Concerto Project:
Young Pianists in Collaboration with the USC Student Chamber Orchestra
This spring, the Cadence Collective Foundation proudly presents a concerto collaboration featuring three young pianists performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 12 in D Major with the USC student chamber orchestra.
This project reflects our ongoing commitment to creating meaningful artistic development opportunities for emerging musicians. Rather than a single performance event, this initiative is structured as a guided educational process designed to deepen musicianship, collaboration, and artistic maturity.
Why Playing Concerto Matters
A piano concerto is not simply a solo piece with accompaniment. It is a dialogue between soloist and orchestra. The pianist must lead at times, listen at others, and continuously respond within a larger musical framework. It requires poise, clarity, and the ability to think beyond the keyboard.
For young pianists, performing a concerto represents a significant artistic milestone. It develops:
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Ensemble awareness
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Rhythmic stability within a large group
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Balance and projection
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Leadership through musical communication
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Understanding of large-scale musical architecture
Educational Structure
This collaboration includes:
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Three full orchestra rehearsals
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Three individual coachings with the USC conducting professor
These sessions provide students with direct exposure to professional rehearsal processes, including tempo negotiation, cueing, ensemble communication, and collective interpretation. The experience extends far beyond performance preparation; it cultivates collaborative musicianship at a formative stage.
Stay tuned for further announcements this spring.
Music & Poetry:
A New Art Song Collaboration
At Cadence Collective Foundation, we are committed to fostering meaningful collaborations between artists across disciplines. Bringing together poet Michelle Chen and pianist–composer Hanbo Ma, this ongoing partnership explores the creation of new art songs that merge literature and music into a unified artistic language.
Michelle Chen, a poet based in Los Angeles and Guangzhou, writes with a distilled, minimalist clarity that carries strong emotional tension beneath its surface. Her texts invite musical interpretation not as accompaniment, but as dialogue. In response, Hanbo Ma approaches composition as narrative—shaping sound to illuminate the inner pulse of the poetry while expanding its emotional dimension.
Through this collaboration, poetry and music are not layered, but interwoven, forming contemporary art songs that bridge classical structure with present-day sensibility.
Piano Language
Piano Language is the first work to emerge from this collaboration. Inspired by Michelle Chen’s poem of the same title, the piece translates the poem’s restrained yet charged imagery into a musical monologue. The composition blends classical lyricism with subtle contemporary elements, creating a sound world that reflects both introspection and immediacy.
Premiered at the Steinway & Sons New Year Gala Concert in 2019, Piano Language marked the beginning of this composer–poet partnership. The work is now available on major streaming platforms and has received praise from notable publications such as Sino and Music China, among others.
Never thought you’d return
It’s been ten years
The leaves are red again
Time passes in a haze
I play on and off
Embarrassed at first
That every song becomes
A funny dream about you
You’re always at my side
Close to the piano
Laughing with such ease
Mute wood and wind
Echoing what’s within
We do not speak
I know you’re still listening
As the last note fades
New Year’s Eve
New Year’s Eve marks the second collaboration between poet Michelle Chen and pianist–composer Hanbo Ma, and represents a new artistic direction for the duo. Unlike their earlier cross-linguistic work, this piece is written entirely in Chinese, allowing the musical setting to engage directly with the natural cadence, imagery, and emotional restraint of the language itself.
In her poem New Year’s Eve, Michelle Chen maintains her signature clarity—fresh, understated, and rich with metaphor. The verses appear simple on the surface, yet carry a quiet tension shaped by memory and time. In response, Hanbo Ma deliberately avoids conventional harmonic progressions, instead employing a more suspended and ambiguous harmonic language to evoke a hazy, reflective atmosphere. The result is a sound world that feels intimate and distant at once, mirroring the poem’s subtle emotional undercurrent.
The project was produced with the involvement of Grammy-winning producer Matthew Snyder, whose contribution helped shape the refined sonic character of the recording. Musically, the work draws from the tradition of art song while incorporating contemporary sensibilities. The voice and piano engage in layered dialogue, culminating in a restrained, poignant closing gesture.
New Year’s Eve was premiered by Hanbo Ma and vocalist You Zhao at the 2019 Steinway Lunar New Year Gala Concert and received critical acclaim from major media outlets including Music China and Sina Music, among others.
除夕夜
燃烧的木柴
一不小心
迸裂成
火星与灰烬
写下的计划
想做的太多
完成的却很少
彻夜添柴拨火
忘了时间
火焰的熏香
令人迷醉
像极了小时候那年除夕
爸爸离开书桌
为我烤焦的面包
Burning firewood
without warning
bursts
into sparks and ash
So many things
I want to do
yet I’ve finished so few
All through the night
I stoke the fire
losing track of time
the flame’s scent
intoxicating
Like the charred bread
my father once toasted for me
when he left his desk
on a New Year’s Eve