or/and is a chamber operatic poem, following the journey of a Composer who finds her voice only when she accepts the seeming contradictions of her immigrant identity. Choosing “and” over the divisive “or,” this work taps into the inclusive power of AND to help mend our divided world.

When we meet the Composer, she’s struggling to write a piece of music inspired by two events half a world apart—a sacred ceremony of the indigenous Paiwan people of Taiwan and the Women’s March in Houston. Having attended both, she gleaned from them different lessons about herself that she is working to reconcile. Her search to find the right notes is mirrored by a search to find the right words. Her only daughter is heading to college, and there’s a pivotal sentence that the Composer-Mother wants to complete: “Before you go, I want you to know….” Musical and maternal instincts flow, once the composer begins to understand that she belongs to a continuum, buoyed by human connections rather than divisions.

《給女兒的話》追溯了一位台灣女作曲家探尋移情、社會正義與希望的個人歷程。這部結合了多媒體，以個人獨白的室內歌劇，全長60分鐘，無中場休息。

作品時空橫跨地球兩端：一端是作曲家第一故鄉──台灣，當地排灣族原住民正盛大舉辦著祖靈祭典；另一端則是她的第二故鄉──休士頓，當地市民為了爭取移民及婦女權益正在遊行。

作品內涵是作曲家對於「藝術」與「個人身份」的探尋──她既是作曲家，也是一位母親。在獨生女即將離家求學之際，作曲家心繫女兒的未來，一股腦地想把自己的人生經驗交給她，但幾次想說，總只能停留在「before you go 在你離家以前，我想要告訴你……」這句話。當自己的給予成了女兒的壓力；紛爭，掩蓋了彼此的愛與信任；作曲家陷入沉思：自己也曾是女兒、也曾抗拒過母親的關愛 、也曾為了夢想遠離家鄉；女兒的抗拒，交錯著排灣族的祖靈祭典、休士頓的示威遊行，在眼前盤旋……頓時，她意識到：個體的身份是會不斷轉換，何須區分與執著？我們「都是」一體；如果願意放下自我，或許就能與相對共存。於是，作曲家知道如何和女兒共享自己的經驗了。

《給女兒的話》是作曲家內心深刻的領悟，也是獻給天下，尤其是，有(或將有)子女遠離的母親 ，相互勉勵的話。這部跨文化、跨界的表演， 探索身份轉換與親子關係的歌劇，希望能引起觀眾廣泛的共鳴，也邀請更多人思考「都是」這個可以集結眾人，形成源源不絕力量的語意。