Gateway to Paradise first screened online on Friday 23 July - a 17-minute musical work in 3 parts, tracing a spiritual journey from wandering to joy.
The work and this recording are a cross-cultural collaboration between Chloe Chung (dizi), John Ling (pipa), Pavle Cajic (composer) and Sydney-based string quartet (Amanda Chen, Dominic Azzi, Freyja Meany, Fiona Cheng).
Gateway to Paradise is a celebration of Chinese and Western sound worlds, written for traditional Chinese instruments dizi, pipa (soloists), and Western strings. We hope this piece brings a message of hope in what has been a tumultuous year in global relationships between China and the West.

Originally commissioned by Chloe Chung and Lulu Liu in 2015, it has been a six year journey for this piece to come together and we deeply thank all the musicians, artists and our recording team (Conan Tran, Jeffrey Cheah) involved for their work and enthusiasm as we reach this moment of premiering. We hope we can form a moment of ‘togetherness’ within the continued isolation of lockdown!

Gateway to Paradise can now be viewed on YouTube (or in-site, see below).
This recording project was self-funded. If you enjoy the experience, please consider purchasing a 'donation ticket' to help support the creators and enable further ventures such as this. Any support would make such projects more sustainable!

Read more about the composition of Gateway to Paradise here