NEW YORK, May 17, 2022 -- ASCAP, The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, announces its next ASCAP Experience session for later this week: “Metamorphosis: David Henry Hwang & Huang Ruo in Conversation.” The session will be the second event of ASCAP’s Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month celebration, and premieres Thursday, May 19 at 3PM ET / 12PM PT on @ASCAP YouTube. In this conversation between three-time Pulitzer Prize-finalist playwright and librettist David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly), and composer and librettist Huang Ruo(Paradise Interrupted, American Soldier, M. Butterfly with Hwang), the two titans of their fields will discuss incorporating themes of the Asian-American experience into theater, opera and concert music.

Nancy Yao Maasbach, President of the Museum of Chinese in America, is set to moderate. Hwang and Ruo’s opera version of M. Butterfly will have its world premiere at the Santa Fe Opera on July 30.

ASCAP launched its AAPI Heritage Month appreciation earlier this month with its first event, “Seoul Music: Amber Liu & Justin Park in Conversation” featuring the two K-pop songwriters on Instagram Live. The session is available to stream on @ASCAP YouTube at https://youtu.be/XPzaoLzJLmU.

ASCAP also curated a special playlist featuring music from ASCAP members in the AAPI community such as Mitski, Olivia Rodrigo, Bella Poarch, TOKiMONSTA, Vijay Iyer, Steve Aoki, Hayley Kiyoko, Yo-Yo Ma, Toro y Moi and more. And ASCAP social media is sharing exclusive videos from up-and-coming AAPI music creators Alice Longyu Gao, Brooke Alexx, DJ Flict, Ella Jay Basco, Mad Tsai, Natania Lalwani, Ralph Torrefranca of post-punk band Cuffed Up and Will Jay talking about how their heritage has affected their careers, songwriting and other topics relevant to the Asian-American experience.

More information about ASCAP Experience is at www.ascapexperience.com.

About ASCAP

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is a professional membership organization of songwriters, composers and music publishers of every kind of music. ASCAP's mission is to license and promote the music of its members and foreign affiliates, obtain fair compensation for the public performance of their works and to distribute the royalties that it collects based upon those performances. ASCAP members write the world's best-loved music and ASCAP has pioneered the efficient licensing of that music to hundreds of thousands of enterprises who use it to add value to their business - from bars, restaurants and retail, to radio, TV and cable, to Internet, mobile services and more. The ASCAP license offers an efficient solution for businesses to legally perform ASCAP music while respecting the right of songwriters and composers to be paid fairly. With more than 850,000 members representing more than 16 million copyrighted works, ASCAP is the worldwide leader in performance royalties, service and advocacy for songwriters and composers, and the only American performing rights organization (PRO) owned and governed by its writer and publisher members. Learn more and stay in touch at www.ascap.com, on Twitter and Instagram @ASCAP and on Facebook.

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