Allan X. Chen (b. 1993)
List of Works
Instrumentation: Flute, clarinet, tenor saxophone, guitar, viola and cello
Duration: 6:26
Premier information: Premiered 8th of March 2018, West Parry Room, Royal College of Music (World Premiere), London, UK
Instrumentation: Mixed Sextet: 2 flute, tenor saxophone, harp, viola, cello
Duration: 8:44
Instrumentation: Wind Orchestra
Duration: 10:42
Premier information: Written for and premiered by the Royal college of Music Wind Orchestra. 18 January 2019, conducted by Ryan Bancroft
Instrumentation: Tenor saxophone and piano
Duration: 4:15
Premier information: Premiered by Josie McClure (saxophone) and Seung-Ree Lee (piano) at the concert Finding Home: An Exploration of New South African Saxophone Music at Erin Hall, Rondebosch. 14 July 2023.
Programmatic information:
The following was indicated at the first performance of this work: *please read only after the performance – much of Allan’s music is narrative in nature, however he believes that the narrative is only truly for him and his compositional process. Whether the audience understands or experiences the piece in the way he derives it, is unimportant to him.
What he does find important is that each individual audience member has their own personal experience with it.
This piece is the first part of a series of pieces to come. At it’s core idea, it is a commentary on
the state of saxophone music in South Africa. Saxophone music’s dominance in the jazz sphere in South Africa is one to be celebrated – it is a beautiful thing, especially considering it’s ties to political commentary and social movements in the arts during apartheid. However, it is also one that should also be critiqued. The dominance of the jazz scene for the saxophone has meant a stifling of it’s real origins – a classical instrument. Around the world at this very moment and over the past decade, incredible experimental and contemporartechniques are being applied to, and popularised in, the saxophone repertoire…we are seemingly behind here… “Uzovuka Nini” is both a critique of this current climate in SA saxophone music, while also hinting at a beautiful future for it. In this short part, we quote a popular SA jazz tune by Hugh Masekela – we twist it, squeeze it, disrupt it, so far that we present something suggestively “new”.
Instrumentation: Saxophone ensemble (3 sopranos, 4 altos, 2 tenors, 2 baritones)
About the composer...
Allan X. Chen is a passionate South African-born award-winning composer, creating work for the concert hall, film and media, and interactive installation artwork. His creative work explores a deep fascination with gesture, musical colour, and sonority; elements he investigated in his thesis at the Royal College of Music (RCM). Allan’s work has received various awards, including the 1st prize of the Percussive Arts Society International (Int.) Composition Contest for his piece, “Rubik’s: a Learning Curve” ; 1st prize of Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) Composer’s Hub competition for his piece, “Semblance” ; the Elgar Memorial Prize from the RCM for the outstanding quality of his final composition portfolio; as well as the Bowdoin Int. Music Festival Composition Competition for his string quartet, “By The Sea”.
Allan’s contemporary classical work has been performed by ensembles and orchestras across the globe, including the RSNO, JACK Quartet, ALEA III Ensemble, Quartetto Indaco etc. and he has had the privilege of working with conductors Ryan Bancroft and Teddy Abrams. Through fulfilling and active collaborations, he has enjoyed beautiful premieres of his music at venues and festivals such as Usher hall (Edinburgh), the Royal Concert Hall
(Glasgow), Cheltenham International Music Festival, Avanti! Summer Music Festival etc.
In all of his work he brings in narrative and storytelling, even in the experimentalism of the classical world. This story-telling is most evident in his film music. An active film composer, Allan has worked on a number of award-winning short films. The most recent of which, “An Original Voice”, which explores the currently-popular-topic of AI in art. The film premiered at the Runway AI Film Festival in New York, receiving the Honoree Award. Some of Allan’s other films have premiered at the São Paulo Film Festival, Los Angeles Int. Shorts Festival, Nantucket Int. Film Festival, as well as numerous Comic-Con events in the US.
Allan’s passion for the concert hall and entertainment screen is matched by his love for new music mediums. Hoping to develop in his audiences musical intuition through the simple act of play, Allan also founded The Willow Room Collective, with whom he develops and
builds art installations combining physical form with interactive music. Their installation pieces have exhibited in London (2019) and at the Spier Light Art Festival in South Africa (2021). They’ve also received a grant to bring a new installation to the Afrikaburn Festival.
Allan owes much of his creative fulfilment and success to his educators.
He currently holds a BMus from Boston University and MMus from the RCM, having studied under the tutelage of composers Kenneth Hesketh, Samuel Headrick, Martin Amlin and Samuel Adler.
Although his life is predominated by the art of composing, he can be regularly found outside his studio playing with his Aussie shepherd, Sirius, enjoying a challenging hike, or stuffing his
face with oysters.