Leung Pak-hei: Marshmallow Dusktime

Leung Pak-hei a.k.a. Alvin Leung (b. 1997) was born and raised in Hong Kong. His compositions have been presented in the U.S., U.K., Italy, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong by music groups such as Transient Canvas, the Rhythm Method String Quartet, Rosetta Contemporary Ensemble, Duo Zonda, Trio Mythos, Resonance, Stellar Trio, Music-Joint Association, Hong Kong Wind Kamerata, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, Contrast Trio, Hong Kong Saxophone Ensemble and Romer String Quartet. His recent works were featured in SPLICE Institute 2022, EMM 2022, ICMC 2021, SCI National Conference 2021, NSEME 2021, Longy’s Divergent Studio 2021, Hong Kong Contemporary Music Festival 2020 and 2021, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra Net Festival, SCI Summer 2020 Student Mixtape, Charlotte New Music Festival 2020, and others. Leung is currently a Ph.D. student in Music with a concentration in composition at the University of North Texas. He received a Master of Music degree from Bowling Green State University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His principal teachers include Panayiotis Kokoras, Marilyn Shrude, Christopher Dietz, Mikel Kuehn, Wendy Lee Wan-ki, Victor Chan Wai-kwong, Lo Hau-man and Ricky Tse.

Marshmallow Dusktime, a duo for bass clarinet and marimba, was composed in 2021 for the duo Transient Canvas who premiered the work on June 22, 2021 in Edward M. Pickman Hall at the Longy School of Music. It has subsequently been performed by Duo Antwerp who performance during the Hong Kong Contemporary Music Festival is featured below. The composer has written: “Marshmallow Dusktime was inspired by the dusk I saw when I first arrived in Bowling Green, OH in Fall 2019. I had never seen such a dusk, such a mix of purple, pink and orange, on a sky so creamy and fluffy. In my hometown Hong Kong, it is all about skyscrapers. It was at the time that I was about to graduate from Bowling Green State University that I worked on this piece. Therefore, I wrote this piece as a conclusion to a journey so dreamy, so unrealistic, yet so true.”