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Jeremy Moyer: Erhu music bridging eastern, western, contemporary and folk traditions.


Jeremy Moyer (originally from Waterloo, Ontario Canada) is a Taiwan based composer, Erhu player and multi-instrumentalist whose work bridges Eastern, Western, Contemporary and Folk traditions. He has studied Cantonese music with Yeung-Yee Lee (李楊義) in New York, Taiwanese folk tunes with Zhang Shi-dong (張仕棟) in Taichung, and Jiangnan Silk and Bamboo Music with Zhou Hao (周皓) in Shanghai. He was previously active in the Canadian folk and world music milieu, recording and performing South American Music (with Huellas), Greek Rembetika Music (with George Sapounidis) and Punjabi Songs (with Galitcha). In Shanghai, he collaborated extensively with American pianist Steve Sweeting exploring Chinese music in a jazz improvisation framework and he developed concept works and improvisational performances with Qi Dance Project. From 2008 to 2010, Moyer was Musician in Residence at the Shanghai-Zhujiajiao Water Village Music Centre.

In addition to Solitary Bird (2011), a collaborative album with Steve Sweeting and singer Coco Zhao, Moyer has produced three albums where he arranges the music and mostly plays all the instruments himself:

A Discovery of Chinese Folk Tunes (1997) features the Taiwanese Coconut Shell Fiddle (殼子弦). The music is traditional - folk opera tunes, temple music and folk songs - learned by rote from Taichung musician Zhang Shi-dong (張仕棟) on hot summer afternoons in 1996. Zhang was from a generation that spoke Taiwanese dialect and Japanese; and Moyer, at this time, was a just a novice Mandarin speaker so the two could only communicate with music. With the aid of a tape recorder and occasional intervention from bystanders, an inspirational musical bond was formed. A Discovery of Chinese Folk Tunes is dedicated to the memory of Zhang Shi-dong. Taiwanese listeners will find this album to be a record of a local musical culture that has largely disappeared.

Mangoes: Musical Shorts Volume 1 (2009) features Guitar, Erhu (二胡), some vocals and a wide range Chinese and western percussion instruments. There are guest performances by Brazilian percussionist Leonardo Susi and Shanghai-Zhujiajiao singer Yang Guanghau (楊光華). With the exception of one traditional folk song, the music is all composed by Jeremy Moyer. It is a light-hearted eclectic mix of short acoustic instrumental pieces in a variety of styles. It is a reflection of the diversity of Moyer's musical inspiration and his joy of music making. Titles such as 'Workers Theme Song' make allusion to social realities observed in China at the time of the much-anticipated World Expo. The Bossa Nova song, 'Fishing Secrets' has become popular on Spotify with over 1 million listens.

Chinese Bicycle Stories (2018) prominently features the nowadays rarely played 'Qinqin' (秦琴): a 3-stringed "Chinese Banjo" which Moyer bought from a barber in Yunnan in 2009. The instrument has been custom fitted with a pentatonic fret set-up imposing a rich world of musical limitations. On this album Moyer also plays Guitar, Erhu (二胡), Gaohu (高胡) Taiwanese Coconut Shell Fiddle (殼子弦), Cantonese Coconut Shell Fiddle (椰胡),Sanxian (三弦) and percussion. There are guest performances by Kevin Ramessar on Guitar and Shawn Mativetsky on Tabla. The music, all composed by Jeremy Moyer, is a highly personal rendering of folk and traditional musical elements, reflecting a musical life journey of diligent learning, intense spirituality and earthy passion. It is like coasting down a mountain through a bamboo forest on a bicycle in spring while wrestling with demons. Tracks like 'Snow Legend' and 'Spring on Wutai Mountain' have been praised by Chinese musicians for their poignancy and purity.

In addition to his life as a creative musician, Jeremy Moyer (M.Ed) is an enthusiastic and original school teacher and music educator. He is certified in both Orff Schulwerk and Kodály Method (music pedagogy approaches). From 2011 to 2018, he worked as a primary school Grade 5 classroom teacher and middle school music teacher at Lycée français de shanghai, a French international school. Since 2018, in Taichung, Taiwan, he has been teaching extra-curricular music classes in Primary schools and elective music classes in Middle Schools. In music education, Moyer focuses on bringing traditional musics into the classroom where students can experience first hand playing and singing in different styles, material from different traditions and in different languages. He also teaches/leads folk dances and musical creation/improvisation activities.

  Jeremy Moyer

[Chinese Bicycle Stories by Jeremy Moyer]

Chinese Bicycle Stories



Jeremy Moyer lives in Tianzhong Township, Taiwan.

Tagged as: World, Instrumental World, Folk.


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