Dear Friends:

The Maiden Tower, a computer-enhanced chamber opera by Dr. Justine F. Chen, 
featuring singers Matt Boehler, Jennifer Zetlan, Douglas McCormick, actress 
Ellen Wolf and the Juilliard Plays Juilliard Chamber Orchestra conducted by 
Ryan McAdams.

Friday September 16th, 2005 @8:00PM
Room 309
Admission Free (no tickets required)
This production lasts one hour with no intermission



synopsis:
It is some time in the post-apocalyptic future, after a great war.  The 
only houses left standing are those built by The Guild. This story 
focuses on Abraham and Miranda, father and daughter -- and IAGA, the 
computer who runs their home (a spectacular creation of The Guild).

Abraham and Miranda, both recluses, are scared to a paranoid degree of
the world outside their house because of possibly poisonous levels of 
radiation from the nuclear fallout that occurred as a result of the 
war.  Mason, a rebuilder (an employee of The Guild) sent to look at the 
house computer, enters their strange and secluded environment.



--------------------------------

Biography -Justine F. Chen

A Taiwanese descent and native of Brooklyn, New York, composer/violinist 
Justine F. Chen has 
been the recipient of many prestigious awards and commissions. She 
began her violin, composition, and dance training at The Juilliard 
School and the School of American Ballet at age eight. After beginning 
her violin studies in Juilliard’s College Division, she was accepted 
into the Composition department becoming the first violin and 
composition double-major in Juilliard’s history. Her works have been 
performed by such prominent performing groups as the Brooklyn 
Philharmonic, the FLUX string quartet, the New Juilliard Ensemble, and 
the Juilliard Orchestra.

Because of her unique inter-disciplinary background, Justine has a keen 
interest in artistic collaborations. To this end, she has written 
incidental music for numerous theatrical productions including Arthur 
Miller’s The Crucible, Shakespeare’s Macbeth. In its 2001-2002 season, 
The Playwright’s Theater in New Jersey put on a production of James 
Glossman’s award-winning adaptation of Jim Lehrer’s novel, The Special 
Prisoner, with Justine’s incidental music to great critical 
acclaim. The score juxtaposed soundscapes of the modern world with the 
musical traditions of Noh theater. In 2001, she collaborated with 
digital artist Yewon Cho in scoring a short animation Trilemma, which 
was selected for and screened in such prestigious festivals as the 
Hiroshima Animation Festival, the New York Expo, the Student Academy 
Awards, Anima Mundi in South America, and broadcast on PBS in “Reel New 
York” June 2002.

She collaborated with David Parson’s Katarzyna Skarpetowska 
on Perpetual Flux, a dance piece premiered at Alice Tully Hall in 
1998. Other collaborative projects include Of Roots and Stones, a work 
with Alvin Ailey’s Iyun Harrison, performed in the Juilliard Spring 
Dance Concert in 2000. The New York Times said , “Justine Fang Chen, a 
Juilliard student composer, blended popular dance rhythms into the kind 
of propulsive, emotionally resonant score that choreographers tend to 
dream of.” In the summer of 2000, she was Composer-in-Residence of the 
Appalachian Summer Festival in Boone, North Carolina. There she 
collaborated with up and coming choreographer Adam Hougland, members of 
The Juilliard Dance Ensemble, and the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble in the 
creation of a total chamber work, Stand Nine. 

As a violinist, she has performed extensively throughout the world and 
specializes in the performance and interpretation of contemporary 
music. Since 1999, she has been actively studying the intricacies of 
interactive computer music program MAX/MSP. Her studies, guided by Mari 
Kimura, cutting-edge violinist and MAX/MSP programmer, has resulted in 
her composition and performance of several interactive pieces.

Her latest theatrical project is a computer-enhanced chamber opera for 
The Juilliard School scheduled for premiere in September 2005. In 2004, 
she collaborated again with choreographer Adam Hougland which involved 
a joint commission between New York City Ballet and Juilliard. In 2005, 
she received her Doctoral Degree of Musical Arts in Composition from 
Juilliard.


Sincerely,

Patsy Chen