Birthday gift

About the origin of A Cockroach's Tarantella, Du says it started with the first chamber opera, titled Zolle, which she wrote in 2004.

Zolle was an opera-theater narrative of a dead woman wandering through the shadowy space between memory and reality.

"As I was finishing Zolle, I created another piece that would serve as the life-before fable, which became A Cockroach's Tarantella. At that time, I was living in a subsidized student apartment. When I would take breaks from my work, particularly in the early hours, I would talk to the many cockroaches that shared my residence. Both stories are steeped in humankind's ubiquitous fascination with regression, the conflict of belonging and alienation, and the resurrection archetype," explains the composer, who's in her early 40s.

In 2010, the English version of A Cockroach's Tarantella premiered in New York. In 2019, Du visited Beijing to stage the original Chinese piece along with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra at the Beijing Music Festival.

Both versions are included in her new album, in which Du performs with JACK Quartet, featuring violinists Christopher Otto, Austin Wulliman, violist John Pickford Richards and cellist Jay Campbell.

The US quartet was founded in 2005 and has played Du's works before. But this is their first collaboration in a recording album.