![Sam Wu](/img/default-banner.jpg)
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Sam Wu
Добавлен 2 мар 2012
Sam Wu's music deals with the beauty in blurred boundaries.
Selected for the American Composers Orchestra's EarShot readings, winner of an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award and First Prize at the Washington International Competition, Sam Wu also received Harvard's Robert Levin Prize and Juilliard's Palmer Dixon Prize.
Sam’s collaborations span five continents, notably with the orchestras of Philadelphia, New Jersey, Minnesota, Sarasota, Melbourne, Tasmania, and Shanghai, the New York City Ballet, Sydney International Piano Competition, the Lontano, Parker, Argus, ETHEL, and icarus Quartets, conductors Osmo Vänskä, Case Scaglione, and Benjamin Northey, and shēng virtuoso Wu Wei.
From Melbourne, Australia, Sam Wu holds degrees from Harvard, Juilliard, and Rice. This fall, he joins the faculty at Whitman College as Visiting Assistant Professor in Theory and Composition. Sam's teachers include Tan Dun, Anthony Brandt, Pierre Jalbert, Chaya Czernowin, and Richard Beaudoin.
Selected for the American Composers Orchestra's EarShot readings, winner of an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award and First Prize at the Washington International Competition, Sam Wu also received Harvard's Robert Levin Prize and Juilliard's Palmer Dixon Prize.
Sam’s collaborations span five continents, notably with the orchestras of Philadelphia, New Jersey, Minnesota, Sarasota, Melbourne, Tasmania, and Shanghai, the New York City Ballet, Sydney International Piano Competition, the Lontano, Parker, Argus, ETHEL, and icarus Quartets, conductors Osmo Vänskä, Case Scaglione, and Benjamin Northey, and shēng virtuoso Wu Wei.
From Melbourne, Australia, Sam Wu holds degrees from Harvard, Juilliard, and Rice. This fall, he joins the faculty at Whitman College as Visiting Assistant Professor in Theory and Composition. Sam's teachers include Tan Dun, Anthony Brandt, Pierre Jalbert, Chaya Czernowin, and Richard Beaudoin.
Sam Wu: Ocean Moons (2023), for 2 pianists and 2 percussionists [SCORE]
www.samwumusic.com/ocean-moons
I. Triton [00:05]
II. Titan [04:03]
III. Europa [07:09]
IV. Enceladus [11:11]
@icarusquartet
Ellen Hwangbo, Larry Weng, piano
Jeff Stern, Matt Keown, percussion
Some of the most fascinating worlds in our Solar System are moons that orbit gas giants. Four in particular, Triton (Neptune), Titan (Saturn), Europa (Jupiter), and Enceladus (Saturn), plausibly host liquid oceans.
Ocean Moons explores each of these worlds--“Triton” imagines the ice monuments of an alien civilization, “Titan” describes a thick, hazy atmosphere with hydrocarbon clouds, “Europa” documents whale song heard beneath the moon’s icy crust, and “Enceladus” depicts a bleak and cold desert.
Commissione...
I. Triton [00:05]
II. Titan [04:03]
III. Europa [07:09]
IV. Enceladus [11:11]
@icarusquartet
Ellen Hwangbo, Larry Weng, piano
Jeff Stern, Matt Keown, percussion
Some of the most fascinating worlds in our Solar System are moons that orbit gas giants. Four in particular, Triton (Neptune), Titan (Saturn), Europa (Jupiter), and Enceladus (Saturn), plausibly host liquid oceans.
Ocean Moons explores each of these worlds--“Triton” imagines the ice monuments of an alien civilization, “Titan” describes a thick, hazy atmosphere with hydrocarbon clouds, “Europa” documents whale song heard beneath the moon’s icy crust, and “Enceladus” depicts a bleak and cold desert.
Commissione...
Просмотров: 680
Видео
Sam Wu: aerial silk roads (2021), for solo cello [SCORE]
Просмотров 36114 дней назад
www.samwumusic.com/aerial-silk-roads-cello i. contrails [0:00] ii. deserts [1:50] iii. mountains [3:46] iv. night [5:47] Aurélienne Brauner, cello I marvel at the ease with which we traverse continents and cross oceans today. Trading routes that once took caravans months, over treacherous terrains, are now travelled in a matter of hours; Asia and Europe are merely linked by one night’s sleep. "...
Sam Wu: Weather Model (2023), for mezzo-soprano and string quartet [MUSIC VIDEO]
Просмотров 21221 день назад
www.samwumusic.com/weather-model words and video projection by Carrie Marie Schneider Jillian Krempasky, mezzo-soprano (@jilliankrempasky9386) Mary Grace Johnson, Nanki Chugh, violins Molly Wise, viola Chris Ellis, cello I love the water The rainwater has turned red. Red water red water rain. Be submitted by its lightning storms. Float in its floodwaters. I need you breeze, open sky. All that i...
Sam Wu: Hyperlooping (2019), for piano four hands [SCORE]
Просмотров 64128 дней назад
www.samwumusic.com/hyperlooping "Hyperlooping" is inspired by the curved ramps of highway interchanges. While these structures exist on a large scale, a bird's-eye view of them captures not only their grandeur, but also their geometric elegance. When represented in music, individual pitches function as beams, supports, and trusses. Contours and grooves become the swooping patterns that define t...
Sam Wu: Waterways (2018), for solo violin [SCORE]
Просмотров 422Месяц назад
www.samwumusic.com/waterways Alice Ivy-Pemberton, violin The fish explore their new streets and avenues and boulevards, making their homes in corals growing out of skyscrapers. #newmusic #violin #newyork #manhattan #water #climate #solo #strings #classicalmusic
Sam Wu: Hydrosphere (2022), for orchestra [SCORE]
Просмотров 1,9 тыс.Месяц назад
www.samwumusic.com/hydrosphere @OneFoundSound San Francisco, CA "Hydrosphere" is inspired by the water cycle a macroscopic, planetary process that shapes oceans and continents. Water is the source of life as we know it; its eternal cycle accompanies generations across the aeons. Despite its ubiquity, water is precious we must protect Gaia’s lifeblood. #water #planet #cycle #orchestra #symphony ...
Sam Wu: Songs across the Aeons《唐詩神遊》 (2021), for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble [SCORE]
Просмотров 525Месяц назад
www.samwumusic.com/songs-across-the-aeons @jilliankrempasky9386 , mezzo-soprano Leone Buyse, flute / piccolo Emily Richardson, violin Nathan Hsu, cello Rachel Chao, piano Sam Wu, conductor I. Ascending the Tower of Cranes 登鹳雀楼 [0:05] II. Silent Mountains 空山不见人 [3:20] III. Twilights in the Desert 大漠孤烟直 [6:30] IV. The Big Dipper High in the Sky 北斗七星高 [10:00] Texts by the Taiwanese poet Yu Kwang-C...
Sam Wu: Aria (2022), for solo piano [SCORE]
Просмотров 1,1 тыс.2 месяца назад
www.samwumusic.com/aria @tfeng94 Thomas Feng, piano "Aria" is my re-imagination of a Baroque adagio movement. I aim to capture a sense of suspended / eternal time that is at once past, present, and future - time (or its lack thereof) can be another “place” listeners are transported to through music. recorded live, April 27, 2023 Barnes Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY #piano #music #meditat...
Sam Wu: [alien forests] (2019), for string quartet [SCORE]
Просмотров 1,6 тыс.2 месяца назад
www.samwumusic.com/alien-forests Depending on the spectra of their local stars, exoplanets’ flora may come in wildly different colors than our own: red, purple, blue, or even black. Sophia Steger, Isabella Gies, violins Frida Siegfrist Oliver, viola Sanae Kodaira, cello #strings #alien #forest #exoplanets #floral #colors #stringquartet #newmusic #space #mysterious #scifi #violin #viola #cello
Sam Wu: Sheng Sheng Man《聲聲慢》 (2021), for SSAA voices and piano [SCORE]
Просмотров 4422 месяца назад
www.samwumusic.com/sheng-sheng-man @ChorusAustin Carla McElhaney, piano Ryan Heller, conductor Text by Li Qingzhao 李清照 (1084 - ca. 1151) English translation by the composer I seek cold and lonely in vain the cold spells after warmer days are the toughest to bear wine is no match for the winds migrating geese the same ones from spring withered yellow petals on the ground no one to sweep them up ...
Sam Wu: Tiny Forests (2021), for solo piano [SCORE]
Просмотров 8 тыс.2 месяца назад
www.samwumusic.com/tiny-forests @lyndonji, piano "Tiny Forests" is inspired by the urban planning concept of breaking up a city's concrete-and-glass jungle with plots of miniature forests. While small in scale, they still adhere to the principles of how forests form and grow: a nourishing layer of soil, above which lies (in ascending order) the shrub, sub-tree, tree, and canopy layers. Musicall...
Sam Wu: Mass Transit (2022), for piano quintet [SCORE]
Просмотров 12 тыс.2 месяца назад
www.samwumusic.com/mass-transit i. network architecture [0:04] ii. garden city [2:39] iii. airport express [5:02] iv. night skyline [7:26] v. interchange station [10:25] "Mass Transit" is inspired by Shanghai’s metro system- an elaborate network of lines, trains, tunnels / overpasses, and interchange stations. Each movement explores a facet of the subway network: the elegance of optimizing a sy...
Sam Wu: cetacean songs (2023), concerto for cello and sinfonietta
Просмотров 5174 месяца назад
www.samwumusic.com/cetacean-songs Dana Rath, solo cello Hannah Tassler, flute / piccolo Joshua Bullock, oboe Triniti Rives, clarinet Demetra Alikakos, bassoon London Stovall, horn Kiran Samuel, trombone Sam Rachleff, percussion Emily Richardson, Sofia Matthews, Hannah Corbett, David Hung, violins Gabe Galley, Jimmy Cunningham, violas Emma Cary, Samuel Sykes, cellos Kevin Fink, double bass Sam W...
Sam Wu: Mass Transit (2022), for piano quintet
Просмотров 9092 года назад
7/9/22: Studzinski Concert Hall, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME Tianyu Liu, Russell Iceberg, violins Aditi Prakash, viola Claire Kim, cello Stephen Joven-Lee, piano i. network architecture [0:00] ii. garden city [2:34] iii. airport express [4:58] iv. night skyline [7:31] v. interchange station [10:30] "Mass Transit" is inspired by Shanghai’s metro system- an elaborate network of lines, trains, ...
Sam Wu: Songs across the Aeons (2021), for mezzo-soprano and ensemble
Просмотров 4582 года назад
www.samwumusic.com/songs-across-the-aeons Jillian Krempasky, mezzo-soprano Leone Buyse, flute / piccolo Emily Richardson, violin Nathan Hsu, cello Rachel Chao, piano Sam Wu, conductor I. Ascending the Tower of Cranes 登鹳雀楼 [0:00] II. Silent Mountains 空山不见人 [3:15] III. Twilights in the Desert 大漠孤烟直 [6:25] IV. The Big Dipper High in the Sky 北斗七星高 [9:55] Texts by the Taiwanese poet Yu Kwang-Chung 余...
Sam Wu: Sheng Sheng Man《声声慢》(2021), for SSAA voices and piano
Просмотров 1,1 тыс.2 года назад
Sam Wu: Sheng Sheng Man《声声慢》(2021), for SSAA voices and piano
Sam Wu: The Rat King (2018), a chamber opera scene
Просмотров 2423 года назад
Sam Wu: The Rat King (2018), a chamber opera scene
Sam Wu: TEA《茶》(2014); Suite for Piano and Orchestra
Просмотров 1,9 тыс.9 лет назад
Sam Wu: TEA《茶》(2014); Suite for Piano and Orchestra
is this on spotify? it is gorgeous
Thank you!! Not at the moment, but maybe in the future :)
Great work. Seems very wholesome, thought through and delivers an atmosphere and mood that is rarely that intense. ❤
Thank you for your kind words Mac!
Amazing, great composition!🔥
@@antoniojoseffaranda7173 thank you!! 😊
Amazing piece, the orchestration is beautiful! I had no idea you could get these sounds from an ensemble like this. Well done!
Thank you Jamarian! I was thrilled to be able to write for this instrumentation--Bartok wrote a sonata for two pianos and percussion, which subsequently inspired more composers to explore these possibilities. For me, I love seizing every chance to suggest orchestral atmospheres and textures, even in chamber music settings like this one :)
Excellent work! Fantastic sounds and textures in this work. Very inspiring!
@@causticcenturion7531 thank you for listening!!
this is amazing, I could definetely see it fitting into the soundtrack of something like breath of the wild
Thank you Jose! I also love the soundtrack to "Ori and the Will of the Wisps" if you know that game?
@@SamWuMusic oh yeah I know it, I can hear the inspiration
I really appreciate the effortless melodic lyricism of that soundtrack (and many other video game OSTs)--truly "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication"!
Rautavaara and Takemitsu would've really appreciated the immensely beautiful, masterful, delicately constructed soundscapes you feature in this work. Bravo!
Thank you for listening Jonas!! Rautavaara is indeed a big inspiration (I love his percussion concerto "Incantations" and seventh symphony "Angel of Light" in particular).
Bravissimo Sam, great piece!!
Thank you Rossano!
stop stealing ideas I want to have 🤣 anyway, you create incredible soundscapes
@@lolllololllo 😂 thank you!
A very beautiful reminiscence Bravo!!
Thank you David!
do you have any advice for writing for piano quintet
Hmm... I understand the piano quintet as both a "super string quartet" and a "super piano": the piano can go as high as the violin, but much lower than the cello, so it can double, support, and highlight aspects of the strings. At the same time, the strings can sustain in ways the piano cannot (including timbral differences with vibrato usage, harmonics, etc.), and so they can keep piano resonances "alive", beyond what is possible with just a solo piano. Another way of thinking about this is finding how string and piano can "bridge" their differences--for example, an interplay between pizz and piano staccatos, or how strings can imitate and enhance the sustain pedal. By and large in "Mass Transit" most instruments are playing most of the time; I can think of piano quintet examples with more extended passages featuring subsets of the whole instrumentation (e.g. the opening to Dvorak's 2nd Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81).
So many score videos come up in my suggestions. This is one of the few I come back to.
@@johnbence1750 thank you for your kind words John!
This is by far the most beautiful cello piece I've ever heard.
Thank you for listening!!
@@SamWuMusic no, as a fellow composer, thank you for sharing your beautiful music.
Sam Wu creates some of the most beautiful sounds in the universe
😅 you’re too kind-thanks for listening!
@@SamWuMusic and thank you for composing
Absolutely incredible.
Thank you for listening!! :)
another fantastic composition, adored the third movement.
@@Bach_Jose Thank you again Jose!!
another saariaho fan!
sept papillons is canon at this point (although another piece I thought a lot about is Dutilleux’s Trois strophes sur le nom de Sacher)
@@SamWuMusic hadn't heard the dutilleaux, thanks for the rec. this one is a little dainty for my taste but i enjoyed it! can certainly imagine being in an airplane while hearing this
thanks for listening!
I really want to learn the first movement...
Maybe first and second? Would work well as a 2-movement miniature.
ive just discovered your music and I can say I'm instantly hooked, I adore the colors you use in your music, I can't stop listening. I'm glad I discovered you, will definetely add some of your pieces into my repertoire.
Thank you for your kind words Jose!!
this is absolutely phenomenal
Thank you again Jose :)
Such a pleassure discover this.
Thank you for listening Joshua!
Really wonderful composition!
Thank you Rowan!!
Would you describe this as neo-impressionism, or something? What do you think? Also, who are your influences?
Thank you for listening! These are good questions--some of my biggest inspirations are Ravel, Sibelius, John Adams, Tan Dun, and Qigang Chen. I'm not sure as much about stylistic categories, but perhaps an intersection of neo-impressionism, as you mentioned, and post-minimalism?
all of your work is so evocative and atmospheric but this is something else entirely. as an aspiring composer i want you to know that you’re my biggest inspiration right now. cheers from houston!
Thank you for your kind comment! Hello from Houston as well :)
This is very funny, but I almost left basically this exact comment on your last composition video, but I'm also a fledgling composer in Houston. Thank you for the constant source of inspiring works!
@@Ottomagne thank you!! so much wonderful music-making in Houston ❤️
I really love this kind of Music. It reminds me of pieces by Chris Cerrone or my piece „Dust“ as well. Looking forward to hear more from this!
Thank you Leon; I really enjoy Chris Cerrone’s opera “Invisible Cities”!
Beautiful performance and lovely composition. thank you for posting!
Thank you for your kind words Samir!
Delicate, serene and very evocative! Thank you so much for sharing, it’s very inspiring stuff :) I’ve recently been going through your channel and I’m so glad I found your music, it really resonates with me! Any chance you’re planning on putting your music on any major streaming services?
Thank you for your kind words and for listening!! Currently I have no plans, but I’ll look into Spotify or Bandcamp! I’m also waiting for the release of a few albums including my music-I can let you know when that happens 👍🏼
@@SamWuMusic ohhh that’s awesome! Looking forward to that then! Btw what musical inspiration did you have for this kind of 2 part solo violin writing. Might be a me thing but I don’t think I’ve really heard this kind of texture + melody thing even though it makes a lot of sense…I really dig it in any case
My primary instrument was the violin as a kid, and I remember enjoying how contrapuntal Bach's solo violin writing is (although quite challenging to play--some awkward fingering and stretches). In general, particularly in solo works, I love exploring ways to suggest / "pretend" there are more than one instrument playing. The middle section of Mendelssohn's violin concerto 2nd movement also features a similar two-voice texture; I was probably thinking about that movement as well when I composed Waterways. Here's a timestamped link: ruclips.net/video/tT1qhGP1qSs/видео.htmlsi=fMqua2pkWSFSbLF3&t=971 (starting at 16:11).
Delightful. The metric changes kept me on my toes, but it never loses its elegant grace. And the ending made me smile. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for listening Curtis!! Honestly, if I were to write it today, I’d think hard about where I truly need time signature changes, and where I can leave more freedom (perhaps through fermatas) 🤔
@@SamWuMusic I can certainly understand that, but I would say that as I was counting along (or trying to) I found the off balance feeling a bit like traffic perhaps? Maybe there’s something there!
@@CurtisSchweitzer I can confirm the whole reason I’m fascinated by highway interchanges is because, as a kid growing up in Shanghai, I’ve spent my fair share of time being stuck in traffic on interchanges 😅
Wow. It isnt often that I am left speechless by music. I'm an organist, used to floating soundscapes in cathedrals and such... But man. I am struggling to find something intelligent and musical to say about what I just heard... But I can't. All I can say is, you left me speechless, floating, and with a huge knot in my chest. Extremely conflicting emotions. Thank you so, so much for that. Please keep sharing your incredible work with us. I think I would like to play this one day. I'd need to be in the right headspace though! Bravissimo.
You're too kind Dallas!! Thank you for your words of encouragement--I'll keep doing my best to churn out new music :)
Bars 65-66 is where the piece felt like it all suddenly clicked, and carried on through to the ending. Amazing piece
Thank you for listening Adrian!! Let me see where that is in the score… 🤔
Yes, I think of 65-66 as the tapering of energy after the climax, so it's a almost a sigh of relief.
@@SamWuMusic Absolutely. It reminded me of bar 300ish of Michael Tippets piano sonata 2. That satisfying moment where the form of the piece clicks into place. Ended up showing my partner your piece, her favourite part was the Garden City theme!
I'll check out the Tippett, thank you! I'm glad she likes Garden City! I thought of it as a way to put all three "forests" together, except "forest I" forms the hanging bass pitches in this last iteration.
That is absolutely fantastic! I started listening and thought "oh that's really cool" then I found myself unable to stop listening. I love it!
Thank you for listening Daniel!!
Love this! I keep listening again and again!
@@TheSidney3 thank you for your kind words!!
Yes!
@@johnbence1750 thank you for listening! 😊
Hey, this just popped up in my recommended videos. We were bunkmates (cabin-mates?) at Interlochen one Summer! Glad to see that you're still going strong. Lush and evocative composition you've got here. Hope all is well!
Thank you Phil; great to hear from you!! How are you? Where are you based now? Wonderful memories from Interlochen--13 years ago wow!
This is life-affirming. I am thankful to the cosmos to be alive in this time , just to be able to hear this.
Thank you for listening :)
the last note pianist 😭
😂😂 in all fairness it’s a sea of repeating notes in the strings; hard to count!
@@SamWuMusic yeah no real shade to the pianist, the performance was amazing and brilliantly written!
Thank you!! all good 😊
Very cool when the voices flip and the time signatures shift.
Thank you Fred!
Really enjoyed that. :)
@@DanFrostMusic thank you for listening Dan!
always delighted by your music
Thank you for listening!!
Not so much Bach, but Chopin's Em Prelude! Nice job, Sam.
Thank you! I love that prelude :)
Such a splendid work! How delicate and lyrical it is! I love this beautiful small piece.
Thank you for listening and your kind words!!
I’m in school for concert light design, your compositions are phenomenal, I love to experiment with different color ideas as the song progresses.
That'd be super cool!! I love thinking about ways visuals can intersect with the music :)
This would be amazing in Cities:Skylines 2 😂 Perfection ❤
Thank you!! Cities Skylines 1 (and Mini Metro) helped me get through the pandemic lockdowns!
Beauty in blurred boundaries indeed! Well done!❤
thank you for listening!
Such a delicate and intricate music, tasteful, apart, sensitive, humane, organic, to the end more and more energetic and electrifying. I love it a lot!
Thank you Franz!!
This is so good! I like the Baroque melody infused with contemporary musical features, like chords with added notes, shifting time signatures and the dreamlike atmosphere. I particularly liked how the melody at the end was voiced 2 octaves apart which was unexpected but certainly imitated two woodwind instruments very well. The pianist was really great too! :)
Thank you for listening Isaac! The pianist Thomas and I did have a discussion on which registers to have the octave doublings, and at how many octaves apart. I feel the magic color is usually 2 octaves apart :)
幾天前bilibili上看過了 來yt再聼一次
谢谢您!我争取同步bilibili + RUclips上传 :)
Sam, I remember appreciating the premiere of this piece at the 2022 Bowdoin and enjoying it a lot. It recalls the memories back then :) So glad that many people love your music!!
Thank you Younje!! Hope all is well in Germany :)
Bach
with some add2s!
no sumo ni resto