I first met the composer Huang Ruo in 2017 at a crosstown bus stop in New York after a performance of Pierre Boulez’s “Repons” at the Park Avenue Armory. We talked about the effect of the chamber group situated in the middle of the audience, surrounded by the soloists and amplification, with waves of sound spiraling and circling throughout. This works differently in Ruo’s music: It is everywhere, and we, the audience, accompanied sometimes by puppeteers and smartphones, move through it, both receiving and impacting the sound. Ruo grew up in Hainan, China, then moved to Shanghai to study music and after that to Oberlin; he now lives in New York. Another time, I met him in the Lincoln Center courtyard. He was trying to figure out how to get a ticket to the Metropolitan Opera. Now, he has something bigger on his mind: the world premiere of his “The Monkey King” at San Francisco Opera.
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