Sorceress of the New Piano
- The Artistry of Margaret Leng Tan
(documentary; 90 min; English language; USA / Singapore / Hong Kong)      

  Strumming the strings of the grand piano like a harp and performing Beethoven and the Beatles on toy pianos are among the surprising scenes in Evans Chan’s documentary, SORCERESS OF THE NEW PIANO, which celebrates the trans-cultural career of Singapore-born, New York-based pianist Margaret Leng Tan, praised by The New Yorker as “the diva of avant-garde pianism." The film traces Tan’s quest for a new pianistic language, as she performs ground-breaking works by American masters Henry Cowell, George Crumb, and her longtime mentor John Cage, as well as by composers of the new generation -- Philip Glass, Tan Dun, Somei Satoh, Ge Gan-ru, Toby Twining, Lois V Vierk, Raphael Mostel, and Stephen Montague. Critics Edward Rothstein (The New York Times), Mark Swed (Los Angeles Times), and Joshua Kosman (San Francisco Chronicle) share their thoughts on Tan’s artistry and musical lineage. Incorporating vintage footage of Merce Cunningham’s dance, Jasper Johns’s art, and a Marcel Duchamp film, SORCERESS also highlights Tan’s latest transformation as the world's first professional toy pianist, turning a humble toy into an instrument worthy of the international concert stage. A decade in the making, Chan’s engaging documentary makes accessible as never before a century of adventurous, maverick music-making in America, through the prism of a major Amer-asian musical talent.
 
SORCERESS OF THE NEW PIANO was selected as
“Best Contemporary (Music) DVD”
in CD Compact magazine (Spain) in 2010

SORCERESS OF THE NEW PIANO, together with THE MAVERICK PIANO,
with German, French, Spanish subtitles, is available as a

Mode Records DVD (mode 194):

http://moderecords.com/catalog/194tan.html


SORCERESS and THE MAVERICK PIANO, with Japanese subtitles,
are also available as an

Uplink DVD
アート・オブ・トイピアノ マーガレット・レン・タンの世界 :

http://www.worldcat.org/title/ato-obu-toi-piano-magaretto-ren-tan-no-sekai/oclc/244737346


Watch the trailer for SORCERESS OF THE NEW PIANO at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEwYtUREUVk

 
Festival history:
*Uplink Music Documentary Festival (2007)
*Northwest Asian American Film Festival (2006)
*Melbourne International Film Festival (2005)
* Auckland International Film Festival (New Zealand) (2005)
* Wellington Film Festival (New Zealand) (2005)
*Silverdocs: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival (2005)
(Best Music Documentary nominee)
*Cinema Paradise Film Festival (Honolulu) (2005)
*Buenos Aires 7° Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente (2005)
*San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (Centerpiece Presentation, 2005)
*Vancouver International Film Festival (2004)
*Mar del Plata Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente (2004)
*Singapore International Film Festival (2004)
*Hong Kong International Film Festival (2004)

Executive Producers: Russell Freedman, Willy Tsao
Director/Editor: Evans Chan
Director of Photography: Gabrielle Weiss
Sound Mixer: Rafael de la Uz
Assistant Director: Zhao Quan Zhou
Production Coordinator: Tad Doyle
   
  Top