Tell them we were here - Alex Ho (2019)

​Tell them we were here  (2019) is a piece for flute, yangqin, and percussion composed by Alex Ho and premiered by Daniel Shao, Reylon Yount, and Beibei Wang.

​The performance was the finale of Tangram's sold-out debut at LSO St. Luke's on 25th January 2019, which was part of the inaugural Chinese Arts Now Festival.

Many thanks to Mike Skelton and Ted Mair for videography and Da Hye Yang for audio recording.

​This piece looks to embody the spirit of a festival. Beyond bringing individuals and communities together in celebration, I am particularly interested in the way that festivals also occupy and transform existing places, albeit only as long as the festival lasts. In doing so, they can be seen to reimagine and create new temporary spaces that blur boundaries between communities and cultures, providing in turn a platform for new ideas and identities. From personal experience, I find that diasporic culture is often misrepresented and under-acknowledged, frequently framed as belonging to one specific place. It is festivals however that can play a significant role in undermining this assumption and it is up to us to consider and remember their implications after the festival has passed.

​Notes by Alex Ho