Butterfly Lovers violin duet, played by Michiyo Mizuta Yu and Hyden Ho, Hycroft Manor, July 22, 2024

Michiyo Mizuta Yu and her violin duet partner Hyden Ho enjoying the opportunity to play at the beautifully restored Hycroft Manor in Shaughnessy for a luncheon of the University Women’s Club on July 22, 2024.

The performance had actually been originally arranged by Bev Wong of the University Women's Club for Dr. Ai Mizuta to play a mother/daughter duet with Michi for a lunar new year celebration luncheon back in February, 2024, but a snowstorm had forced a postponement and they finally had a chance to celebrate a “Double Happiness” concert now during the mid-summer heat in late July…!

Michi and Hyden played four pieces from their repertoire, starting with this interpretation of Butterfly Lovers, featuring an impromptu introduction by a very knowledgeable member of the University Women’s Club, who provided the perfect historical background and musicological prompt to the audience for them to appreciate the emotional anguish of the original folk tale that the composers He Zhanhao (何占豪, born 1933) and Chen Gang (陈钢, born 1935), young students at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music at that time in 1959, tried to capture in the melody and tone of the music.