Described as “a fresh voice in cross-cultural music” by the MacArthur Foundation, whose Fellowship he was awarded, Bright Sheng has become one of today’s most widely performed composers. Filtered through Sheng’s rhythmically energetic yet haunting idiom, various types of Himalayan Sherpa dances are captured in Dance Capriccio, while characteristic singing voices and Chinese opera rhythms are represented in A Night at the Chinese Opera. My Song was inspired both by the musicality and virtuosity of pianist Peter Serkin (the work’s dedicatee and the soloist on this recording) and by the composer’s love of Chinese folk music.