Thoughts 思路 Program note: This work is for five performers of cello, flute, Chinese flutes (Di and Xiao), percussion, and live electronics. It was a structured improvisation consisting of three sections. It was my first time to be part of the creators, as I was only able to be a performer before. In fact, all of our team members are first-timers when it comes to improvising and composing. The concept of the work began by thinking about two kinds of flutes we had in our class (Chinese flute and a regular Western flute). It led us to think about Silk Road (a network of Eurasian trade routes that played an important role in cultural exchanges between East and West). We started with lots of discussions and tryouts. Eventually, we decided on a few keywords associated with performance (intimidate, conflict, converge), and these three words became sectional styles. In the live electron...