Moving and Funny Stuck Elevator
Excerpt from Seattlest review of NW New Works by Jeremy Barker
Byron Au Yong’s short opera about a Chinese delivery guy stuck in a New York elevator manages to be both moving and funny. Performed by Yong and musical collaborator Paul Kikuchi on a non-traditional set of percussion instruments, the action unfolds on a tiny platform representing an elevator, where Kuang has become trapped after delivering Chinese food to an apartment. Lacking good English and a proper work visa, as the hours unfold, Kuang is tortured by self-doubt and emasculation–he’s afraid of being mocked, afraid of being deported, and frightened of having to return to his wife a failure. But the painfully emotional parts are interspersed between comic bits, such as the hip hop song his bladder sings him in his sleep as he struggles not to piss himself.
I now get Gary Snyder
Last night, I rode the bus with my neighbor and writing group compatriot, Wendy Call to Benaroya Hall to listen to poet Gary Snyder. Snyder is a beat poet who was raised in the Pacific Northwest in the 1930s. He lived in Japan for 10 years and is known for his connection to the environment and Buddhism. Snyder won the Pulitzer Prize for his book of poems Turtle Island. I never truly connected with Snyder’s work until last night’s event presented by Seattle Arts & Lectures.
After his reading, Snyder fielded questions from the sold-out (2,500 seat) house. These responses, paraphrased through my memory, stay with me.
Q. How do we increase cooperation?
A. Poverty. Having grown up during the Great Depression and working on oil riggers and as a logger, Snyder said that when people have little, they work together.
Q. What did Allen Ginsberg teach you?
A. That a poet’s life should be an open book. When Snyder and Ginsberg were roommates, he found Ginsberg opening and reading his mail. When confronted, Ginsberg said that he wanted to know more about Snyder and that a poet must let their vulnerabilities be public. Ginsberg then added that Snyder should not be scared to be indecent.
Q. What does the Black Bear found in Ballard want?
A. Music. Snyder said that humans don’t have much to offer, that animals think humans are cute. One time, as he was walking home, Snyder heard his daughter play the piano. As he approached, he noticed a cougar listening to the music. As another bit of evidence, Snyder talked about the Ainu in Northern Japan; how they sing to the meat on the table, because the animal’s soul expects a human song in return for their food.
Listening to 79-year-old Snyder last night was an opportunity to hear wisdom from one of America’s elders. Thanks Wendy for bringing me to this ear-opening event where I am now closer to the meaning of Turtle Island.
Stuck Elevator workshops in NYC
Back from New York with good news:
Aaron Jafferis and I will be Artists-in-Residence at the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at New York University. Aaron and I have been working on Stuck Elevator, an operatic solo performance about the Chinese delivery man who was trapped in a Bronx elevator for three days. I am excited to workshop this super-heroic stationary journey with A/P/A.
In New York, A/P/A greats Laura and Alex took me to the Chen Dance Center and Museum of Chinese in America. At CDC, H.T. wowed us with his performing carp and intimate venue. The black box theatre was surprisingly quiet given that it was in New York’s Chinatown. I look forward to interacting with the audience during our workshop performances about an undocumented Chinese immigrant from New York.
Cynthia and Beatrice at MoCA discussed programming possibilities in the new Museum designed by Maya Lin. Touring the space under construction was phenomenal. Surrounded by glass, concrete, steel, and wood is a central courtyard with natural light. The walls of the courtyard are the original brick from the former garment worker’s building. Lin has created a place in New York’s Chinatown that reinterprets the meaning of the Chinese home in a city known for immigrants.
Aaron and I begin Stuck Elevator workshops this September.
Finalist
Kidnapping Water: Bottled Operas was a 2009 Richard Rodgers Award Finalist.
Amazing knowing that the Bottled Operas are a set of 64 musical miniatures for any number of performers to be performed in any order, outdoors in water – a far cry from The Sound of Music.
Thanks to the American Academy of Arts and Letters for the encouraging nod of approval.
Piano Racket Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Pulldate March 13, 2009
Piano Racket: Music for the Unconventional Piano
Friday, March 13, 2009, 8PM
Performance by Tiffany Lin of new and contemporary works for pianos.
Program features two world premiers of pieces especially commissioned for this event; Flirt a set of five modular and portable interludes for toy pianos and ping pong balls by Seattle composer Byron Au Yong and Corroded Communes, a piece for retuned piano by Australia based composer Kraig Grady.
The Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center
4649 Sunnyside Avenue North, 4th Floor, Seattle WA
Tickets $5-$15
Tickets will be available at the door on the evening of the performance
(Seattle WA) Pianist and toy pianist Tiffany Lin announces Piano Racket, a concert featuring solo music for prepared piano, string piano, retuned piano and toy pianos.
The program features a double world premiere of music written for this event by composers Byron Au Yong and Kraig Grady. Flirt, Au Yong’s portable interludes for toy pianos and ping pong balls finds love in the little things of life with lip smacks, whistles, pops, swoops, yelps, and woofs.
Grady’s Corroded Communes explores the retuned piano based on a specific tuning developed by musician George Secor. It is noted by Grady as, “unlike other tunings he has used… it is in this case something quite conventional that he almost feels more than hears.” This is Grady’s first piece written for the piano in 35 years of composing.
Program Highlights
John Cage – Daughters of the Lonesome Isle, a prepared piano classic
Lois V. Vierk – To Stare Astonished at the Sea, for string piano
David Lang – Miracle Ear, for toy piano and metal pipes
Zach Watkins – We Want Production, for toy pianos
George Crumb – A Little Christmas Suite, a 20th century classic
Byron Au Yong – Flirt, for voice, toy pianos, and ping pong balls
Kraig Grady – Corroded Communes, for retuned piano
Piano Racket is made possible in part by an Artist Trust Grants for Artist Projects award and The Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs
Creative Team
Piano player and wannabe toy piano collector Tiffany Lin spent her younger years in Lodi, CA. Also known as tiflin, Miss Lin was schooled at the California Institute of the Arts by pianist Peter Miyamoto, violinist Leroy Jenkins and influenced by Wadada Leo Smith. Lin earned her Bachelors at the Cornish School in Seattle, WA where she studied with Laura Kaminsky and Oksana Ezhokina. Currently, a resident of Seattle, WA she boasts awards such as a fellowship from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, acceptance to the Institute and Festival of Contemporary Performance in NY, an Artist Trust GAP grant and a 4Culture Site Specific grant. Current projects include a recording project with percussionist/instrument maker Paul Kikuchi, a collaboration with composer Zachary Watkins involving surround sound piano and trying to spend less time on the computer.
Byron Au Yong composes songs of dislocation for Asian, European, and handmade instruments. His works have been featured in concert halls, museums, and site-specific locations that include the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, Tokyo Art Museum, and Seattle Aquarium. Au Yong is a recipient of numerous honors that include a Ford Foundation Fellowship, Creative Capital Award, and Meet the Composer Grant. He teaches in the dance department at Cornish College of the Arts and is the artistic director of Piao Zhu: Flying Bamboo.
Kraig Grady born in Montebello, CA. While still in his teens, he realized he had an overwhelming urge to be a composer. After studies with Nickolas Slonimsky, Dean Drumond, Dorrance Stalvey (all briefly) and Byong-Kon Kim (longer) he produced his earliest compositions. Since meeting Erv Wilson in 1975, he has composed and performed in alternative tunings of Wilson’s. In the 80’s Kraig Grady (along with Keith Barefoot) became one of the first to revive the combination of live music with silent film. Grady has presented his work at the Norton Simon Museum of Art and the UCLA Armand Hammer Museum among other places. He has been nominated 4 times for the L. A. WEEKLY Music Award best uncategorizable artist and was chosen by BUZZ Magazine as one of the 100 coolest persons in Los Angeles.
For information contact
Tiffany Lin
tiffany@tiflin.com
(206) 849-1345
# # #
CD Makes a Splash
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New audio recording features opera singers and water percussionists
(Seattle WA) One day, composer Byron Au Yong was overcome in the bottled water section of the supermarket. He heard voices from Poland Spring and Fiji cry out. Au Yong, a Seattle-based musician who composes songs of dislocation, realized that water was kidnapped and taken far from home. In response, he created 64 musical miniatures for voice and percussion to be performed in, about, and around water. While composing, Au Yong was inspired by listening to water and studying the I Ching (Book of Changes). He invited eight librettists from around the world to create contemporary responses to the I Ching, one of the oldest Chinese texts. Kidnapping Water: Bottled Operas travels through warnings, prayers, fantasies, and whispers in a thematic review for future generations about an element older than man. Human voices and splashing water cry out harder than the silent wisdom of hair turned white. The initiative was performed in 64 waterways throughout the Pacific Northwest in Summer 2008, as part of 4Culture’s Site-Specific Performance Network and the Bumbershoot Festival of the Arts. A Sound/Light Installation, created with media sculptor Randy Moss, was shown at the Jack Straw New Media Gallery in Fall 2008. The Kidnapping Water: Bottled Operas CD is available from CD Baby at http://cdbaby.com/cd/byronauyong Track List
Composer Byron Au Yong Singers Josie Davis, Emily Greenleaf, Jeremiah Oliver, David Stutz Percussionists Stuart McLeod, Dean Moore, Benjamin Morrow, James Whetzel Librettists Eugenie Chan, Bret Fetzer, Aaron Jafferis, Archana Kumar, Carola Luther, Caroline Murphy, Vivian Umino, and Edisa Weeks Audio Engineer Tom Stiles at Jack Designer Wing Fong # # # About Kidnapping Water: Bottled Operas Praise for Au Yong’s previous work
Kidnapping Water: Bottled Operas is thankful for support from Creative Capital’s Multi-Arts Production (MAP) Fund, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation; 4Culture’s King County Site-Specific Performance Network; Bumbershoot Festival of the Arts; and Jack Straw Productions. Contact Info
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Technorati Tags: music | CD | opera | water | percussion | Asian | Chinese American | composer | Au Yong | Kidnapping Water | CD Baby | musical | bottled operas | singing | Pacific Northwest | environment | water resources |
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Kidnapping Water: Bottled OperasFlirting with Toy Pianos and Ping Pong Balls
I’ve delivered a new work Flirt to pianist Tiffany Lin. The portable toy piano and ping pong ball interludes are to be performed in any order, throughout the program and venue.
The music takes an absurdest approach with:
- lip smacks
- whistle-tones
- popping baubles
- airplane swoops
- terrier yelps
- and an inverted C Major chord
Perhaps I’ve been spending too much time alone flirting with toy pianos and ping pong balls?
Tif premieres this work as part of Piano Racket! Also on the program are a guest appearance by The Toy Boat and a world premiere by Kraig Grady.
Friday, March 13, 2009, 8PM
Chapel Performance Space
Good Shepherd Center, 4th Fl
4649 Sunnyside Ave N
Seattle WA 98103 USA
Tickets $5-$15
Why Joshua Bell has guts and I don’t
Two years ago, violinist Joshua Bell performed as a street musician at the L’Enfant Plaza Subway Station in Washington D.C. Bell played Bach and Schubert on his Stradivarius violin for 43 minutes.
This was part of an experiment by Washington Post Magazine writer Gene Weingarten. The article called Pearls Before Breakfast, won Weingarten the Pulitzer Prize.
Bell’s busking performance stats:
- Over 1,000 people walked by Bell
- 27 people stopped to listen
- He made $32.17
- $20 of the total came from someone who recognized him
I think about this study as I practice er-hu (Chinese fiddle) for Stuck Elevator, an operatic solo performance about an undocumented Chinese immigrant.
Er-hu players busk in the New York subways and Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Their fiddles don’t even come close to the $2 million-plus that Bell’s Stradivarius violin costs. Nor does their playing command the usual $1,000/minute that Bell usually earns.
In the subway station, a soloist performs and I listen from afar awkward and embarrassed knowing I don’t have the guts to busk. If music is played in a subway station, are there enough ears to listen?
Science proves that I compose the most hated music
Composer and scientist Dave Soldier polled 500+ people to discover what elements people liked and hated in music. This was based on Komar and Melamid’s Most Wanted Paintings project.
Soldier discovered that people hated:
- opera
- rap
- children’s choirs
- bagpipes
- accordion
- banjo
- harp
- tuba
- flute
- holiday music
- store jingles
- cowboy songs
Soldier compiled these elements and more into the Most Unwanted Song. It is on the album the The People’s Choice: Music. The album also includes the Most Wanted Song – an R&B narrative about love.
I am partial to the Most Unwanted Song. How could anyone not like a rapping opera singer backed up by a children’s choir singing about Wal*Mart and Yom Kippur?
A 24-hour Blindfold Dance?
This New Year’s Eve, I help dancer Tonya Lockyer with the performance/protest/ritual freedom of information. Conceived and performed in New York by Miguel Gutierrez, the event responds to the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Afganistan with a 24-hour solo improvisation.
Tonya and other performers across the United States are blindfolded and ear-plugged in a contemplative act of solidarity with those who live with the repercussions of war. All performers must continually move in this sensory-deprived state for 24 hours.
Here’s a list of freedom of information 2008 states and performers:
Alabama – Rhea Speights
Alaska – Kyli Kleven
Arizona – Aileen Mapes
Arkansas – Malinda Allen
California – Jesse Hewit
Colorado – Lily Brown-Johnson
Connecticut – David Dorfman
Florida – Heather Maloney
Georgia – Diana Crum
Hawaii – Brianna Skellie
Illinois – Marissa Perel
Iowa – Amanda Hamp
Kentucky – Ben Asriel
Maryland – Sharon Mansur
Massachusetts – Jesse Zaritt
Michigan – Marlee Cook-Parrott
Minnesota – Morgan Thorson
Montana – Harmony Wolfe
New Hampshire – Gregory Holt
New Jersey – Joshua Bisset
New York – Miguel Gutierrez
North Carolina – Janice Lancaster
Ohio – Lena Lauer
Oregon – Tahni Holt
Pennsylvania – Jung-Eun Kim
Tennessee – Layard Thompson
Texas – Daniel Adame
Vermont – Selene Colburn
Virginia – Zap McConnell
Washington – Tonya Lockyer
Washington, D.C. – Maida Withers
West Virginia – Katherine Ferrier
The performance in Washington State happens at the TK Artist Lofts located at 115 Prefontaine Place in Pioneer Square, Seattle. I will be there to make sure Tonya is safe between 7 to 8pm. Come check it out, or view the live video feeds of performances across the country.
Santa Baby eulogy…
Eartha Kitt passed away today at age 81. She performed Santa Baby and other cabaret hits. I want to be like her performing with vigor and suave into my 80s.
I’ve known about Kitt for awhile and started to appreciate her when I accompanied Arnaldo. She has inspired so many different types of performers from a drag chanteuse to a composer.
Here’s her New York Times obituary. May she live on in songs.
Pinteresque eulogy
Harold Pinter passed away today at age 78. I directed a short Pinter play in high school. His terse text and pauses influence how I think of language and silence. His work also taught me how what characters feel and think are often at odds with what they say.
Read more about Pinter in the New York Times obituary.
Seattle Snow
Kick-ass performance artist Kristina Wong was in town for the National Performing Network Annual Meeting last weekend. She gave me a hand-made felt cat.
Here is b-cat with friendly puppy looking at my truck Mighty Max. They bond over their first snow together.
Being inside with snow outside is perfect for composing music. Snow quiets the outdoors. Footsteps crunch. Laughter amplifies.
With these sounds, I start writing a new set of interludes for multiple toy pianos and ping pong balls that wild musician/designer Tif Lin will premiere in March 2009.
Thanks to David Miller for his awesome photos. They make this snowy Kodak moment between b-cat and puppy truly romantic.
Are you having romance in the snow?
30 Days to Better Shime
Kris Bergstrom of On Ensemble has released version two of 30 Days to Better Shime. I highly recommend this self-training program for any stick drummer, especially taiko and Chinese drummers.
Amazingly, On Ensemble offers the workbook and audio files for free on their website. You can also order the comprehensive guide and CD for $30. That’s only $1/day to become the best small-drum player in the world.
