Symphonic Orchestra (2023)
A multiple award winner and Ye’s most acclaimed work, Xizi, integrates the dramatic elements, traditional singing, and percussion of Peking opera into a powerful symphonic blast. It tells an intimate story of an outsider artist’s sincere love for their craft and their unwavering dedication.
Xizi (戏子) – a loaded word, spat at performers: singers, actors, musicians. It defined their reality: cheap entertainment, easily dismissed, valued more for fleeting distraction than artistry. Survival and exploitation were the daily script; respect, a rarity.
The label belongs to history, but the struggle echoes. Today, spotlight favors credentials: pedigree, track records, big names. For those outside these gates, stages impose harsh terms. An unvarnished voice, forged through dedication, may still meet silence. Yet for the artist driven by conviction, expression demands its moment. This work, Xizi, lives in that hunger: the hunger to speak, when the world hardly offers a stage.
In "Behind the Curtain", an oboe voice rises alone. Its melody, etched with Peking opera’s inflections, speaks of quiet longing. The solitary weight of a dream carried in the dark. Percussion cuts in: sharp, insistent rhythms on gongs and woodblocks mirroring the clatter of Peking opera percussion. It’s the sound of relentless practice, season after season, unseen.
Then, a fanfare tears through—"The Show" begins. A solo violin leaps out, forging years of pent-up feeling into a single, charged line. The orchestra answers, not accompanying, but erupting. For under four minutes, the music twists and turns: precise, fierce, incandescent one moment, raw the next. This isn’t just playing for an audience; it’s the sound of an artist demanding everything of themselves in that vanishing spotlight. Every note feels urgent, pushed to its edge.
The whole piece is over in seven minutes. That brevity isn't an accident; it is the point. Like Xizi's moment on stage, the music burns intensely, brightly, and then it's gone. Having walked a path shadowed by similar struggles, I wrote this not just as music, but as a testament to those countless voices shaping beauty in the quiet corners. Xizi is their fleeting, magnificent bloom – and the echo of an honest voice, ringing clear even when the stage goes dark.
© Yanchen Ye
The first performance of Xizi was by Cabrillo Festival Orchestra
conductors Jacob Niemann and Matthew Straw
August 1, 2023 at Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz, CA
Until then, feel free to send us a quick message. We will be delighted to introduce you to Xizi (戏子)'s performance history, awards, reviews, recordings and discuss how we can bring it to your stage.