Alexina Louie

Alexina Louie (born 30 July 1949) is a Canadian composer of Chinese descent who has written many pieces for orchestra, as well as pieces for solo piano.

Biography

Alexina Louie is one of Canada's most successful living composers. Born in Vancouver in 1949, she received an ARCT in Piano Performance at the age of 17, studying with Jean Lyons. She received a Bachelor of Music in Music History from the University of British Columbia in 1970 and a Master of Arts in Composition from the University of California, San Diego in 1974. She taught piano, theory and electronic composition in Pasadena and Los Angeles until 1980. Since then she has lived in Toronto. She is a full-time, professional composer who thrives on a constant stream of commissions and a wide variety of projects.

Louie has composed for various instrumental and vocal combinations in virtually every major genre. One of her earliest compositions, completed in 1972, is an electronic piece for 4-channel tape entitled Molly. Her object in this composition, based on the last segment of James Joyce's novel "Ulysses" was to make an electronic composition sound "human." Her piano compositions include Scenes from a Jade Terrace, Distant Memories (dedicated to Jean Lyons) and Leap Through the Sky With Stars for solo piano, Dragon Bells, for prepared piano and pre-recorded prepared piano, and a Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (commissioned by the CBC). She has also written albums of piano music for students. Her chamber music includes The Distant Shore, for piano trio, Edges for string quartet, Music from Night's Edge, for piano quintet, [Riffs] , for oboe, clarinet and bassoon, and Gallery Fanfares, Arias and Interludes (commissioned by the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1993). Orchestral scores include The Ringing Earth (composed for the opening of Expo 86 in Vancouver), The Eternal Earth (commissioned by the Toronto Symphony), Music for a Thousand Autumns (commissioned by the Ensemble SMCQ) and Music for Heaven and Earth (commissioned by the Esprit Orchestra] .

Louie and her husband Alex Pauk, conductor of the Esprit Orchestra, have collaborated on several film scores, including Don McKellar's "Last Night", which received a Genie nomination for Best Original Score in 1998, and "The Five Senses", a film by Jeremy Podeswa that was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival the following year. Along with playwright David Henry Hwang she composed a full-length opera entitled The Scarlet Princess. An erotic ghost story based on a 17th century Japanese Kabuki play, it was premiered by the Canadian Opera Company in 2002. Her 8-minute comic mini-opera Toothpaste, based on a libretto by Dan Redican, has been broadcast in over a dozen countries. Along with Redican she completed Burnt Toast, 8 comic mini-operas for television, in 2005. Each mini-opera depicts a different stage of romantic love: Attraction, Connection, Commitment, Marriage, Consummation, Perseverance, Disintegration and Starting Over. Louie uses a variety of different styles in this work and even borrows from other composers. Most notably, she utilizes the music for the Queen of Night aria from Mozart's opera The Magic Flute and music from Wagner's operatic tale of tragic love, Tristan and Isolde.

Alexina Louie's compositions have garnered numerous awards over the years. In 1986 the Canadian Music Council named her Composer of the Year. In 1988 she received the Juno Award, Best Classical Composition, for her orchestral composition Song of Paradise. In 1990, 1992, and 2003, she received the SOCAN Concert Music Award for the most performed Classical composer of the year. In 1996 she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Calgary. In 1999 she won the Jules Leger Prize for New Chamber Music for Nightfall, a work for 14 strings written for I Musici de Montreal. That same year the National Ballet of Canada premiered one hundred words for snow, a choreographed version of her 1982 orchestral score, . The CBC recording received two Juno nominations in 2000, with Best Classical Composition awarded to Shattered Night, Shivering Stars, the title track. In 2001 she received the Order of Ontario, the province's highest honour.

Works

Alexina Louie's music represents the mixture of Eastern and Western music. Louie's inspirations include Debussy, Mozart, and Bach. In Louie's music, she combines traditional structures with contemporary language.

Her Chinese culture is expressed through her music, like Distant Memories, from Piano Music, where she makes the piano sing like traditional Chinese instruments and reminds you of Eastern culture.

Louie first attained national and international recognition in 1982 with her "O Magnum Mysterium: In Memoriam Glenn Gould". Louie also composed the opening music for Expo 86 in Vancouver, "The Ringing Earth." Some of her other compositions include "Three Fanfares from the Ringing Earth," which opened the new National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, and "Scenes from a Jade Terrace," which opened the new Canadian Embassy in Tokyo. Her most recent composition, a National Arts Centre commission entitled "Infinite Sky With Birds", debuted on February 22, 2006.

Recognition

Louie has received numerous awards. In 1986, Louie was named Composer of the Year, and in both 1988 and 1998, she won Juno Awards. In 1990 and 1992 she won the SOCAN music award. In 1996, Louie received an honorary doctorate from the University of Calgary. In 2005 she became an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2006, she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. ^{[http://www.rsc.ca/files/media/newfellows/new_fellows_2006_citations.pdf]}

Family

Husband: Alex Pauk

Daughters: Jasmine and Jade