Tune in to the Musician’s Show tonight, August 16 from 6-9 PM ET for a live interview with violinist and composer Jason Kao Hwang. A versatile performer, Hwang focuses primarily on jazz and improvised musics, and has a particular interest in cross-cultural projects. He has been associated with the Asian American jazz movement and has performed with the likes of Anthony Braxton, David Murray, Pauline Oliveros and the Deep Listening Band, Butch Morris, William Parker, Fred Hopkins, Milford Graves, Billy Bang, Ushio Torikai, Henry Threadgill, Reggie Workman, Diedre Murray, Leroy Jenkins, and others. Hwang is a founding member of The Far East Side Band, an intercultural ensemble combining Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and American musical elements. He has composed the scores for numerous films and has also worked in the field of commercial music. He was in the original cast of the Broadway production of M. Butterfly, performing music he co-arranged for that production; he later toured with the national productions as a music director.
Recently, Hwang released the CD Burning Bridge, which features an octet of Chinese and Western instruments, which was commissioned by Chamber Music America and performed at the Magic Triangle (Mass.) and the International Festival Musique Actuelle (Canada). Hwang’s symphony “The Challenge: Tiananmen Square” was voted into the second round of the Grammy Awards.
