Quotes:
"Composer Alive: Eastern Expressions is a fascinating film telling the story of a young music ensemble in Chicago taking on a wildly ambitious project to work with a composer they've never met before in China. With little funding but seemingly limitless energy, they dive in with gusto and the results are illuminating, often funny and always human."
- Dan Soles, VP of Programming, WTTW PBS Chicago

"Composer Alive: Eastern Expressions is delightful, in that it simultaneously captures the dreams of all artists (and probably everyone else), and at the same time shows them as real people, who face the same challenges and bumps in the road as everyone else. While the combination of the words "modern classical music" is considered a scary one, viewers won't think that after watching this. They won't be thinking at all, actually. They will be feeling the passions, the frustrations, the nervousness and the triumphs of a handful of people who think that art can change the world a little bit at a time. And the documentary shows that it can."
- Scott Silberstein, Emmy-winning Producer and Founder of HMS Media.

Director’s Bio:
David Less has worked in every aspect of video production since his graduation from Northwestern University in 1996. For a decade, he directed, shot and edited educational and documentary programs at Brella Productions, before moving to Towers Productions where he currently cuts documentaries for Discovery, History and National Geographic Channels. He was the online editor of the award winning 2004 independent documentary Out of the Pit: Dog Fighting in Chicago. In 2005, he founded the independent production company 100 Fires Films. David directed the company’s first major project, Composer Alive: Eastern Expressions, on opposite ends of the world in Chicago and Beijing, China.

Screening History:
WTTW Chicago PBS - December 2007
Chicago Cultural Center - October 2007
Stanford University – April 2008

Short Synopsis:
Composer Alive: Eastern Expressions explores the creation of new music through the unique collaboration of Chicago music ensemble Accessible Contemporary Music and famed Beijing composer Xiaogang Ye. Rather than focusing on a concert performance, Composer Alive takes the viewer through the creative process and pulls back the curtains from the closely guarded world of rehearsals, first drafts and daily struggles. From Xiaogang Ye’s first inspirations for the composition to a musician having a baby born the day of a concert, Composer Alive presents the human face of classical music.

Long Synopsis:
Composer Alive: Eastern Expressions explores the creation of new music through the unique collaboration of Chicago music ensemble Accessible Contemporary Music and famed Beijing composer Xiaogang Ye. Rather than focusing on a concert performance, Composer Alive takes the viewer through the creative process and pulls back the curtains from the closely guarded world of rehearsals, first drafts and daily struggles. Xiaogang Ye writes the piece in four installments and ACM records each installment as it is written. The viewer can literally watch and listen to the development of the piece over time, along with live insight from the composer and musicians. From Xiaogang Ye’s first inspirations for the composition to a musician having a baby born the day of a concert to fundraising fiascos and unexpected illness, Composer Alive presents the human face of classical music and removes the intimidating culture which often surrounds it. Through conversations with such experts as Henry Fogel, President of the American Symphony Orchestra League, Composer Alive also explores how classical music scared off its audience, why it is hugely popular in China and how innovative and accessible projects will direct its future.

Cast:
Xiaogang Ye, Composer
Seth Boustead, Executive Director, ACM
Henry Fogel, President, American Symphony Orchestra League
Ted Foss, Associate Director, Center for East Asian Studies, University of Chicago
Marc Geelhoed, Classical Music Critic, Time Out Chicago
Hulya Alpakin, ACM Musician
Alyson Berger, ACM Musician
Laura Koepele-Tenges, ACM Musician & Co-founder
James Martin, ACM Musician
Teresa McCollough, concert pianist

Crew:
Directed by David Less
Produced by David Less & Seth Boustead
Shot by David Less
Sound by Joshua Avila
Edited by David Less
Featuring music by Xiaogang Ye & Seth Boustead

Audio recordings of "Datura" available at www.acmusic.org.

Cast Bios:

Xiaogang Ye is widely regarded as the leading and most influential composer living in China today. Born into a musical family, Ye studied piano with his father, beginning at the age of four, and continued to study music until his studies were interrupted by the Cultural Revolution, during which time he was transferred to work in the countryside.

After finishing his six years in a factory, he was enrolled into the Central Conservatory of Music where he studied music composition with Professor Du Mingxin. Ye received a full scholarship from the Eastman School in the United States in 1987 where he furthered his composition studies with Dr. Samuel Adler, Dr. Joseph Schwantner and Louis Andriessen.

He has won numerous awards including Grand Prize in the Orchestral Composition Competition of the Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, First Prize in the Alexander Tcherepnin Composition Competition in the U.S., the Howard Hanson Prize from the Eastman School of Music, Best Movie Music Award of Shanghai and the National Golden Bell Award for Symphony and Chamber Music.

Currently Mr. Ye is Composer in Residence of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Director of the Beijing Modern Music Festival, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Musicians Association and a Member of the China National Congress. His current commission will be performed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Musical America declared Xiaogang Ye as one of the “Chinese Bachs” and American composer John Corigliano has said that, “his music is deeply felt and highly crafted, so beautiful and yet always intellectually stimulating, completely magical – so amazing.” An aesthetic wanderer between the musical cultures of the East and West, Ye’s works are often based on elements and aspects from the traditional music of China: popular melodies, motifs from Beijing opera and the striking scales of Chinese art music and Chinese instruments. His music is published by Schott Musik International, GmbH in Germany.

Seth Boustead received his Master of Music in music Composition from the Chicago College of the Performing Arts where he studied with Stacy Garrop, Robert Lombardo and Patricia Morehead. He has been the recipient of many honors including first place in the prestigious Union League and Civic Arts Foundation’s Piano Composition Competition for his piece Six Moods for Solo Piano and being chosen as one of three composers to be featured in an Emerging Artists Program at the Chicago Cultural Center.

Seth is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Chicago-based ensemble Accessible Contemporary Music, which exists to promote the music of living composers. While under his leadership ACM started many of its signature programs like Weekly Readings, Sound of Silent Film, Composer Alive and the High School Composers Workshop and he has been instrumental in growing the audience for ACM’s live events.