A Child’s Dream of Toys with JUNO Award-winning and Edmonton born Vivian Fung
JUNO Award-winning Vivian Fung is a Canadian, Edmontonian born composer who writes music for orchestras, operas, quartets and piano with compositions performed internationally.
Vivian sees herself as a communicating Humanist who tries to give expression in her music to all the things that are floating around in people’s psyches. Fung states, “I try to transform it into something musical.” Composing is an outlet to express all these emotions that someone cannot express themselves, like her almost 7-year-old son, whose life is intermingled with hers. Having a child has been healing for Fung and when Julian is in school, she composes.
One doesn’t have to go to Fung’s concert to hear her work, as her website has a lot of content that one can access. Fung hopes her music resonates with all people.
Recently in Paris in March performing a piece called “Earworms”, she was amazed at so many young people in the audience. When Fung’s son was young, he was obsessed with the tune, “The Wheels on the Bus” and she was humming it every day. It became the inspiration for the piece, which is a compilation of snippets of the song and different pieces that were swirling around in her head. “It’s all kind of jumbled up into a world that is my own,” she shares.
Fung’s parents immigrated to Canada. As a first-generation Canadian, growing up in a lower-middle-class family, she remembers her parents struggling to make ends meet but valued education. Fung started piano lessons at a young age, but instead of practising, she started making up her own songs. Her teacher, also a composer, recognized her giftedness and encouraged her, taught her how to notate and to this day, they remain friends.
In November, Fung presented at the Wild Rose Opera Project in Edmonton, hoping her pieces will eventually become a full opera based on the oral history of her family. Fung’s extended family was in Cambodia in 1975, her birth year, when they suffered genocide. The project journey is healing for her and helps her understand her life better and “it resonates with a lot of people.”
Fung’s training has been mainly Western; however, when she started travelling, her musical journey expanded with her first trips to Bali. Fung’s continual learning experience affords her the opportunity to understand different perspectives. She enjoys recognition and shares there were many obstacles when she started, which included being female Asian. Overcoming those has been an accomplishment. Rejuvenation comes from making connections and spending time with her family and friends.
When Fung looks back over her life, there were many mentors along the way. One particular teacher introduced her to Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” which motivated her to compose. Mentoring has also become an important part of Fung’s life now. “I want to be giving back and also encouraging the next generation to not go through what I went through.” Fung’s advice is to study, listen to different types of music, be curious and trust that inner voice. She certainly did.
LCCMedia was fortunate to watch A Child’s Dream of Toys at the Winspear Centre. It was more than a treat. It was a powerful rendition of music that invoked memories from childhood.
