Music composition and activism may not always go hand-in-hand, but for Lei Liang (2002 Fellow), who left China after the Tiananmen Square tragedy, the two are nearly synonymous. Liang, a 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist, has composed music about human trafficking, undocumented immigrants and justice; and soon, gun violence will be added to that list.
In January, Liang and three collaborators won a $50,000 grant from Creative Capital to bring an opera about guns in the United States to life. The multimedia chamber opera, entitled “Inheritance,” will use the biography of Sarah Winchester, heir to Winchester Repeating Arms, to explore the country’s complex relationship with guns.
Liang is not the only recipient of The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans to win a Creative Capital grant. Mariam Ghani (2001 Fellow), a visual artist, was a 2015 Creative Capital recipient for her film, “What we left unfinished.” Ghani’s film focuses on the Afghan Communism era (1978-1991) through the lens of Afghan filmmakers and their works from the period.
Jeffrey Soros, president of the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans Board of Trustees and a member of the Creative Capital Board of Trustees, commented “It is exciting and gratifying when artists the Fellowship has selected are recognized by other organizations. As it happens, in these cases, I know the other institution very well, and happily confirm the high standards that it too upholds, including the standards of creativity and persistence that the Fellowship values.”
In addition to Winchester’s life, Liang’s opera will explore guns throughout the history of the United States, including 19th-century massacres of Native Americans and contemporary school shootings. Liang and his collaborators wrote, “This is a work that hopes to raise probing questions about complicity, atonement, and gun violence in this country.”