Alexina Louie

Alexina Louie
Alexina (Diane) Louie. Composer, pianist, teacher, b Vancouver 30 Jul 1949; ARCT 1966, B MUS (British Columbia) 1970, MA (San Diego) 1974, honorary LL D (University of Calgary) 1997. Alexina Louie is the daughter of second-generation Canadians of Chinese descent. At seven she began piano lessons with Jean Lyons. At the University of British Columbia she continued piano studies with Barbara Custance and Frances Marr Adaskin, and also studied composition with Cortland Hultberg, meanwhile supporting herself by playing cocktail piano music at Vancouver's Devonshire and Georgia Hotels. With a Regent's Fellowship from the University of California at San Diego she started graduate studies in composition in 1970. Her main teachers were Robert Erickson and Pauline Oliveros. She was a member 1971-4 of The Women's Ensemble, a group of eight women under Oliveros that performed meditations through exercises in sound and movement. This exploration of the less tangible aspects of music and life has continued to influence Louie's compositional approach. Louie's aim in her four-channel tape work Molly, based on the last segment of James Joyce's Ulysses, was to make an electronic composition sound "human." Louie taught piano, theory, and electronic music at Pasadena City College 1974-80, and at Los Angeles City College 1976-80. During these years she continued to study Asian music and particularly the Chinese tradition under Tsun-Yuen Lui. Lotus, a commission of Days Months and Years to Come (Magnetic Band), and Lotus II incorporate sounds and structural elements of Indonesian gamelan ensembles.

Watch pianist Pianist Yoomi Kim perform the Alexina Louie composition "Warrior" from "Scenes from a Jade Terrace." From YouTube.

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Louie's Compositions After 1980
Louie returned to Canada in 1980, settling in Toronto. The main focus of her career since then has been composing, but she has also taught theory and composition on an occasional basis for the Royal Conservatory of Music, York University, and the University of Western Ontario. Beginning with the CBC commission of Refuge for Joseph Macerollo and the Canada Council commission of Incantation for Music Inter Alia, Louie has been increasingly sought after for symphonic and chamber works, many of which have received numerous performances in Canada and abroad. Commissioned works include Music for a Thousand Autumns for the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec, The Eternal Earth and Music for Heaven and Earth for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO), The Ringing Earth for the Royal Bank and the opening of Expo 86 in Vancouver, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra for the CBC, Star-filled Night for Christina Petrowska, Winter Music for the Vancouver New Music Society, Scenes from a Jade Terrace for Jon Kimura Parker, and Thunder Gate for the Montreal International Music Competition. In 1983 she became a founding director of the Esprit Orchestra.

Louie's numerous commissions in the 1990s included Gallery Fanfares, Arias and Interludes for the Art Gallery of Ontario; Glance for the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra; and Shattered Night, Shivering Stars for the National Arts Centre and CBC. The CBC recording of the latter won a Juno award in 2000. Louie was named composer-in-residence in 1996 by the Canadian Opera Company; the six-year commitment resulted in The Scarlet Princess (on a text adapted by David Henry Hwang). The opera was given its world concert premiere in April 2002. Louie's works have been performed by several Canadian orchestras including the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and the Hamilton Philharmonic, and by orchestras outside Canada, eg, the San Francisco Symphony, the BBC Symphony, and the St Louis Symphony; the Toronto Symphony has performed her compositions on tour, as has the Esprit Orchestra. She has been composer-in-residence for the Scotia, Vancouver, Boris Brott, and Banff music festivals, and was a featured composer at the McGill University-Montreal Symphony Orchestra New Music Festival in 2002.

Louie viewed her 1980 work Pearls as a conscious departure from her earlier compositions, which were primarily concerned with combining sounds of Asian music with avant-garde techniques. Her style acknowledges traditional structures such as those found in the music of her favourite composers (Bach, Mozart, and Mahler), combined with a contemporary language that retains an emphasis on expression and communication. O Magnum Mysterium for 44 divisi strings includes quotations of music by Bach and from Mahler's "Der Abschied" in a texture of eastern-influenced sounds created only by the strings but at times reminiscent of electronic music. Songs of Paradise, Juno award winner for best classical composition in 1989, The Eternal Earth, and Music for Heaven and Earth, among others, continued Louie's exploration of sonorities frequently atmospheric and evocative of the East, with bell-like and gong sounds often produced by a large percussion section. In many of her compositions Louie expresses her concerns over the threat to the environment. Jon Kimura Parker wrote in SoundNotes (fall 1992) that "Alexina Louie's music is not, in a theoretical sense, outstandingly original, but it is honest and full of meaning. Rather than experiment with the kind of bizarre new ideas that often ultimately communicate only with their creator, she reaches others through a unique and personal blend of well-established Eastern and Western practices."

Notable works composed in the 21st century have included her String Quartet No.2, which was premiered at the Great Composers Festival in Ottawa in 2003, and Bringing the Tiger Down from the Mountain II, premiered in 2004 by the NAC Orchestra and subsequently taken on tour. In 2006 the NAC premiered her Infinite Sky With Birds, and in 2007 the National Ballet of Canada performed Louie's ballet score Wolf's Court, with choreography by Matjash Mrozewski, during Toronto's Four Seasons Centre inaugural season; it was the first major Canadian composition to be performed there. On 7 Mar 2009, Louie's Pursuit, a concerto for orchestra and string quartet, was premiered by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Tokyo String Quartet as part of the TSO's New Creations Festival. Commissions in the 2000s have included Take the Dog Sled, commissioned by the Montreal Symphony for its 2008 tour of Nunavik; Imaginary Opera, commissioned by the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec and Radio France; and The Raven, a joint commission from the Luminato Festival of the Arts and the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival.

Louie is married to the composer and conductor Alex Pauk. As a team they have composed film scores for Last Night (nominated for a Genie Award in 1998), The Five Senses, After the Harvest, Ravel's Brain, and National Film Board documentaries. In 2002 they won the Louis Applebaum Composers Award for their work in film media.

Awards and Activities
In the International Year of Canadian Music (1986) the Canadian Music Council named Louie composer of the year; she received the first SOCAN concert-music award as most frequently performed composer in 1990, and won the award again in 1992 and 2003. In 1994 she was honoured with the Chalmers Award for Gallery Fanfares. She became the first woman recipient of the Jules Léger Prize for composition, for Nightfall, in 1999, and she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Calgary. She was named to the Order of Ontario in 2001 and became an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2005. In 2006 she became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

She is a member of the Canadian League of Composers and an associate of the Canadian Music Centre, and has served on the boards of CAPAC, SOCAN, the Massey and Roy Thomson Halls, the Esprit Orchestra, and other arts organizations.

Selected Compositions
Music Theatre and Multimedia

Journal a.k.a. New York Times, dance. 1980. 10 perf. Ms

Toothpaste, opera buffa. 2001. Libretto by Dan Redican

Burnt Toast, eight comic mini-operas for television. 2002. Librettos by Don Redican

Wolf's Court, ballet score. 2007. Choreography by Matjash Mrozewski

Orchestra
O Magnum Mysterium: In Memoriam Glenn Gould. 1982. Str orch. Ms

Music for a Thousand Autumns. 1983 (rev 1985). Ms

Songs of Paradise. 1983. Ms. CBC SM-5080 (Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra)

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. 1984. Ms

Music for a Celebration. 1985. Ms

The Eternal Earth. 1986. Ms

The Ringing Earth. 1986. Ms. RCI 656 cass (National Youth Orchestra of Canada)

Music for Heaven and Earth. 1990. Ms

Thunder Gate. 1991. Vn, orch. Ms

Shattered Night, Shivering Stars. 1997

Bringing the Tiger Down from the Mountain II. 2004

Infinite Sky With Birds. 2006

Pursuit. 2008-2009

Chamber
Lotus. 1977. 5 perf, tape. Ms

Lotus II. 1978. 10 perf. Ms

Pearls. 1980. 5 perf. Ms

Incantation. 1980. Cl, tape. Ms

Refuge. 1981. Acc, harp, vibraphone. Ms

Cadenzas. 1985 (rev 1987). Cl, percussion. Ms. Centrediscs CMC-2786 (J. Campbell, B. Johnston)

From the Eastern Gate. 1985 (rev 1987). Hp. Ms

Earth Cycles. 1987. Acc, tape. Ms

Music from Night's Edge. 1988. Pf, string quartet. Ms

Winter Music. 1989. Va, 12 perf. Ms

Bringing the Tiger Down from the Mountain II. 1991. Vc, piano. Ms

String Quartet No.2. 2003

Take the Dog Sled. 2008

The Raven. 2009

Piano
Afterimages. 1981. 2 piano. Ms.

Music for Piano. 1982. Ms

Star-filled Night. 1987. Ms

Scenes from a Jade Terrace. 1988. Ms

I Leap through the Sky with Stars. 1991. Ms

Star Light, Star Bright. 1995

In a Flash. 2006

Fast Forward. 2008

Also 2 works for chorus including Love Songs for a Small Planet (1989) and 2 for mezzo-soprano including Songs of Enchantment (1987) for mezzo and string quartet; 2 works for tape including Molly (1972) choreographed for Ann Ditchburn in 1985; and film and TV scores.

Selected Discography
Shattered Night, Shivering Stars. National Arts Centre Orchestra, Bernardi conductor, Beaver violin, Braun baritone. 1999. CBC Records SMCD 5190

Music for Heaven and Earth. Esprit Orchestra, Pauk conductor. 1995. CBC Records SMCD 5154

Erica Goodman Plays Canadian Harp Music. 1994. BIS CD 649

Last Night. 1998. Sony Classical SK 60830

Music for a Thousand Autumns. Esprit Orchestra, Pauk conductor. 2008. Centrediscs CMCCD 7902

Filmography
Eternal Earth (NFB/Rhombus 1987)

W5 "Beyond the Call" (CTV 1987)

Last Night (CBC 1998)

The Five Senses (New Line 1999)

After the Harvest (Lifetime Channel 2001)

Ravel's Brain (Rhombus 2001)

Perfect Pie (Rhombus 2002)

Author Elaine Keillor, Betty Nygaard King

Bibliography

Schulman, Michael. "Exotic sounds, hypnotic rhythm from Vancouver's Alexina Louie," Canadian Composer, 150, Apr 1980

Goulet, Colleen. "Alexina Louie: composition as a soul-searching voyage into the self," Canadian Composer, 193, Sept 1984

Elliott, Robin. "A young composer: Alexina Louie is remarkably successful," Toronto Symphony Magazine, vol 41, Mar-Apr 1986

Snider, Roxanne. "New music's rising star," Maclean's, 19 May 1986

Dick, Emslie. "Alexina Louie, composer of the year, crusades for contemporary music," Performing Arts in Canada, Sep 1986

Lacey, Liam. "A young composer's remarkable quest," Toronto Globe and Mail, 21 Mar 1987

Parker, Jon Kimura. "The solo piano music of Alexina Louie: a blend of east and west," D MUS thesis, Juilliard School of Music, 1989

- "East and West in the music of Alexina Louie," SoundNotes, Fall 1992

Francis, Ann. "Scoring big," Toronto Life, May 1990

Flohil, Richard. "Ms Louie faces the deadlines," Canadian Composer, vol 1, Summer 1990

Chu, Esther Yu-Hui. "On the musical silk route: piano music of Alexina Louie," D MUS thesis, U of Alberta, 1997

Stubley, Eleanor. "Educators' enclave: Alexina Louie's The Eternal Earth: A Video Documentary," International Association of Women in Music Journal, Winter 1998

Colgrass, Ulla. "It was the best of years for Alexina Louie," Toronto Globe and Mail, 23 Dec 1999

Steenhuisen, Paul. "Composer to composer: Alexina Louie," Wholenote, 1 Mar 2002

Littler, William. "Princess true to Kabuki spirit," Toronto Star, 25 Apr 2002

Eatock, Colin. "At home with Alexina Louie," Wholenote, vol 14, no 6, Mar/Apr 2009

Links to Other Sites
Canadian Music Centre
Search the extensive CMC website for Canadian composer biographies and interviews, music scores, online newsletters, audio clips, podcasts, and more. Check out "CentreStreams" to listen to online archived recordings featuring outstanding Canadian composers.

Alexina Louie
A profile of highly acclaimed classical composer Alexina Louie. From the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec.

Vancouver New Music Society
The latest news and event calendar for the innovative Vancouver New Music Society.

Alexina Louie looks outdoors for internal inspiration
A news story on acclaimed composer Alexina Louie and her multidimensional music compositions. From thestar.com.

Alexina Louie: Warrior
Watch pianist Pianist Yoomi Kim perform the Alexina Louie composition "Warrior" from "Scenes from a Jade Terrace." From YouTube.

Alexina Louie: Fastforward
Watch a video of pianist Dorel Golan performing the Alexina Louie composition "Fastforward." From YouTube.

Biography of Alexina Louie, O.C.
A biography of Alexina Louie, O.C., from the website for the National Arts Centre.

Centrediscs CD: 3 Concerti Just Released
A review of the recording "3 Concerti," which features pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico performing works of three Canadian women composers for piano and orchestra. From the website newswire.scena.org.

NACmusicbox.ca
An extensive collection of audio clips from recordings featuring the National Arts Centre Orchestra performing works by noteworthy Canadian and international composers. Click on a composer's name on the right side menu to access specific works. See also composer biographies and the interactive timeline of historical milestones in classical music. From artsalive.ca and the Virtual Museum of Canada.