Crossover is something that Yi-Jia Susanne Hou believes in, and not just in music.
The Shanghai-born Canadian violinist, who played a solo recital in the Flagler Museum’s music series in 2009, is perhaps best-known for her work as a featured member of Bowfire, a multimedia fiddle extravaganza founded in 2000 that’s sometimes referred to as “Riverdance with violins.”
Hou says she’s fond of “blurring the lines” between the arts and other activities, and believes it serves the cause of art, and humanity, better.
“I like blurring lines, because I think a lot of lines exist for no reason,” Hou said over a late lunch Tuesday at Brio Tuscan Grille in Boca Raton, discussing a series of music-film-and-discussion programs she’s planning for a cruise line. “I don’t want the artists only to be on a pedestal onstage.”
Hou, 34, is a formidable violinist with an impeccable classical pedigree whose wide-ranging interests appear to be leading her into a multimedia-mogul direction. She’s the creator of a new show called Around the World of Music in 80 Minutes, a program of classical favorites from all over the globe, playing this week and next in Boca Raton.
Hou is one of several soloists, including singers, in the show, all accompanied by an eight-piece ensemble of string quartet, harp, piano, bass and percussion. There are tango and flamenco dancers, too, and the Fushu Daiko Japanese drum group. The ultimate aim, expressed in comfortable, unobtrusive staging — “I wanted to enhance and highlight the performances” – is nothing less than bringing us all together.
“For the last 10 years, I’ve been making programs that visit all different kinds of music and cultures, because I love telling the audience how music influences each other,” Hou said. “How many things in our world draw people apart? But when you can listen to a piece of music, eat some food from a specific culture, it actually brings you closer to the people; you understand them.”
The show, which has played the Boca Community Church and the Coral Springs Center for the Arts, is now in the middle of a seven-show run at Boca’s Spanish River Church. Its final threee shows are set for 8 tonight and 8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday night at the church on western Yamato Road. She describes it as “essentially a classical music showcase, but with all the production values of a show like Bowfire.”
The program “tours” roughly 16 countries including the United States, which is represented by Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer and a medley of George Gershwin songs including I’ve Got Rhythm, played by pianist Yuval Fichman. Italy is represented by arias from Puccini operas (O mio babbino caro, Nessun dorma, Recondita armonia, and O soave fanciulla, featuring soprano Teresa Eickel and tenor Daniel Montenegro), China by a set of folksongs arranged for Hou by Yang Bao Zhi, and Poland by Chopin’s posthumous Nocturne in C-sharp minor.
The Czech Republic gets its moment in Hou’s passport book with an arrangement by Hou’s father, Alec (Bo Zhi), of the Smetana tone poem The Moldau. A version of its famous melody (which Smetana borrowed from Swedish folk music) was used in turn as the tune for Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem, which follows The Moldau on the program.
“I’m not doing this with religious intent, I’m not doing this to sing a national anthem or anything like that,” she said. “It’s to capture [the idea] that music provided, in the deepest, darkest moments, hope for people.”
Around the World of Music, whose title was inspired by the Jules Verne novel Around the World in 80 Days, opens with an arrangement of the Andante from Haydn’s Surprise Symphony (No. 94 in G, representing both Austria and England, where it was premiered), and closes with Hou soloing in the Spanish virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate’s take on Gypsy music, Zigeunerweisen (Op. 20).
Hou is planning future versions of the Around the World show, as well she might: Its current run is entirely sold out.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever done anything like that, and it was really fun,” she said. “It was an adventure.”
The remaining presentations tonight, and Monday and Tuesday night, of Around the World of Music in 80 Minutes at Spanish River Church are sold out, but interested concertgoers can get on a waiting list by calling 800-716-6975. Visit www.spanishriverconcerts.com for more information.