DANIEL LEI - MMus in Performance and Related Studies
“Know which key you are in.” - Daniel Lei
For his final recital, Daniel Lei (bamboo flute) performed The Shepherd's Piccolo for bamboo flute and piano (1934/1957), composed by HE Luting (1903–1999); arr. LI Huanzhi (1919–2000), with Lei Tan on piano.
You can watch highlights here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blxR3O9Unpk
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Daniel Lei plays both Western flute and dizi, a family of bamboo transverse flutes. His passion encompasses the realms of orchestral concerts, folk ensembles, and contemporary music. He actively engages in traditional music activities, and, simultaneously, advances the boundaries of music by commissioning contemporary compositions for the Western and bamboo flutes. He envisions instruments, especially the folkloric ones, should not be regarded as representatives or representations of regional or national music genres, but the flexible and versatile means which conveys instrumentalists’ personal and subjective artistic values.
Lei holds three degrees in music, ethnomusicology and performance. The constant immersion in music research and performance has made him conscious of the undesirability of being a virtuoso who pursues technique without reflecting on the meaning beyond sounds, or a scholar who is musicking banally in an ivory tower. He seeks to excel as a scholar-performer who specialises in redefining the musicality of traditional instruments through avant-garde music performance.
Off the stage, Lei is actively involved in music criticism. To date, he has written more than 150,000 words on a variety of musical topics, which have been published by leading media in the Sinophone world. He is also known as a seasoned contributor for English concert programme notes and publications, including Chinese Music Without Bounds – International Composers’ Summit Proceedings and Papers (2017) and Hong Kong Classical Music Yearbook 2014; 2015.
“Know which key you are in.” - Daniel Lei