Clara-Luna 
(2017)

Instrumentation:

solo violin

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Duration: 7.5'

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Clara-Luna is commissioned by the Singapore International Violin Competition (SIVC) as a set work for its 2018 competition. I had the great honour of working with Professor Qian Zhou while composing this piece, as she kindly read through the work-in-progress with much detail and demonstrated numerous excerpts of the Ysaÿe sonatas that involved idiomatic and virtuoso writing for the solo violin.

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When I was working this piece, my newborn daughter Clara was turning one month old and we held a customary celebration at our baby's full moon - thus the title. As new parents, my wife and I were constantly amused by the little noises that our baby makes, and how she manages to surprise us with new sounds on a daily basis. I also never knew that there is such a huge variety of baby sounds until I became a parent! This piece is my way of remembering these special moments, as I know well

that these wailing, squeals, and cute hiccupping sounds would one day disappear, as she grows up.

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The commissioned work was performed by twelve violinists at the semi-finals of the SIVC 2018:

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• Chisa Kitagawa (Japan)

• Sergei Dogadin (Russia/Austria)

• Kyung Ji Min (South Korea)

• Tatjana Roos (United Kingdom)

• Anna Lee (USA)

• Ji-Won Song (South Korea)

• Laurel Gagnon (USA) 

• Elly Suh (USA/South Korea)

• Oleksandr Korniev (Ukraine)

• Lisa Yasuda (Japan)

• Xiaoxuan Shi (China) 

• Luke Hsu (USA), who received the award of 'Best Performer of Commissioned Work' 

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