Typing at 1:50am felt like a chore, and I could have been enjoying the comforts of my bed now after a day of teaching. However, there is this sense of urgency that demands attention to document everything that will happen for the next 4 months. It is worth noting as well that three big things are happening in Canada this June 2019: (1) the Filipino Heritage Month (legislated in Canada as recent as last year), (2) the Pride Month, and (3) the National Indigenous History Month. The year is just starting.

Some upcoming things worth talking about on my end:

(1) Soundstreams invited me to talk about my work (along with artistic director Lawrence Cherney) in Encounters in Exile on June 3rd, 7:30PM at the Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen Street West, Toronto). It will be an evening of performance and discussion that aims to explore the themes of art and exile, leading to their upcoming co-production of “Hell’s Fury: The Hollywood Songbook” featuring composer Hanns Eisler’s life and work. I will mostly spill thoughts revolving around my ongoing article/podcast series Nomadic Sound Worlds and my current Studies on (in?) Exile, the latest (4th) which was commissioned by dancer/choreographer Sarah Maria Samaniego and will be presented as a 10-minute excerpt in this event. The whole event is free, so come register/join us if you’re in town! (Let this be a place where we attempt to celebrate the intersections of these three June commemorations under the sober notions of displacement and fragmentation).

 

(2) Thanks to violinist Jonathan Tang (who I met at the Nief-Norf Summer Festival last year), the quartet version of my work Pangkur is programmed for a concert that brings everyone back to their roots (specifically Asian roots) while advocating and pushing for reforms on international borders. Hosted by Non de Gen, the event is slated on June 9th at an undisclosed location in downtown Los Angeles (and basically you have to sign up to attend before receiving location info). All proceeds go to the ACLU, so show up and give some support if you’re in the area…you can see below how I wish I could travel all the way there! Check the Facebook event for upcoming ticketing info.

 

(3) Continuing the development of A Study in Exile (No. 3): Home is not a place on a map…, Rebecca Devi Leonard, Amy Hull, the Thin Edge New Music Collective and I will present the work in a showcase event at the Ontario Contemporary Circus Sessions on June 30th, 3:00 PM at the Toronto Centre for the Arts (5040 Yonge Street, Toronto). With challenging constraints regarding time schedules and performance space in place (including the fact that I myself will perform with the ensemble), it will be intriguing how this will all turn out as we look forward to its final iteration at “Balancing on the Edge” in 2021.

 

(4) The Art Song Collaborative Project (Toronto) is set to premiere my new work Time moves, straightforward… (for tenor, violin, percussion and live electronics) for their upcoming production Cries of the Earth on July 26th-28th at various performance venues in Toronto, including the Array Space (155 Walnut Avenue, Toronto). While I call it as an “art song,” the label doesn’t really describe the improvisatory/aleatoric nature of the work. As becoming more significant recently in my compositional praxis, creating mind maps had helped facilitate the flow of ideas even before writing down the first notes of the work. More details of the premiere to follow!

 

(5) My residency at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts (Nebraska) is official! My profile’s now up on their website, which can be found here! To reiterate, this residency will focus on two things: (1) the creation of a commissioned clarinet-accordion work for Martin Carpentier (clarinet) and Joseph Petric (accordion), in co-presentation with the Canadian Music Centre; and (2) continuing development of A Study on Exile, No. 5 (previously No. 4) which constitutes a one-hour radio theatre work involving live music, poetry, and live audio processing that telling stories of displacement, liminality, and negotiation.

 

(6) Back to back with my September paper presentation at the Transnationalism in Canadian Music conference at the University of Ottawa (check previous post), another paper presentation is also set for the Canadian Council for Southeast Asian Studies 2019 Conference on October 24th-26th at McGill University. My upcoming paper “Concentric Circular Spaces: Xenakis and Maceda on Diffusing, Translating, and Decentralizing Musical Thought in Southeast Asia” will be part of a whole discussion on exploring power relations within Southeast Asia. More details will follow!