Artists
Dr. Roydon Tse (b.1991) is an award-winning Chinese-Canadian composer and educator. He is passionate about communicating to audiences from all backgrounds and his works for orchestra, chamber and vocal forces are inspired by the fusion of Eastern and Western elements, the visual arts and the environment.
His 2023 began with the US Premiere of “Yellow Crane Tower” by the Philadelphia Orchestra and iSing! Suzhou at the Kimmel Center and Lincoln Center under the baton of Liu Kuokman. In June 2022, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra under Gustavo Gimeno gave four performances of their NextGen commissioned work, “Unrelenting Sorrow“, described as a composition which “succeeds admirably” in taking us in a late-Romantic direction. (Leslie Barcza). His new chamber opera “Shikata Ga Nai” based on the life of WWII veteran Jimmy Doi opened at the Atlanta Opera and was included as part of a docu-series on their 96-hour opera project. Upcoming in 2023 are premieres with the Esprit Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic, and l”Orchestre Symphonique des Trois-Rivieres.
The pandemic led to a time of renewed creativity and expanding collaborations with artists across the globe. “Fantasies on Tang Poetry” was commissioned by dean of the Tianjin Juilliard School Katherine Chu for baritone and chamber ensemble and premiered by members of the TJS Ensemble with baritone Jose Rubio in 2021. His first percussion quartet “Revolution” was commissioned & premiered by SORI Percussion in South Korea in that same year. The International Double Reed Society commissioned “To Earth” for bassoon and piano for their 50th anniversary and annual conference in Boulder, CO. Returning to the string quartet medium, the Lunenburg Academy and Verona Quartet co-commissioned “Blank Canvas” in 2021, a 20-minute quartet based on painting techniques. The Verona Quartet has subsequently toured with the work performing it in Seattle Town Hall and Ottawa ChamberFest. Recent performances in Europe include the Finnish premiere of “Starscape” at Musica Nova Helsinki and his wind orchestra work “Flow” in Paris, by La Musique des Gardiens de la Paix and Orchestre de la Garde Republicaine in 2022.
Prior collaborators include the Brussels Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Hamilton Philharmonic, Shanghai Philharmonic, Vancouver Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Suzhou Symphony, Niagara Symphony, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, National Youth Orchestra of Canada, Vancouver Chamber Choir, Vancouver Bach Choir, City Opera Vancouver; the Interro, Bozzini, Cecilia, and Verona Quartets; and members of the Paris Opera and La Scala Orchestras, among others.
Roydon has won several awards, including seven SOCAN Foundation Awards for Young Composers, the Washington International Composition Prize, CMC Prairies Emerging Composer Prize, Lieutenant Governor of Alberta’s Emerging Artist Award, and the Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize. He was named to CBC music’s top “30 under 30” Canadian Classical Musicians list in 2017 and received the Weinzweig Award from the University of Toronto for exceptional potential in composition. Additionally, he has received support for commissioning from the Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, SOCAN Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts.
A passionate educator, Roydon has taught composition to students of all levels at the University of Toronto and the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance. As a musical ambassador in the community, he has worked with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Community Music Schools of Toronto, BC’s Health Arts Society and the Canadian Opera Company to bring music to youth. A pianist by trade, his complete piano music is featured in the 2022 revised edition of the RCM Piano Syllabus.
Born in Hong Kong, Roydon studied piano and violin in the U.K. as a teenager and earned composition degrees from the University of British Columbia (B.Mus) and the University of Toronto (M.Mus, D.M.A). He is based in Toronto, Canada.
Dr. Yuxin Mei is a renowned pipa virtuoso, educator, and the founding director of the University of North Texas Chinese Ensemble. She earned her Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from the University of North Texas (UNT), where she received the Presser Graduate Music Award in 2018. Her notable paper, “Negotiating with Sound: The Living Sound Niche Created by the Chinese Immigrants in the Dallas Area,” was awarded the 2016 Vida Chenoweth Student Paper Prize from the Society for Ethnomusicology Southern Plains Chapter. Additionally, she was the first Chinese artist to receive the Texas Folklife Apprenticeship Mentor Award in 2020. In 1997, she won first place in the Traditional Chinese Instrument Performance category at the Zhuhai International Music Festival.
Dr. Mei holds a BA and MA in Pipa Performance and Education from the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing and the Xinghai Conservatory of Music in Guangzhou. From 2006 to 2012, she was on the faculty at the Xinghai Conservatory of Music; prior to that, she served as the Artistic Director and soloist for the Zhuhai Chinese Music Chamber Orchestra. Her performance career spans numerous countries, including China, Portugal, Norway, Singapore, France, and Germany. She has collaborated with various musicians and artists worldwide, passionately introducing and promoting Chinese music culture to global audiences. Dr. Mei has also taught masterclasses at the Macau Art School and the Chong Hong Chinese Music Association in Macau.
From 2012 to 2016, as the first "Chinese Cultural Ambassador," she was invited to Norway to participate in the cultural exchange project "Spoor," hosted by The Cultural Rucksack in Akershus. In 1998, she released the album "Spring of Zhu Hai," showcasing her exceptional talent and dedication to the pipa.
A musician fancying himself an astronomer, Alexander Strader creates new solar systems of sounds that provide the people of earth experiences that are out of this world. By peering through his musical telescope and observing different types of world music he is able to combine elements from all corners of the globe in his playing.
Utilizing the clarinet, bass clarinet, and sheng, a mouth organ made of bamboo, Alexander is a freelancer for audiences big and small. He has appeared in festivals such as Music in the Mountains and Cactus Pear as well as the American Wind Symphony Orchestra. On weekends, he plays the clarinet and sheng to deepen worshippers’ liturgical experiences at multiple churches. Additionally, he helps students discover their enthusiasm for music through teaching not only in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, but in El Salvador with the Musaid program. He is the bass clarinetist for the Mansfield Philharmonic, and recorded with the University of North Texas Wind Symphony appearing on the album Taylor Made.
Alexander is the founder and sheng player of the Huo Feng Trio which plays Chinese Orchestral music arranged for sheng, pipa, and zhong ruan. Working with Texas Winds Musical Outreach the trio brings Chinese culture outside of the concert hall to nursing homes and senior centers. The group has also performed live at the Dallas Arboretum, Nasher Sculpture Center, and Greyson College. He often appears as a guest performer with the University of North Texas Chinese Ensemble as a soloist or assisting the ensemble. He has performed abroad in China appearing at Shanghai Conservatory of Music and Huaqiao University.
A Master of Music from the University of North Texas Alexander’s primary clarinet teachers are Stephen Girko, John Scott, and Philip Paglialonga. His sheng teachers include Yuxin Mei, Hua Yifei, and Hu Jianbing.