Patrick Yim is stepping into uncharted territory with his music. An award-winning violinist and assistant professor of violin and viola at Notre Dame, Yim has long been interested in non-Western compositions and instruments. Born and raised in Hawaii, Yim grew up with both Asian and American influences in his life and has spent extended periods traveling in Asia, expanding his understanding of the culture.

One place in particular drew him in. “I fell in love with Hong Kong,” he shares, so much so that he moved to the metropolis in 2017 and spent four years working there and networking with leading composers in the area. Even when he left Hong Kong, he continued studying, performing, and recording the music of Chinese and Chinese-American composers, in part to support an exciting project of his own.

Over the last few years, Yim has been commissioning works for an ongoing project titled Transnational Sonic Encounters (TSE), an endeavor that specifically involves repertoire for non-Western instruments and the violin. It combines classical and traditional material and techniques, creating new hybrid music that Yim hopes will “cultivate a global arts community through intercultural exchange and reimagine transcultural aesthetics.”

Yim began the first installment of the project when he arrived at Notre Dame in 2022, commissioning six works for erhu (a two-stringed Chinese fiddle) and violin. Thanks to funding from Notre Dame Global’s Asia Research Collaboration Grant, he was able to travel to Hong Kong earlier this year and carry out the second installment of the project. The trip was prompted by an earlier visit to Hong Kong when Yim was paired with Loo Sze-wang, the preeminent sheng player in Hong Kong, in a performance for the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble. Through this experience, the two discovered there were very few, if any, compositions specifically for violin and sheng. Yim’s proposal: Why don’t we create a brand new body of work for this combination?

With the help of the grant, Yim set out to do just that. He traveled to Hong Kong in January of this year and, working with Loo, reached out to composers based at the top universities in Hong Kong—Hong Kong University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology—and asked if they’d be interested in writing for this unique instrumentation. Yim coupled it with a request to “put the two instruments on a level playing field.” In order for these compositions to fit within the scope of the project, he felt the instruments should be conversing in harmony, not competing.

The result was a concert of “pieces that had never been heard before, just written,” Yim shares. Yim connected with Notre Dame Hong Kong director Catherine Leung to spread the word about the performance, helping to raise awareness about this breakthrough body of work throughout the Notre Dame community in Hong Kong. A month later, with the help of the grant, Loo traveled back to South Bend with Yim, and they performed the concert at the University.

For Yim, it’s not just about performing new music. It’s about giving non-Western instruments and compositions their time in the spotlight. “I think [the composers] have a lot to say, and I give them an opportunity to write the music, and I perform it where I can to spread their work widely.”

With plans to continue these collaborations in Hong Kong, Beijing, and across Asia, Yim’s work is far from over. The third iteration of TSE, completed this past October, was a performance of new works for violin and sheng at the University of Hong Kong. The fourth installment is currently underway—Yim is preparing a program of commissions for violin, Chinese flutes, and guzheng (a plucked zither). It will be the first ever collection of compositions for this combination.

Yim’s methodology serves as an excellent example for other faculty members of fruitful global collaborations. His work fosters cross-cultural dialogue while maintaining the distinctive identities of the cultures. This strategy benefits not only the composers he works with but his own cultural competency as well.

“I think of this as almost being a microcosm,” he says. “What happens when I collaborate with my collaborator from Hong Kong? That’s intercultural exchange. We listen to each other, we respect each other.” From that respect comes open doors and trailblazing work.

Interested in applying for a Notre Dame Global grant to support your research? Explore all the available grant and funding opportunities on the NDG website.

Originally published by Jessie Carson at hongkong.nd.edu on January 14, 2025.