Conducting
KuanFen Liu is uncommonly versatile. She is both orchestral and choral conductor. She works with large groups, small ensembles, instrumental soloists, and singers. She works in musical theater, preparing performers for their work on the stage. She nutures singers and instrumentalists, shaping performances through to presentation. She conducts sacred music for congregations of various traditions. Each of these entities has its own character, and she brings them together in fresh configurations dictated by the needs of each new project.
Foundational to all of this are her two non-profit organizations: Channel Islands Chamber Orchestra, and Channel Islands Choral Association. She serves them as Artistic Director, Conductor, and Advisor.
Read on…..
Orchestra
Channel Islands Chamber Orchestra is home to KuanFen’s orchestral conducting
In 2004, alongside visionaries Les Vielbig, Henning Ottsen, and Bruce Walker, KuanFen founded Channel Islands Chamber Orchestra, and became its Conductor and Artistic Director. The members of First United Methodist Church of Ventura invited CHICO to use their sanctuary as its primary venue. CHICO began as a much-needed group of local musicians playing for local audiences, but has since become much more.
CHICO’s annual season typically comprises five concerts in venues around Ventura County including First United Methodist Church, Rancho Campana Performing Arts Center, and St. Mary Magdalen Church, the latter two in Camarillo.
KuanFen’s distinctive programming has brought the community diverse and rich offerings including Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, Beethoven Symphonies, Mozart Symphonies, Mendelssohn Overtures and Symphonies, Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, William Grant Still’s Afro-American Symphony, Leonard Bernstein’s Candide Overture, and Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite.
Choir
Channel Islands Choral Association is home to KuanFen’s choral conducting
Choral conducting was a natural evolution from her deep immersion in the vocal arts. She understands singing, collaborative and solo, through doing, and her University training further prepared her to lead choirs and choruses.
In 2004, KuanFen founded the non-profit Channel Islands Choral Association. With the collaboration of Ted Lucas, then Provost of California State University Channel Islands and Gary Berg, then Dean of Extended Education, CICA began its sponsorship of the CSU Channel Islands University Chorus. From the start, it was designed to bring University students together with staff and faculty of the University, and become a resource for its local community, singers and audiences alike.
She conducts the CSU Channel Islands Chorus in two or more concerts a year, including the winter holidays. Offerings span the ancient to the contemporary and have included William Byrd’s O Magnum Mysterium, Morten Lauridsen’s O Magnum Mysterium, Tomas de Victoria’s Ave Maria, Poulenc’s Christmas Motets, Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, Bach Motets, Bobby McFerrin’s The 23rd Psalm, Undine Smith Moore’s We Shall Walk, Dale Trumbore’s Ring Out Ye Bells, and Andera Ramsey’s Through the Dark.
Admixtures
Choral Orchestral Conducting
KuanFen is in the unique position to bring together her singers and instrumentalists in various inventive combinations.
Every year, CHICO and CICA join forces to present major choral orchestral works. Past seasons these have included Bach Cantatas, Hayden’s Creation, Mozart’s Requiem, Fauré’s Requiem, John Corigliano’s Fern Hill, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, Brahms’ Requiem, Poulenc’s Gloria, John Rutter’s Requiem and Handel’s Messiah.
In recent seasons KuanFen has added in opera and WOW! have those concerts been popular. She has led CHICO, the CSUCI Chorus, and special soloists in beloved works by Wagner, Bellini, Puccini, Rossini, Mozart and Verdi.
Additional Special Projects bring together musicians and composers outside of the CHICO and CICA fold.
