2024 Youth+ Music Festival Celebrates the Chinese New Year | BCAF Global Collaboration
Youth+Music Festival
In Celebration of Lunar New Year 2024
Co-presents
Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation
Perelman Performing Arts Center, New York
World Trade Center, New York
Team
Cui Qiao, Shao Yixue, Liu Junliang,
Ai Yanyan, Zhang Yizhu
Acknowledgement
张琳，Bill Rauch, Meiyin Wang,
Meredith Boggia, Mariana Catalina, Arianna Kane, Cory Orlando,
Steven Brown
About the Performance
WHO: Yukes 玉刻
WHEN: 5:45pm-6:30pm, Feb. 9 2024
WHERE: Perelman Performing Arts Center, New York
251 Fulton Street, New York, NY 10006
Tickets: FREE
WHO:
Feng Jiangzhou & Feng Yifeng (4pm-6pm)
Yukes 玉刻 (6:30pm-7:30pm)
WHEN: 4pm-8pm, Feb. 11 2024
WHERE: The Oculus at the World Trade Center, New York185 Greenwich St LL3110, New York, NY 10006
Tickets: FREE
▲ Perelman Performing Arts Center, New York
▲The Oculus at the World Trade Center, New York
▲ The Oculus Performance
About the Program
With the arrival of the Spring Festival of 2024, the Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation with New York cultural landmark - the newly unveiled Perelman Center for the Performing Arts in 2023 and the Oculus Center, designed by Spanish architect Calatrava, to present pioneering music from China. Two groups of artists - Chinese musician Feng Jiangzhou & Feng Yifeng and American musician Yukes 玉刻 will bring electronic and contemporary guzheng music to you, showing a collision between contemporary and classical rhythm.
▲ Feng Jiangzhou
▲ Yukes 玉刻
Producer: Qiao CUI
(President, Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation)
Avant-garde music, peaceful future
New York is a multi-cultural international city, but also has the perseverance and legend of Phoenix rising from the ashes: the 9/11 World Trade Center's latest cultural innovation landmarks PAC and Oculus are particularly outstanding, and the masterpieces of master architects serve both the pioneer culture and the general public. Countless life stories are shared and intersected here.
BCAF is proud to partner with one of New York's most innovative cultural institutions to celebrate with you the vibrant Spring Festival Weekend of avant-garde music in 2024. Musicians from China and the United States will explore electronic music, rock music, and the electronic guzheng, creating a new and open dialogue between tradition and modernity, praying for world peace, cultural inclusion, and health and safety for all.
#01
About the ArtistsJiangzhou Feng
Jiangzhou Feng, the lead singer of the Fly Band, is an iconic pioneer of electronic music and an acclaimed video artist in China. Feng Jiangzhou is extensively involved in various artistic realms such as new media art, sound art, installation art, film and television scores, and stage design.
In 1998, Feng Jiangzhou collaborated with the Taiwanese electronic group 3rdNova to release "Love in the Time of Flies," recognized as China's first true electronic music album.
In 2006, he co-founded the "Deaf Mute Blind School Club" label with Wu Ershan, releasing three albums before temporarily pausing his music career.
In 2023, he initiated a series of tours with the Fly Band, making notable appearances at the West Lake Music Festival, Strawberry Music Festival, and Hong Kong Clockenflap Music Festival.
Yifeng Feng
Yifeng Fengborn in Hong Kong in 2014, singer of Little Fly band.
Accompanying his parents on performances, he traveled across more than a dozen cities in mainland China. This period allowed him additional time to explore personal interests such as hiking, photography, chatting, swimming, painting, and crafting.
In 2020, he published a family art book titled "Fearless Childhood" and subsequently released a series of diary books: "Murmurs to Myself" in 2021, "Dripping Water Wears Away a Stone" in 2022, and "No Questions Asked" in 2023.
Additionally, Yifeng showcased his artistic talent by creating cover and inner page illustrations for his father's albums, including "The Fliers" and "TAPE" in 2020, as well as for the vinyl record "Noise not for sale" and the album "ZhaZha" in 2022. He also contributed illustrations for the CD “TTE" and the single "SPACE" by the Little Fly band.
Yukes 玉刻
Yukes 玉刻
(pronounced “Yooks”, Justin Scholar)
American Guzhengist
Guzheng-Playing foreigners are a rare breed. Even rarer is stacking a gushing with synthesizers, stomp boxes, and groove machines and playing it backward.
A constant experiment of an unheard gushing style tends to steal the spotlight, right until Yukes 玉刻 begins singing. The lyrics instantly forego the need for any electric accompaniment, revealing his struggle with stability, uncertainty, lost tranquility, and youth.
A contemporary blend of East & West, Justin’s hypnotizing performance strives to reinvent the gushing and open minds in the process.
He won the BCAF "Sound of Little Town · Independent Native Music Season 2021" award for Best work in the New instrument category.
#02
About the Collaborating InstitutionsPerelman Performing Arts Center
The Perelman Center for the Performing Arts connects artists and the community through a rich and diverse public program. From commissioning world premieres to free performances on the hall stage to connecting with community organizations across the city, the Perelman Center for the Performing Arts supports diversity and humanity in New York City.
The Arts Center is committed to strengthening the community and connecting the world. At night, the Art Center building glows from the inside, a beacon of hope in New York.
▲ Perelman Performing Arts Center, New York
The Oculus
The Oculus is the centerpiece of the new World Trade Center transportation Center in New York City, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. It represents the strength and resilience of New York City after 9/11. Inside the building, sunlight illuminates the halls directly through skylights. The Oculus is a center of light, art, beauty and hope.
▲ The Oculus at the World Trade Center, New York
#03
About the YOUTH+ Music FestivalGLOBAL TALENTS X DIVERSITY FUTURE
Initiated by BCAF, “Youth+ Live” is an immersive musical and visual performance representing a global array of new music change makers.
On July 1st, 2024, “Youth+ Live” presented Chinese artists Wu Na, Huan Qing, Xiao Jun, An Yu, American artists Li Daiguo, Aaron Parks, Dave Adewumi, and Canadian artist Rick Rosato to perform at the Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Drawing on our shared musical heritage, the artists presented eclectic performances that are contemporary and ancient, local and global, traditional and innovative.
Through cross-cultural collaborations, music enables us to heal together in a shared space, create emotional pathways, and break cultural barriers.
Zeitgeist Power
Individual strength, traditional innovation, cross-cultural integration
Borderless Music
An immersive musical and visual performance that transcends time and integrates Chinese, Western, and other global elements
Ars longa, vita brevis
Young leading musicians presenting original work on an internationally renowned stage
