The Golden Wok

for narrator/vocalist, electronics, film, and chamber orchestra

Text, music, and voice by Dai Wei

Film by Dai Wei and Sha Tao

Commissioned by Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Sound Investment

Official Selection & Nominee for Best Original Score,

International Sound and Film Music Festival

Twelve years ago, my first taste of American Chinese food was orange chicken from Panda Express. I will never forget the confusion—the disconnect between how much people seemed to love it and how, to me at the time, it was almost inedible. I had never these seen dishes in China: chop suey, orange chicken, Mongolian beef, crab rangoon, and the ever-mysterious fortune cookie. These questions lingered in my mind, and I knew one day I would write a piece to explore them. That piece became The Golden Wok.

I come from a generation raised by parents who believed that a full stomach was happiness. Love was rarely spoken but always served. It was in the question they asked every time I walked through the door: Have you eaten yet? Food is more than sustenance—it is memory, identity, and history plated together in complex layers of meaning. The Golden Wok is a musical exploration of American Chinese cuisine, and I hope this piece evokes the memories of the flavors of home—both real and imagined, past and present—and the stories that simmer quietly beneath every bite.

Invisible Portals

for chamber orchestra, vocalist, and electronics

Conducted by Marin Alsop

Performed by Dai Wei and American Composers Orchestra

CANOA Commission Award (Composing a New Orchestra Audience), American Composers Orchestra

Click here to watch the score follower

During my time in Tibet, the sight of the Potala Palace immediately brought to mind the mandala thangka: geometric patterns built upon concentric squares and circles, each with numerous entrances. Invisible Portals draws on musical elements such as chest-voice singing, traditional folk music, contemporary resonance, and the propulsive rhythms of pop. My hope is to invite listeners on a journey—one that does not belong solely to the physical world, but to a realm where multicultural and multidimensional conversations intertwine beyond time and space.

Recent Projects

How the Stars Vanish...

for flute, clarinet, violin and cello

Performed by American Modern Ensemble

Commissioned by Hub New Music

Click here for the Full Score

The title How the Stars Vanish… came from a phrase of a poem written by the Persian poet Rūmī. This piece is based on my observation and imagination of the stars. I think stars always try their best to be stable in their whole life. When a massive star runs out of fuel, it swells, suddenly collapses, and a very dense core will be left behind, along with the expanding nebula. Looking at stars sometimes can be a very personal thing. It doesn’t require this knowledge to create an intimate, poetic conversation between you and the stars. When it comes to dark, I look up at the sky. We are just a mote of dust floating among the vast and tranquil Milky Way. Suddenly, a shooting star glides down the sky, while Orion and Pegasus are silently sharing their stories. Some of the stars are coming towards us, while some of them are vanishing.

Partial Men

for string quartet, voice, and electronics

Text, music, and voice by Dai Wei

Performed by Dai Wei and Aizuri String Quartet

Visuals by Dai Wei and Four/Ten Media

Commissioned by Aizuri String Quartet

Click here for the Full Score

Towards the end of 2019, my mother underwent her second kidney transplant surgery. In that moment of receiving the news, a whirlwind of emotions enveloped me: gratitude for the continued life bestowed upon my mother, and a heavy sorrow for the person who had bequeathed this life-altering gift. Through this piece, I came to realize that I had forged an indescribable connection with a stranger I had never met. This ten-minute composition unfolds the countless moments of that singular act——the moment when the surgeon transplants the organs from one body to the other. Partial Men is dedicated to two deceased men who donated their kidneys to my mother in 2004 and 2019, and to many other unsung heroes who extended other people’s life.