2019: Francis Wong & Lenora Lee

Francis Wong: tenor saxophone
Lenora Lee: dance

Saxophonist/composer Francis Wong and dancer/choreographer Lenora Lee have been working together for over 20 years creating both fully improvised works as well as works that integrate composition, choreography, and improvisation. They have collaborated on small to large scale works involving ensembles of dancers and musicians, oftentimes working with projection mapping, and text. The themes that they are particularly known for are the immigration experience of Chinese Americans during the era of Chinese Exclusion, as well as contemporary social justice issues such as human trafficking, and the impacts of war in Asian American communities.

For over 35 years, Francis Wong has performed his innovative brand of jazz and creative music for audiences in North America, Asia, and Europe with such with such luminaries as Jon Jang, Tatsu Aoki, Genny Lim, William Roper, Bobby Bradford, and the late Glenn Horiuchi, John Tchicai, and Fred Anderson. Wong's imaginative career straddles roles as varied as performing artist, youth mentor, composer, artistic director, community activist, non-profit organization manager, consultant, music producer, and academic lecturer.

Lenora Lee, a United States Artists 2019 Fellow, has been a dancer, choreographer, and artistic director in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. She has been an Artist Fellow at the de Young Museum, a Djerassi Resident Artist, and a Visiting Scholar at New York University through the Asian/Pacific/American Institute. She is currently an Artist in Residence at Dance Mission Theater. The mission of Lenora Lee Dance (LLD) is to create and present large-scale multimedia performance works integrating dance, music, video projection, and text that connect various styles of movement and music to culture, history, and human rights issues. LLD is weaving together multiple artistic disciplines and socially conscious work, pushing the relevance of arts in various communities throughout the country.

Francis Wong & Lenora Lee (photo by Peter B Kaars)