Program for Ting Luo – Cosmic Cliffs – May 19, 2023
Friday, May 19, 2023 at 8 pm
download a copy of this program here.
Cosmic Cliffs
Ting Luo, piano
multimedia piano concert presented by New Arts Collaboration x Emerging Composers
Program
Aries Mond
Sustain (2022)
World Premiere
Cole Reyes
Hold Close and Let Go (2022)
World Premiere
Juhi Bansal
Through Cracked Mirrors (2018)
Sarah Wald
Rhapsody on “Rahel Lastimoza” (2023)
World Premiere
Dylan Findley
Cosmic Cliffs (2023)
World Premiere
Emily Koh
reperiō (2022)
West Coast Premiere
Touch (2017)
Improvisation with SuperCollider
audio programming by Joo Won Park
Xuesi Xu
Meteor Shuttle (2023)
World Premiere
About the music
Aries Mond Sustain
Aries Mond (Boris Billier) starts to work in the field of sound arts in 2002. He starts to focus on instrumental music since 2012, using Aries Mond moniker, his music is published by eilean rec and iikki. He is also involved in many collaborations with contemporary theatre and dance. www.ariesmond.com
Cole Reyes Hold Close and Let Go
This piece was inspired by the poem In Blackwater Woods by Mary Oliver. In the wake of my aunt’s sudden passing in March of this year, I found myself grappling with how to heal. I turned to long walks around my apartment in Brooklyn to allow myself the time to process and heal. Despite the solemnity of these ventures, the relentless noise of the city crept in as an unsettling reminder that life goes on.
Cole Reyes (b. 1998) is a Brooklyn-based composer, educator, conductor, and performer originally from the Chicagoland Area. His music explores the intersection between personal experience and the world beyond through the exploration of timbre and pulse. He serves as artistic director of Telos Consort, a professional chamber ensemble based in New York City. He will begin doctoral studies at the University of Michigan in the fall of 2023. colereyesmusic.com
Juhi Bansal Through Cracked Mirrors
Through Cracked Mirrors was written in response to the Dream Images (Love-Death Music) (Gemini) movement of George Crumb’s Makrokosmos 1, which features prominent quotations from Chopin’s Fantaisie Impromptu. I have always loved the Chopin but was particularly intrigued by how different the quoted passages sound in a context built of Crumb’s language—the esoteric, fragmentary, dissonant nature of the surrounding music changes completely how we perceive the fragments from Chopin.
Juhi Bansal’s music draws upon elements as disparate as Hindustani music, the spectralists, progressive metal, musical theatre, and choral traditions to create deeply expressive, evocative sound-worlds. As an Indian composer brought up in Hong Kong, her work draws subtly upon both those traditions, entwining them closely and intricately with the gestures of western classical music. juhibansal.com
Sarah Wald Rhapsody on “Rahel Lastimoza”
This piece is based on the Moroccan Sephardic ballad Rahel Lastimoza. The ballad tells the story of a governor’s wife, and it became popular at weddings and pilgrimages. It contains deeply rooted cultural messages about marriage and women’s fidelity in traditional Moroccan Sephardic communities. The piano part represents a young Sephardic bride who struggles between her connection to her community and her sense of rebelliousness.
Sarah Wald is a Lecturer in Music at the Sacramento State School of Music. She holds degrees from Columbia University (BA in music), the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (MM in composition), and the University of California, Davis (PhD in composition and theory). Sarah’s music has been featured at festivals in the US and Europe and on WFMT’s Relevant Tones. www.sarah-wald-composer.com
Dylan Findley Cosmic Cliffs
NASA’s James Webb Telescope images are a glimpse into awe-inspiring scenes impossible to see with the natural eye. Cosmic Cliffs finds inspiration in and uses imagery from the Webb Telescope image of that name. Both the audio and video interact with the performer during the performance through cell phone accelerometer and gyroscope data.
Dylan Findley’s music explores and expresses intangible truths through the convergence of heart, mind, spirit, and body without disregarding the power of irony and dry wit. His career has led him to commissioned collaborative projects premiered on three continents by top new music performers. As clarinetist, he has performed and improvised music across the US and in Medellín, Colombia. He currently teaches as Visiting Assistant Professor at the College of Wooster. www.dylanfindley.com
Emily Koh reperiō
reperiō is a musical exploration of the ideas of discovery and invention. The work explores the piano’s many modes of resonance, from sharp attacks on the keyboard to more percussive effects that result from the muting of strings inside the instrument. The concept behind reperiō was to use the music as a vehicle to express what I have observed to be the silencing of Asian and Asian-American women in America. The very loud, piercing sounds in the piano’s highest register evoke muted screaming, present but unheard.
Emily Koh (b. 1986) is a Singaporean composer based in Atlanta, whose music is characterized by inventive explorations of the smallest details of sound. In addition to writing acoustic and electronic concert music, she enjoys collaborating with other creatives in projects where sound plays an important role in the creative process. Emily is currently Associate Professor of Composition at the University of Georgia’s Hugh Hodgson School of Music. emilykoh.net
Touch (improvisation)
In Touch, sounds of various ways of touching is amplified and enhanced with a custom music program.
Dr. Joo Won Park is an Associate Professor of Music Technology at the Wayne State University. Dr. Park’s music and writings are available on MIT Press, Parma Recordings, ICMC, Spectrum Press, Visceral Media, SEAMUS, and No Remixes labels. He received Knight Arts Challenge Detroit (2019) and Kresge Arts Fellowship (2020). www.joowonpark.net
Xuesi Xu Meteor Shuttle
Meteor Shuttle is a dynamic piano composition dedicated to Ryuichi Sakamoto that takes the listener on a high-energy journey through the bustling streets of New York City. Inspired by the composer’s experience navigating the busy city, the piece incorporates elements of electronic dance music to create a unique and modern sound. The piece captures the essence of this experience, offering listeners a glimpse into the excitement and chaos of city living.
Xuesi Xu is a composer holding composition degrees from Florida State University (D.M.), the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (M.M.), and Shanghai Conservatory of Music (B.M.). Xu’s music is unique in that it challenges the traditional exotic stereotypes associated with Eastern music. Instead, he seamlessly blends Eastern and Western musical elements to create a truly innovative and captivating sound. xuxuesi.com
About the musician
Ting Luo, pianist and director of New Arts Collaboration, is based in Bay Area. She has performed and lectured in prestigious venues in China and U.S., advocating contemporary music. Ting Luo has curated a multimedia music and art project NAC since 2020. She actively collaborates with artists from multiple disciplines including visual artists, composers, and sound artists. Works by NAC have been featured in The San Luis Obispo Museum of Art’s Digital Shorts Film Festival, Fresh Inc Festival, and New Music Gathering Conference/Festival.
New Arts Collaboration is an interdisciplinary art project for sound and multimedia. NAC was curated by pianist Ting Luo in 2020. NAC connects with artists from multi-disciplined fields, forming a strong bond for artists to collaborate with each other, including living composers, sound artists, visual artists and so on. In our vision, sound as a human expression could be formed and interacted freely and experimentally with other mediums including electronics, tape, visuals, music, etc. *New Arts Collaboration is a fiscally-sponsored affiliate of InterMusic SF, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to small ensemble music in the San Francisco Bay Area.
NAC Fundraiser for supporting living composers and interdisciplinary art:
https://newartscollaboration.org/fundraiser
More info: https://newartscollaboration.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewArtsCollaboration/