing," has been performed and read across Asia, Europe, North America, and the Middle East by leading
soloists, ensembles, and orchestras, and has garnered many accolades, including the 2022 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award, and 2021 ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award from the University of Michigan. Currently, Meilina is working on her new
chamber opera, The Big Swim, co-commissioned by Houston Grand Opera and Asia Society Texas Center for the lunar new year festivities held in Houston. She holds a DMA in Composition from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Professors Bright Sheng and Michael Daugherty, a MM in Composition from King’s College London, and a BA in Music from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Mengmeng Wang
Mengmeng Wang
Mengmeng Wang, composer, have had her pieces performed all around the world at events including the MATA festival, the SEAMUS 2021 Digital Conference, the concert of Chicago Composer’s Consortium: Experimental Sound Studio, June in Buffalo, the Atlantic Center of the Arts, Ithaca NY, Glasgow UK, and the Beijing Modern Music Festival. Her music was awarded an Honor Award at the 1st eARTS Digital Audio Competition, Golden Prize at the 4th Chinese National Music Exhibition and Performance in Beijing and Mead Witter School of Music Concerto Competition. She was a residency composer of Atlantic Center of the Arts in 2018. She have had the privilege of working with a number of ensembles and performers, including Shanghai Opera Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Dal Niente and International Contemporary Ensemble etc.
Naples Philharmonic
Naples Philharmonic
Founded in 1982, the Naples Philharmonic normally performs over 140 orchestral and chamber concerts, as well as opera and ballet, education, community and special event concerts from September through June each year.
Meet the Musicians
Jack Everly
Principal Pops Conductor Meet Jack
James Ehnes
Artistic Partner Meet James
Radu Paponiu
Associate Conductor Meet Radu
Alvin Ho
Assistant Conductor Meet Alvin
Radu Paponiu
Radu Paponiu
Radu Paponiu is the associate conductor of the Naples Philharmonic and director of the Naples Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. Since 2017, Radu has conducted the Naples Philharmonic in more than 70 different classical, education and pops programs. As a guest conductor, Radu has appeared with the Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra in Romania, Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony and National Repertory Orchestra. Radu has collaborated with notable soloists such as Yefim Bronfman, Vladimir Feltsman, Robert Levin, Nancy Zhou, and the Ébène Quartet. Radu regularly serves as cover conductor with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Konzerthausorchester Berlin, and he has assisted conductors including Andrey Boreyko, Iván Fischer, Fabio Luisi, Stéphane Denève, Hans Graf, Donald Runnicles, Cristian Măcelaru, Bernard Labadie and Ludovic Morlot. Radu has served on the conducting faculty of the Juilliard Pre-College, as well as conductor for the Summer Performing Arts with Juilliard in Shanghai, China, and the Southeast Asia Music Festival in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Radu completed his Master of Music degree in orchestral conducting at the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Hugh Wolff. While in Boston, Radu was also conductor apprentice with the Handel and Haydn Society. In the summer of 2017, Radu was appointed assistant conductor of the National Repertory Orchestra in Colorado, as well as conducting fellow for the Cabrillo Festival Workshop in California. Radu participated in the prestigious American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival and School as the recipient of both the Albert Tipton Aspen Fellowship and the David A. Karetsky Memorial Fellowship. In Aspen, Radu furthered his studies under the guidance of Robert Spano, Larry Rachleff, Leonard Slatkin, Patrick Summers and Federico Cortese.
Radu began his musical studies on the violin at age 7, studying privately with Carmen Runceanu and Ștefan Gheorghiu. After coming to the United States at the invitation of the Perlman Music Program, Radu completed two degrees in violin performance under the guidance of Robert Lipsett at the Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles. As a soloist and chamber musician, Radu has appeared in festivals throughout Europe and North America, collaborating with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Clive Greensmith, Martin Beaver, Merry Peckham and Vivian Hornik Weilerstein.
Radu currently resides in Naples, Florida, with his wife, flutist Blair Francis Paponiu. In his spare time, he enjoys chamber music reading parties, fishing, biking and playing tennis.
