Where Melodies Set Sail: Haoxi Chai’s "Aquatic Wonder" and the Voyage to the Vivaldi International Music Competition
- WOMCO
- 6 hours ago
- 3 min read
Haoxi Chai, a young composer from The Shanghai SMIC Private School in China, earned the First Prize and the Visionary Creativity Special Prize in the Young Artist (Age 14–17) category, as well as the Second Prize in Chamber Music and Original Composition for his piece Aquatic Wonder at the 2025 Season 3 Vivaldi International Music Competition. The event ran from 19 June to 19 September 2025, with results announced on 8 October 2025. In the wake of his achievements, he spoke with us about the artistic origins of Aquatic Wonder—a work that captures both the vastness of the sea and the unfolding growth of a young composer finding his voice.
Could you please introduce your award-winning composition Aquatic Wonder? When and under what circumstances was it composed? Could you share the inspiration behind the composition and the message you hope to convey through it?
Haoxi Chai:
"It was a very interesting experience. It started out as something I composed for a school concert, so that I could perform my original composition with the school orchestra. In fact, Aquatic Wonder was my first chamber music composition, created after I started to explore the field of composition for circa 7 months. The inspiration came to me surprisingly easily. I was learning about Gregorian modes at the time I started this composition, and the urge for me to incorporate some new knowledge into my new work was strongly present, and so I did it. What basically did was I started with a melody motive in the Dorian mode and started to expand the melody all the way until the end. In the process, I stop with the melody every 8 bars and start filling up the harmonics in order to feel the vibes and tension within the music, and to think how the music should flow onwards. It was a melodic-driven composition instead of a harmonic-driven one. After I was finished with the whole thing it appeared to me that the music is trying to convey a story on the ocean: the song describes a boat sailing over the ocean, Dorian and Lydian modes depict a seemingly calm surface, and the Natural and Harmonic minors depict a treacherous ocean that attempts to topple the boat; the ending in a transition from Dorian mode to Natural major and then finally Lydian mode, declares the safe arrival to the final destination. And so I named the piece Aquatic Wonder."
How did you approach realizing your composition into audio, and were there any memorable moments during the process?
Haoxi Chai:
"I actually wanted to submit the recording of the live version of the performance at the concert, but when I was looking at the replay, I realized the live performance did not work out that well. The instruments did not enter in unison, there was one violin out of tune, and the volume balance was kind of awkward. Notwithstanding the fact that it felt really good to receive applaud form the audience, it really wasn't the best performance. So the audio I submitted was created with a different approach. As we now live in a digital era, I approached the submitted audio with a digital audio workspace. It was kind of hard to find the ideal library and balance the loudness and dynamics in the software, but I did the best of my capabilities."