Reflections

on

[I originally wrote this as a Facebook post yesterday.] Come to think of it, women educators have been very influential in my musical journey! Despite having completely different aesthetics from mine, composer Linda Catlin Smith provided provoking perspectives when I worked under her for the PIVOT Mentorship Program during 2017. As a result, I now consider Pangkur [...]

on

In collaboration with the Canadian Music Centre, clarinettist Martin Carpentier and accordionist Joseph Petric commissioned me to write a new 6-minute work—I named the piece Kinamulátan—for bass clarinet and accordion. I've never composed for accordion before, and so Joseph handed me some introductory material he wrote himself. Surpassing the initial confusion over the keyboard layouts (including [...]

on

I admit that being a composer is not enough for me. Sure, exploring sounds and making "cool" stuff is trendy nowadays. However, I'm not primarily interested in going with that flow. I also think of "cool" as problematic many times, with all its baggages of class privilege, positionality, hegemony, even capitalist machinations...in short, things that [...]

on

The 3rd Golden Balangay Awards begins hours away as I write this post. Filipino-Canadians have established this award to recognize excellence and impact among the work of individual Filipinos throughout Canada. I've been shortlisted among other nominees for the Excellence Award in Music and Entertainment, and I traveled by train (encompassing 35 hours and thousands [...]

on

Four weeks passed by in a blur of sweeping events and idyllic moments. Even upon waking up today, my senses are still jeopardized with how disorienting home is just as quick as how bodies and mindsets acclimate to new, temporary environments. Starting an artist residency at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts at [...]

on

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 [...]

on

I resolved to ignore the calendar, To deny the passage of space-time, to disfigure Oneself from continuity, from plotted linear Means through point A and point B; shadows blur Pathways and mountain trails where herds of deer Once grazed to escape the wiles of winter As sunsets allowed the nights to draw in closer... “Sagittarian [...]

on

Social lives are just a game of darts Compelling everyone to call the shots With such brutal force, you have to hit the spots And rely on luck while the hand throws the axe, While calculations work their magic when someone hacks Laptop computers with shiny Facebook accounts And keyboards saying things from no-one's mouths [...]

on

Dark highways sprawl over surfaces Like veins crawling under obscure spaces Where brown skin and flesh reveals The invisible threads of unyielding forces Talking about multitudes of ancestors, The collision of native lands and colonizers, The concrete slabs and irreversible scars Paid for by governments that vaguely promise Better lives among greener pastures As overseas [...]