Dane Lam bridges cultures through sound at the Hawai’i Symphony

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Hawaii is one of the most multi-ethnic states in the US. More than 37 percent of its population have Asian ancestry and that is followed by White at 21 percent with other racial identities at much lower percentages. This cultural mix plays well into the hands of the Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra, which is led by its music director Dane Lam, who regularly programmes pieces that feature Asian instruments like the geomungo, a Korean zither that is plucked.

Just a few months earlier this year, Lam paired Donald Womack’s Black Dragon Concerto with Korean soloist Yoon-Jeong Heo on the geomungo with Brahms’s Fourth Symphony. ’Since the geomungo is plucked string instrument that by itself would never be able to be heard over a full orchestra, we amplified it,’ said Lam, ’Just like we would do with the Rodrigo guitar concerto.’

’It’s that simple,’ added Lam. ’We also opened the season with Wu Man playing Zhao Jiping’s Pipa Concerto no.2 alongside Strauss’s Don Quixote and Respighi’s Pines of Rome. And the week before that, before we opened the season here, I was in Shenzhen, China, opening the Belt and Road Festival, and there was another pipa soloist, Li Luo, on that program doing this fantastic piece, Good Fortune, and Everlasting Prosperity, by Zhao Cong. It’s a wild kind of folksy piece, and it also incorporated a Chinese instrument that didn’t need amplification called the suona, which is sort of like a Chinese oboe but much more strident. The suona definitely does not need amplification. It has a piercing, joyous sound.

’Good Fortune, and Everlasting Prosperity was a very theatrical piece,’ said Lam ’I don’t think ever in my career I’ve had two Pipa concertos with two different soloists in two weeks. I think this is so cool, because being in China, you get to know people, and know these instruments, and know how to make the sound out to the audience.’

Lam, who is of Australian and Chinese descent, directs orchestras and opera companies on several continents. The 40-year-old conductor currently maintains a trio of assignments as artistic director of the State Opera South Australia (Adelaide), principal conductor of the Xi’an Symphony Orchestra in China. Since 2023, Lam has been the music director of the Hawai’i Symphony, formerly known as the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra. That organisation went bankrupt in 2010 and was resurrected the following year under its new name.

His work in China, in particular, has influenced him greatly.

’Xi’an is an interesting place,’ said Lam, ’It was the first capital of China, and it was the eastern starting point of the Silk Road in ancient times. It’s most famous probably in the West for the Terracotta Warriors, which are in the mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China.

’Although it’s a very historical city, classical music was very new there when I first started in 2014,’ added Lam. ’So the orchestra and I sort of grew up together. There was no tradition, a house style of playing or a way of interpreting Brahms or Beethoven or works by other famous composers. That aspect combined with my limited Chinese language skills made everything a fun challenge.’

Over the years, Lam has become very familiar with the music of Ye Xiaogang and recently recorded some of his music with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra for an album entitled The Backyard of the Village, which has been released under the Signum Classics label.

Although the music does not use Chinese instruments, it delivers a distinct cultural sound.

’The album takes its name from one of the tone poems in the piece that depicts the sounds and smells and feelings of village life where Xiao Gong grew up in Guangdong province in southern China,’ said Lam.

’One piece, Memories of Mount Jing Gang is a viola concerto that is played by Diyang Mei, principal violist of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. And the album has a cello concerto, My Faraway Nanjing that features Guy Johnston. It is about the Japanese occupation of Nanjing. And it’s a cello concerto and is quite harrowing. It reminds me of Shostakovich with its colouristic language and its of brittleness.’

It turns out that Lam is very familiar with Manchester and Liverpool.

‘I had done a fellowship at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester under the mentorship of Sir Mark Elder. And at the same time, I took on the principal conductorship of the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. So I did that for five years earlier when I was starting out. So it was nice to go back to Liverpool. It was like a homecoming for me.’