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VERSED is a monthly podcast illuminating the heart and soul of music. Featuring in-depth interviews with songwriters and composers, plus tips and insights to help you navigate your music career. Brought to you by ASCAP, home of the world's greatest music creators.

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In celebration of AAPI Heritage Month, we share highlights of two conversations from recent ASCAP Experience sessions featuring a diverse group of voices from ASCAP’s AAPI community. The first features a provocative discussion with playwright, librettist and lyricist David Henry Hwang and composer and conceptual artist Huang Ruo about art, identity and the power of music to help us fight racism and understand each other better. Then international superstar Amber Liu of K-pop royalty f(x), and Justin Park, a rising singer-songwriter recently endorsed by BTS’s Jungkook, talk about how their identities have shaped their lives and music careers, and the joys and challenges of growing up in the AAPI community.

 

+Watch "Chinese as Apple Pie" from David Henry Hwang and Huang Ruo’s opera THE RIFT 

 

+Watch "The Perfect Woman" from David Henry Hwang and Huang Ruo’s operatic adaption of M. Butterfly

+Watch “Easier” by Amber Liu (featuring Jackson Wang)

 

+Watch “Shady” by Justin Park

 

+Watch the full-length ASCAP Experience sessions with this episode's guests: www.ascapexperience.com/on-demand

EP. 30 FEATURED INTERVIEWEES

 

DAVID HENRY HWANG

David Henry Hwang’s stage work includes the plays M. Butterfly, Chinglish, Yellow Face, Golden Child, The Dance and the Railroad, and FOB, as well as the Broadway musicals Aida, Flower Drum Song (2002 revival) and Disney’s Tarzan. 

Called America’s most-produced living opera librettist by Opera News, he has written 13 libretti, including five works with composer Philip Glass and two with Bright Sheng, whose Dream of the Red Chamber will be revived this summer at San Francisco Opera. He has also collaborated with composers Unsuk Chin and Howard Shore. With Huang Ruo, he has written An American Soldier, The Rift and the upcoming M. Butterfly (Santa Fe Opera). 

Hwang’s screenplays include M. Butterfly and he is penning the live-action feature musical remake of Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. For television, he was a Writer/Consulting Producer for the Golden Globe-winning television series The Affair from 2015-2019 and is currently creating two TV series. He co-wrote the gold record “Solo” with the late pop music icon Prince. 

Hwang is a Tony Award winner and three-time nominee, a Grammy Award winner and two-time nominee, a three-time OBIE Award winner, and a three-time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. He was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2018 and his star was unveiled on the Lucille Lortel Playwrights Sidewalk in 2022. 

Hwang’s most recent musical, Soft Power, written with composer Jeanine Tesori, received a Grammy nomination for Best Musical Theatre Album and was a Finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize. www.davidhenryhwang.com

HUANG RUO

Composer Huang Ruo has been lauded by The New York Times for having “a distinctive style.” His vibrant and inventive musical voice draws equal inspiration from Chinese ancient and folk music, Western avant-garde, experimental, noise, natural and processed sound, rock and jazz to create a seamless, organic integration using a compositional technique he calls “Dimensionalism.”

Huang Ruo’s diverse compositional works span from orchestra, chamber music, opera, theater and dance to cross-genre, sound installation, architectural installation, multi-media, experimental improvisation, folk rock and film. His music has been performed by the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Santa Fe Opera, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Asko/Schoenberg, Ensemble Modern and London Sinfonietta.

He has written eight operas including M. Butterfly, Paradise Interrupted and An American Soldier, which was named one of the best classical music events in 2018 by The New York Times. He served as the first composer-in-residence for Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam.

Huang Ruo was born in Hainan Island, China in 1976 - the year the Chinese Cultural Revolution ended. Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s when China was opening its gate to the Western world, his education expanded from Bach, Mozart, Stravinsky and Lutoslawski to include the Beatles, rock 'n roll, heavy metal and jazz. Huang Ruo is a composition faculty at the Mannes School of Music. Huang Ruo’s music is published by Ricordi. www.huangruo.com

AMBER LIU

A California native, Amber Liu was discovered at the age of 15 at SM Entertainment’s global auditions in Los Angeles. Following a move to South Korea, she debuted in 2009 as a member of the female group f(x). The record-breaking electro-pop-based K-pop group quickly became one of the industry’s most popular and award-winning. In 2015, Amber’s first solo release, the critically acclaimed album Beautiful, debuted at #2 on Billboard’s World Albums chart, with the title track’s music video, released the same day, garnering more than 1 million YouTube views in its first day of release.

Over the past two years, Amber has been an advocate for body positivity and mental health when her “Where’s My Chest” message video went viral. She’s also an accomplished producer and co-wrote the hit digital show on FICTO hosting “I’ll Ask the Stupid Questions” while directing some of her hit music videos. She has also made a career on television and film, hosting travel and variety shows globally and has since released an array of critically acclaimed solo projects with her most personal to date, her EP titled Z!.  @amberliu on Instagram

JUSTIN PARK

Justin Park is a Korean-American singer-songwriter from Los Angeles. With a charming voice as his instrument, he is the future of R&B. Justin made his official musical debut in 2018 with his album, Places Like Home, which the LA native penned himself and received recognition from artists such as Jungkook of BTS, as well as major publications such as Billboard Radio China, EARMILK and more.

Justin had spent writing and developing with 5A LABEL as an artist, and MRMG as an international writer, where he has written for Korean pop artists such as B.A.P. His records, “Like We Used To” and “On the Low,” gained rave reviews, being featured on Billboard USA, Digital Journal, Genius, Billboard Korea and Billboard Radio China. However, it was his cover of Pink Sweat$’s critically acclaimed hit, “Honesty,” that put Justin into the limelight, meeting Pink himself and gaining attention worldwide. @Justinparkofficial on Instagram