The amazing Jeffrey Ching

Matthias Entress recently presented Jeffrey Ching’s 56-minute “Portrait” over Berlin Radio, along with an interview of Ching. Commented Entress: “For Jeffrey Ching, the music traditions of all cultures are of the same importance. He treats Chinese and French court music with equal impartiality, and has mastered the most important standards amid the confusion of languages: clarity, coherence and friendliness.”

The program also aired the whole of Ching’s chamber piece Kunstkabinett, and excerpts from Das Waisenkind (The Orphan) which was awarded the Audience Prize for the best opera production of 2009-2010. I have written on most of the following from the Internet.

Ching’s distinctive musical language owes much to his diverse cultural background and education. Born to a Chinese Buddhist family in the Philippines, he received a Catholic education while growing up next door to his grandfather’s museum of ancient Chinese scrolls (now in the Shanghai Museum).

He began composing before he was ten and remained self-taught until the age of 17, when his first opera was premiered. He studied music and Sinology at Harvard U., there receiving the John Harvard Scholarship for “academic achievements of the highest distinction” twice, and the Harvard Detur Prize, the oldest prize for academic excellence. He graduated with a double magna cum laude with his thesis on the sumptuary laws of the Ming dynasty based on extensive research into primary sources.

Later, he earned a BA (Honours) degree in Philosophy from Cambridge U. and two master’s degrees in Philosophy and Composition from London U. where he taught as lecturer-on-music from 1987 to 1991.

Ching’s first creative phase was prolific, over 200 works in a multiplicity of techniques in which he laid the foundations for the harmonic and contrapuntal assurance of his mature compositions. Finally in 1998, Ching’s technical versatility was put at the service of his widening ethnographic interests: a Philippine centennial commission resulted in his Symphony No. 3 “Rituals” which fuses Balinese gamelan, Chinese Ming, and Spanish Renaissance elements into a continuous 45-minute collage for three orchestras and male chanter.

After this compositional breakthrough, Ching broadened his cross cultural investigation even further in the following works that aimed to dissolve the conventional boundaries between East and West, ancient and modern:

Terra Kytaorum for ten brass and two percussionists (2000)/ Symphony No. 4, Souvenir des Ming (2002)/ Symphony No. 5, Kunstkammer (2004-5)/ Kunstkabinett for seven players and soprano (2007)/ The Orphan, two-act opera in six scenes (2006-2007)/ Notas para una cartografia de Filipinas for piano and lapgong (2007)/ Concerto da camara for guitar, cello, soprano and strings (2008)/ Ayres for Fallen Kings for bass-baritone and piano with hand-held percussion (2009) Spohr’s Last Thoughts for clarinet, violin, cello and piano (2009)/ Bombyx mandarina, Bombyx mori for soprano, percussion and string quartet (2009)/ Molihua for high voice, two double basses, percussion and piano resonance (2010)/ Seven Preludes to a Prelude for unaccompanied cello (2010).

A European resident for over two decades, Ching is still recognized in the Philippines. In 1990, 1993 and 1997, he represented it in three major delegations which toured Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen in concerts of his music. In 1998, Ching was named one of five outstanding young men by the President for “works which have expanded the scope and quality of Philippine musical literature, with no other composer achieving such depth, dimension, and volume of work at so young an age.”

In June 2003, Ching received the Jose Rizal Award for “Excellence in the category of Art, Literature and Culture” from the President.

Ching now resides in Berlin with wife Phil-Spanish soprano Andion Fernandez for whom he created the vocal parts in his major works. They have a son and a daughter.