- 24 August 2025 12 pm UTC
- dur 47 min
Third part of the series Journey to the West, after The Monk of the River (2021) and Buddha and the Monkey King (2020). The Monkey King and Xuanzang go into the Gao Village on their journey to the West, realising there’s a monster in the village. A new opera adapted from Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. Scored for an ensemble of Chinese and Western musical instruments, this opera blends both musical traditions. Sung in English.
The Hong Kong composer, Anna Vienna Ho, received an Advanced Postgraduate Diploma and her Master of Music in Piano Performance with distinction from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where she has studied composition with Richard Leigh Harris and was a recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, including Malcolm John Bullock Memorial Trust Award, Birmingham Conservatoire Association Award and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire International Students Scholarship. Prior to that, She has studied composition with Dr. Christopher Coleman at the Hong Kong Baptist University. Anna’s compositions include instrumental, vocal, electroacoustic, multi-media and operatic works, which were premiered around the world by various musicians. She has collaborated and was commissioned by many organizations, including the New Generation, London Oriana Choir, Birmingham Opera Company, Animal Hope Varna, Fifteen Minutes of Fame project, and K622 Clarinet ensembles, among others. Her opera “Buddha and the Monkey King”(2020), “The Monk of the River”(2021) and “The Monster of Gao Village”(2023) have been premiered at the Tête à Tête Opera Festival. Her Cantonese song cycle “Li Bai’s Wine and the Moon” has premiered in the “Our Music Talent” series. Her solo piano piece “Images” and a piece for solo piano and tape “Medusa” are included in the RMN Classical albums “Modern Music for Piano” and “In Focus4” respectively and distributed in stores and digital platforms. She has been selected as an artist of the Du Vert a L’infini festival, France and premiered her composition “Sea Creatures in our Minds and Hearts” at the Château du Fresne-Saint-Mamès. Her sound art “Dynamic Zero” was broadcast worldwide on Radio Luxembourg’s Radio Arts District and the Chijana International Festival, Radiophrenia Glagrow respectively, and has been selected to be exhibited in “Containment” Exhibition in Hong Kong and LCB Depot’s Sound 2023 in Leicester, UK. Her composition “The Codes” was included in the “Polar Sounds” album by Cities and Memory(UK), HIFMB Institute of Marine Biodiversity and AWI Center for Polar and Marine Research(Germany) to explore how the polar regions can be understood and reinterpreted through art. Recently, Anna has collaborated with other artists from the Syntropy States to create new works for people to boost their health and wellbeing through art, music, breathwork, and relaxation. artist website
