Stephanie Chou
New York, NY, USA - Hit play on this submission from New York Artist, Stephanie Chou. Her song, Millennial Woman, will give you some hope and light to help with this next stretch of distanced life.
Bio from the Artist: Stephanie Chou is a composer, saxophonist, and singer based in NYC. Her music combines classical and Chinese influences with jazz and pop harmonies and rhythms to create an entirely original, bi-lingual(English/Mandarin) musical world. Chou studied mathematics and music at Columbia University. In 2011, she released "Prime Knot", a jazz quintet CD featuring trumpeter Marcus Printup (Jazz at Lincoln Center). Her 2012 work "CforG" was commissioned/choreographed by former American Ballet Theatre principal ballerina Susan Jaffe.
Steph’s 2017 album "Asymptote" features fresh takes on Chinese classics including "Kangding Love Song", "The Moon Represents My Heart", and a tongue-twister about "Eating Grapes". "Asymptote" features erhu mixed with a jazz rhythm section. She's performed in Taipei, Beijing, throughout NYC at venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, B.B. King's, and Miller Theater, and in festivals in Italy, Vermont, and Pennsylvania. Her compositions have been placed on PBS's 'Roadtrip Nation' and performed at Alice Tully Hall.
She received the 2016 JFund, a grant from the American Composers Forum, to write "Comfort Girl"--a musical exploration of the lives of 'comfort women' who were abducted into sexual slavery by the Japanese army during WWII. "Comfort Girl" premiered at Joe's Pub in 2019.
Steph was a 2021 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship finalist. She's currently working on a studio recording of "Comfort Girl", and orchestral project setting Chinese poetry, and a songwriting album. Since COVID, I have been fortunate to be able to focus on composing, remote recording, and remote collaborations with new collaborators.
Description from Artist: ‘Millennial Woman’
‘Millennial Woman’ is a call to unify women and men around gender-blind equality of opportunity. It celebrates the emergence of women in positions of visibility and influence, despite the visible and invisible deterrents to be overcome. It inspires others to follow.
Lyrics by David Keyes and Stephanie Chou, Music by Stephanie Chou
Produced, Recorded, Mixed by Roy Hendrickson at Spin Recording Studios, NYC, October 2020 Mastered by Fred Kevorkian
Stephanie Chou - voice; Drums - Ralph Rolle; Bass - Jerry Barnes; Piano, Organ - Shedrick Mitchell; Guitar - Sherrod Barnes
Executive Producer David Keyes
’Millennial Woman’ gives a voice, understandable by all, to the yearning for fairness and demand for justice of today’s ambitious women, who have paid full dues in terms of education and sacrifice but have not received full membership.
’Millennial Woman’ is dedicated with admiration to Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020), one of the greatest visionaries of the preceding millennium, who dedicated much of her career to equality of opportunity for women, and to whom millennial women – and men – owe accordingly much for the strengthening of our third millennium society and economy.
’Millennial Woman’ is more than a catchy tune or a window on a social phenomenon; it is intended as a call to unify women and men around gender-blind equality of opportunity – one of the great justice issues of this millennium, to be reckoned with throughout politics, business, law, finance, medicine, technology, the arts, and academia.