About this work:
Co-commissioned by the Virginia Arts Festival, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, La Jolla SummerFest, and Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, OR, supported by the Meet The Composer’s Commissioning/USA program, my trio Night Thoughts is a lyrical tone poem originally scored for flute, cello and piano, and premiered on 4/28, 2004 by Deborah Cross, Keith Robinson and Andre-Michel Schub, at the Virginia Arts Festival, and dedicated to Heather Hitchen, the President of Meet The Composer. I got the inspiration for the music from the ancient Chinese poem Night Thoughts written by a great poet Li Bai in Tang Dynasty (618-907): On couch bright moon shone, Thought frost on ground foamed, Raised head facing bright moon, Lowered head dreaming of home. (English translation by Chen Yi)
The trio was adapted to a new version for flute, viola and harp in 2009, for Sharon Bezaly (flute), Maxim Rysanov (viola) and Julie Palloc (harp).
For my friend Yuan-qing Yu and her Civitas Ensemble in Chicago, I have adapted the trio for violin, cello and piano in 2019. The new version of the trio was premiered excellently by Yuan-qing Yu, Kenneth Olsen, and Winston Choi on July 23, 2019, and subsequently recorded on Cedille Records for Feb. 14, 2020 release.