The portrait concert presented by the Nationaltheater Mannheim at the Kulturkirche Epiphanias in Mannheim's Feudenheim district is connected to a major world premiere planned for 2026/27: Ming Tsao is currently composing a large-scale music theatre work that reinvents the most important Kunqu opera from the Chinese Ming dynasty, Mudan Ting (The Peony Pavilion).
With the Ensemble Ascolta, the Mivos Quartet and the Duo Clavichord, top-class musicians will perform important works by Ming Tsao composed between 2002 and 2023 on 1 March, including a world premiere: Dritte Stimme zu Bachs zweistimmigen Rätselkanons (Third voice to J.S. Bach’s “puzzle” canons) will be performed for the first time.
On the occasion of the portrait concert, Ming Tsao shared his special perspective on European musical traditions for our magazine, experiencing himself as both at home and foreign at the same time:
"I am a composer situated between traditions. My father, who emigrated from Beijing, exposed me to the wealth of Chinese culture and Chinese was often spoken in the house. My mother’s family, who emigrated from Vienna, exposed me to the richness of the European tradition, particularly its musical arts as my grandfather and mother were both musicians and oversaw my musical training. Being raised in the US allowed for both traditions to freely mix and intertwine – neither had the upper hand – so that I was simultaneously at home and a stranger to both. The filmmaker Jean-Marie Straub once described this position as one of “rage and tenderness”, the ability to be inside a dominant tradition – such as the European one – and discover its immense beauty, yet to also be outside this tradition and witness the violence it perpetuates on other cultures in order to sustain itself. My musical compositions originate from a place of nourishing this European tradition, such as engaging with Bach’s counterpoint (Dritte Stimme zu Bachs zweistimmigen Rätselkanons) or Stockhausen’s serial structures (Plus Minus), but at the same time engineering something foreign into its very substance. Tradition is then not merely preserved but fundamentally changed and made foreign from within, so that a diversity of voices from other cultures can participate and feel equally at home."
Ming Tsao, February 2025
further texts by Ming Tsao as well as score and audio excerpts from the pieces of the portrait concert:
Not Reconciled (Ensemble Ascolta)
Pathology of Syntax (Mivos Quartet)
Dritte Stimme zu Bachs zweistimmigen Inventionen (Due Corde)
Dritte Stimme zu Bachs zweistimmigen Rätselkanons (Uraufführung mit Due Corde)
Plus Minus (Ensemble Ascolta)
