Dragon Realms represents Ho's initial efforts in bridging Eastern and Western musical styles. Throughout the work, Ho incorporates numerous instrumental colours and sounds that he collected over the years of writing chamber music. Formally, the piece is built on six "images" that unfold in a dream-like sequence. Each image is presented as an understated rhetorical event, leaving the listener afloat as the music unfolds.
Vincent Ho is a Canadian who is widely recognised as one of the most exciting composers of his generation. He has made waves in the music world of North America despite being fairly early in his compositional career, receiving numerous prizes, accolades, and prominent commissions in a relatively short space of time. Ho’s music is rich and energetic - a unique integration of influences ranging from the visual arts, electroacoustic and natural soundscapes, traditional classical music forms, and the physical properties of the instruments and ensembles for which he writes. His music is sensual, sonorous and richly textured, and Ho gives considerable attention to the audience’s experience of his intricate sound-worlds.
