Mezzo Alice Chung and soprano Helen Huang are longtime friends and colleagues. Several years ago, after a gunman killed eight, including six Asian women in a racially motivated shooting near Atlanta, Huang says the two banded together.
“We were so disheartened that we wanted to use the opportunity to really tell a story and instead of leaning into the tragedy, we wanted to celebrate the joy, of course, the sadness, but all parts of an Asian-American woman's life," she said.
The result was “Girls of Yellow Diamonds," a recital program that spotlights the work of living Asian and Asian-American women composers.
“We wanted a way to tell our story using the music of people that look like us," Huang said.
Chung says encouraging the writing of new music by composers that look like them is important to the work they do.
“For us, for people like Helen and me and many other Asian women out there, if we want our narratives to be shared, the only way is forward. The only way is new music," Chung said.
The program is divided into four parts, each reflecting a different stage of life; childhood, growing pains, womanhood, and the future.
Huang and Chung take the stage at OperaDelaware on Sunday at 2:00 p.m.
Delaware Public Media's arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
