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Nelson
Hiu (邱立信)
born
and raised in Honolulu Hawaii, is a fourth generation descendant of Chinese
and Japanese immigrants. His interest in music, improvisation and self-discovery
began while a secondary school student during the tumultuous late 60's
and early 70's.
He studied ethno-musicology at the University of Hawaii and dropped-out of the post-graduate program to begin a career of dance class accompaniment as well as the occasional side job, paid gig and commissioned composition. He has been living in Hong Kong since 1985. Nelson has also been a founding member of many new music ensembles in Hawaii and Hong Kong including Nuclear Tan, the Pagan Babies, Gain Dangerous Visions, the Pet Project Hawaii, Uncarved Block, CIMG (Collective Improvisational Music Group), Little Red Truck, Dancing Stone and Yihk, and has collaborated extensively with dance and theatre.His music for dance has been performed in Hawaii, Arizona, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Utah, New York City, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and China.
His performances outside Hong Kong include the New Music Across America
Festival at the Honolulu Academy of Arts Theater in Hawaii; a tour of Tokyo,
Kyoto and Osaka with Otomo Yoshihide and Jon Rose; “Revolution is in
the March” (an experimental play) at the Kampo Cultural Center with
Dancing Stone, “Five Broken Stars on a Field of Red” (dance performance)
at NADA, a music and poetry improvisation at the Mercury Lounge with the
Pet Project in New York City; the Big Island Slack Key Guitar Festival
in Hawaii; the Artcamp Hakushu Festival in Japan with the Voice Circus;
the 1st and 2nd New Masses Music Movement in Shenzhen (China) with CIMG
and Dancing Stone; the John Zorn: tour of Asia in Shenzhen and Guangzhou
(China) with Little Red Truck; joint performances at the EZ-9 in Taipei
with Otomo Yoshihide, Uchihashi Kazuhisa, Matsubara Sachiko & Samm
Bennett and Dancing Stone; the Hong Kong Festival in Berlin (Germany) at
the Kunsthaus Tacheles with Dancing Stone and Yihk; the Festival of Cultures
’97 - Hong Kong in Munich (Germany) with Dancing Stone; “Ensemble
and Solos: sound” at Plan B in Tokyo with Yihk and “Ensemble and
Solos: dance” at the Proto Theatre in Tokyo with Ling Lee and Kenichi
Takeda; “Tribal Xiang Gang Concert in Taiwan” at the Assignment
A.C. Theatre Chung Chia, Roxy Vibe and the Underground Society in Taipei;
and most recently the Ghost Festival in Berlin (Germany) at the Kunsthaus
Tacheles with Ling Lee, John Lee and Lee Man-sang.
In Hong Kong, his performances include “Dark Entry 9” with
Little Red Truck; the Hong Kong Arts Festival '95 with Dancing
Stone and CIMG; the Commercial Radio II live radio performance at
the Music Union with Dancing Stone; the Power Generation Concert with Little
Red Truck; the Festival Now Music Lab. with Dancing
Stone, “Raw Earth” (a collaboration with ceramic artists,
Lee Man-yip and Jacqueline Li, installation artist/instruments builder/musician,
Lee Man-sang, voicalist/dancer, Ling Lee) performed at the Hong Kong Arts
Centre and the Kang Yung Study Hall (an old village school now a preserved
historic site museum) in Sheung Wo Hang Hakka Village in the New Territories,
“Still Here” (a combination of found video projected onto large
floating white sheet, photographs, er-hu, voice, live electronics and movement)
with Dancing Stone; “October ’96: a new
music festival” with Dancing Stone; “Tribal
Xiang Gang in Concert I & II” with Dancing
Stone, “Laughing Funeral Worry Birth! white clouds blue sky”
(a collaboration of installation, movement and music) with Ling Lee, Lee
Man-sang and Chan Wai-fat; DanceArt’s “Present Continuous” (a
collaboration with contact improvisation dancers) with Dancing
Stone; “Dancing in the Street” with Uncarved
Block; the improvisational music series at Club 64 with Ling Lee,
Lee Man-sang, Chan Wai-fat, Joe Rosenberg, Simon Hui and Peter Suart; “City
Rites” at the Zuni Icosahedron studio with Ling Lee, Lee Man-sang
and Pun Tak-shu; “4 Soloists” with Ling Lee, Lee Man-sang and Chan Wai-fat,
and “Serial 1: solo & duo” with Uncarved
Block at the Para/Site Artspace;“dRumS(erHu/fLutes) +dAncE”
with John Lee and Ling Lee, “village parlour music” with Lee Man-sang
and “FUBAr premiere concert” with FUBAr
(Nelson Hiu/John Lee/Lee Man-sang) at Club 64; “Nine Years!” June
4th Memorial Free Concert with FUBAr
at theCultural Centre Plaza; “scattered pebbles” with Ling Lee
at the Cultural Centre Studio Theatre; and “november, december 1998”
with Dancing Stone and Uncarved
block at various public environments and Fringe Club theatre.
He can also be heard on “Om: what is sound”
His music has been described as: "...oddly compelling, eerie ..."- the Hong Kong Standards, 1987 "The sounds were raw, spontaneous and reminiscent of the elements of nature - gusts, breezes, streams, rain, waves, cave echoes and occasionally chants of priests in temples ..." -South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), 1988 "... whose haunting flute moves from trembling rhythms and abrasive aspiration to melodious lyricism and stark silence throughout ..."-Attitude Magazine (New York), 1992 "He played with an inner awareness, and control that produced riffs flying across a landscape of sensations that concocted a contemporised past.”-South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), 1996 "…produced hectic puzzle-noise reminiscent of all the noises of civilization packed together and speeded up.” -Allgemeine Zeitung (Munich, Germany) 1997 “In
Nelson Hiu’s admirably virtuoso playing, the Chinese tonal system corresponds
naturally with the gestures of free jazz of Ornette Coleman and the dark
rawness of early Velvet Underground.”-Suedeutsche Zeitung (Munich, Germany)
1997
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