April 2-5, 2025 | University of Alberta
Concerts
Thursday, April 3, 2025, 7:00pm
Sonic Intercultural Evolutions
Horowitz Theatre, University of Alberta
Program
水节奏 Water Rhythm (2022)
PAN Project Ensemble
saenghwang, gamin; guqin, electronics, Jeff Roberts; shakuhachi, Ned Rothenberg; janggu & jing, Woonjung Sim
In East Asian traditions (i.e. Chinese, Korean, Japanese), musical instrument mimicry of water is common. The Chinese guqin (7-stringed zither) uses a string-raking technique that imitates the sound of flowing water. The rhythmic patterns of the Korean barrel drum janggu are associated with water as well. Through my practice of soundscape composition, I developed a subtler sonic awareness of connections between instrumental sounds imitating water and actual water sounds in nature. For example, in listening to sounds of a rainy landscape, I noticed how the rhythms of louder rain drops standing out from the overall complex texture of rain created scattered, accented rhythms similar to the rhythms of Korean janggu in slower-tempo music. In the piece ‘Water Rhythm’ I attempt to synthesize these two worlds, merging the scattered, accented rhythms of Korean janggu and the flowing sounds of guqin with field recordings of rainy landscapes. Found objects create a meeting point between the instruments and field recordings and help to produce an integrated sound world of flowing and spontaneous rhythm, melodic gesture and texture.
True Love Peach Blossom (2025)
PAN Project Ensemble & CAMP Ensemble
piri, gamin; shakuhachi, Ned Rothenberg; janggu & jing, Woonjung Sim; Eunmi Ko, breath controlled piano; trumpet, Arda Cabaoglu
True Love Peach Blossom is a special composition celebrating the union and wedding of two exceptional musicians from the Contemporary Art Music Project: Finnish violinist Dr. Sini Vritanen and Turkish trumpet player Dr. Arda Cabaoglu. This piece is uniquely crafted for both the CAMP and PAN Project Ensemble, featuring an intercultural blend of instruments, including the Japanese shakuhachi, Korean piri and janggu, the Suzuki Andes 25F (a Japanese recorder-keyboard), and Western violin and trumpet. Inspired by this diverse instrumentation and the rich cultural backgrounds of the musicians, True Love Peach Blossom embraces the theme of love and marriage. The music incorporates elements from various wedding traditions, drawing from Japanese, Korean, Finnish, and Turkish ceremonial music and dances. Commissioned by the Contemporary Art Music Project, this piece was made possible with additional support from the Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government.
오시더라 Oshi Dhora (he came)
Pan Project Ensemble
PAN Project Ensemble
piri, gamin; guqin, Jeff Roberts; shakuhachi, Ned Rothenberg; janggu & jing, Woonjung Sim
Oshi Dhora is an intercultural musical meditation on the process of death, releasing worldly regrets, crossing into the spirit world and finding peace. The text, constructed by vocalist Saeyeon Jeong (with borrowings from Korean ritual and pansori texts), is rooted in Korean exorcism ritual that blends shaman Jindo Ssitgim and Buddhist Jesokcheon. The opening of the text calls on the spirit of the deceased (오시더라/He came) to relieve lingering regrets unresolved in the world, after which Namuyeo (Buddhist Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva) is evoked to facilitate the passage onto paradise and spiritual peace (배띄워라 배띄워라 극락가자 배놓아라/Let’s float our boats, let's go to paradise). This music ebbs, flows and mixes between music traditions: sections of driving trance-like rhythms from Korean shaman ritual music trade off with the slow, meditative phrasing of Chinese guqin music, all infused with chromaticism and abstract sound texture from Western free improvisation.
Ripples in Spacetime
CAMP Ensemble & guest artists
clarinet, Robert Spady; violin, Sini Virtanen;
cello, Joshua Ching; piano, Eunmi Ko
Ripples in Spacetime is dedicated to an outstanding Chinese astronomer Nan Rendong, the founder and the chief scientist of Chinese FAST project, to express sincere respect for his pioneering work. The inspiration and core sonic gesture of this work came from three fragments of pulsar’s signals in deep space which was discovered by the “Chinese Five Hundred Meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope” (FAST) in 2017. The dominant pitches of this work originate from the initial letters of FAST. Moreover, this work incorporates some strong traditional Chinese music elements throughout this piece, and integrates it into Western instruments to synthesize a unique sound world.
- Intermission -
Gaen, Ji Gaeng
Na Seong Choi
PAN Project Ensemble
Kkwaenggari, Woonjung Sum
The performer holds the Kkwaenggari-Gong over and under and strikes it using mallets and bare hands. The Kkwaenggwari-Gong has transitioned from being a mere object for play to a component integrated within the playing subject.
Gaen, Ji gaeng
Gaen, Ji gaeng
The monologue of Kkwaenggari-Gong continues with various nuances.
His increasingly lengthy monologue evokes the repetitive recitation of lyrics by a Mudang (shaman) in 굿Gut(ritual ceremony).
The Ice is Talking
CAMP Ensemble
bass drum & electronics, Kevin von Kampen
I grew up in Edmonton, and every year my family would vacation in the Canadian Rockies. I would greatly look forward to seeing the mountains, the majesty of the giant silhouettes, the clean, crisp air, and the proximity to nature and wildlife. I was invited back to the Banff Centre last year and decided to visit the Columbia Icefields as a bit of nostalgia for my childhood. That trip pained me deeply when I saw how much the glaciers had receded since the last time I was there, about 20 years ago. “The Ice Is Talking” is a work that is an emotional reaction to that experience. Scored for a solo percussionist and electronics, it features the percussionist as the protagonist “playing” on a block of ice. At the start, it is a celebration of the elements, taking in the beauty of a blade gliding through ice, the taps and swishes of ice being shaped into virtuosic rhythmic patterns that speak through interjections by the performer. As the piece progresses, the piece becomes more and more violent, and the instruments reflect the rage and intensity of the protagonist, with a power drill, ice picks and stabbing motions reflecting the realization of human’s ill effects on the natural landscape. It ends with dramatic flair in the hope of raising awareness to the world around us.
New Deung Deungguk
PAN Project Ensemble & CAMP Ensemble
piri, gamin; janggu & jing, Woonjung Sim; piano, Eunmi Ko
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Gathered together: solo piri. Gong from afar spreads. The haunted people gather and a party begins. 모여들다: 적막이 감도는 피리 독주. 징의 소리는 서서히 더 먼 곳까지 퍼진다. 무언가에 홀린 듯 하나 둘 모여들기 시작하고, 한 무리의 난장이 시작된다.
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Excited and confused: dancing, hoping, screaming, crouching… partying to death 신에 겨워 어쩔 줄을 모르고: 모여든 사람들은 각기 다른 모습으로 춤을 추고 펼쩍펄쩍 뛰어다닌다. 갑자기 움츠러들기도 하고 갑자기 소리를 지르는 등 마구 법석을 떨며 신명 나게 판을 벌인다.
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Without dying: getting tired, emptiness/depression takes over. People stop talking to each other. Babbling fills the space. 죽지도 못하고는: 사람들은 지쳐 주저않았고, 풀리지 못한 허망함이 사함들이 덮친다. 다들 혼잣말에 잠기고, 엉켜버린 수많은 독백이 공간을 채운다.
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A man is not a man: Dance to exhaustion though no energy left. Everyone dances till passing out. 사람이 사람이 아니라네: 그 누구에게도 남아있는 힘은 없다. 하지만 사람들은 무언가 홀린 듯 마지막 춤을 춘다. 누구 하나 남김없이 마지막 남은 모든 열기를 토해내다 이내 쓰러지고 만다.
It is said that in the year of the Japanese Invasion of Korea in 1592, people sang “Deungdeunggok,” and walked around pretending to be goblins and shamans, laughing and crying. Even now, about 500 years later, many people struggle to live while feeling helpless in many problems that cannot be changed by individual power alone. As a young man living in this chaotic world, I dedicate a “new Deungdeunggok”. Gathered together - Excited and confused - Without dying - A man is not a man.
सीमातीतप्रवाह sīmātītapravāhaḥ (Borderless Flows)
Pan Project Ensemble
PAN Project Ensemble
piri, gamin; janggu/jing, Woonjung Sim; guqin Jeff Roberts; Shakuhachi, Ned Rothenberg; sarangi, Deepak Paramashivan; qanun, Afarin Nazarijou
At one point in Tang Dynasty China during the Silk Road era, Indian and Persian Musicians were living in the Chinese Tang Capital Chang-an (modern day Xi’an) and performing a court music called Banquet music (yanyue) alongside Chinese musicians. In fact, one Persian instrument, the barbat, assimilated into Chinese culture to become what is known today as the quintessential Chinese instrument Pipa. Such is the great historical interculturalism buried deep in the roots of music cultures on the Asian continent that today are often overlooked or forgotten. But those intercultural connections are right there on the listening surface of the music. In this improvisation, Borderless Flows, it seems the instruments that have the closest connection are the Indian Sarangi and the Persian Qanun as adjacent India and Persia have a long history of intercultural exchange, including scales, melodies and music forms related to Hindu and Islamic traditions. However the Chinese guqin’s language of bending notes (huayin) matches quite naturally with bending note languages.
Friday, April 4, 2025, 7:00pm
Intercultural Experimental
1-23 Fine Arts Building, University of Alberta
Improvisation
CAMP Ensemble
trumpet, Arda Cabaoglu
CAMP Ensemble
Reflections
piano, Eunmi Ko
Reflections is a piano suite with three movements dedicated to pianist Eunmi Ko and the "Muted" project. It explores the intricate relationship between Asian females and the Western world, touching on stereotypes, cultural differences in politeness, self-awareness of societal unfairness, and the challenges faced by individual Asian women when asserting their voices in the face of impolite or unjust treatment.
1. Dragon Lotus
Asian female characters in American media and pop culture frequently face racist stereotypes, typically fitting into the lotus blossom or dragon lady archetypes. These stereotypes often manifest in real life, where Asian women are perceived as submissive and voiceless like the lotus blossom, or as powerful, exotic, cunning, and sexual like the dragon lady. Yet, simplistic labels cannot capture the profound complexity, diversity, and beauty of these souls. Just like women of other ethnicities, they may be dragons, they may be lotus blossoms, or neither, or both.
2. Ni Hao
Asian women often find themselves greeted with "Ni Hao" (“Hello” in Chinese Mandarin) by strangers upon their initial encounters. While some may interpret this gesture as a display of kindness, many others consider it offensive. It can be seen as impolite and ignorant, as it assumes that all Asians speak Mandarin. In many Asian countries, knocking on a bowl is considered a cultural taboo. What if knocking on a bowl during a concert, even with a piano accompaniment? Is it still inappropriate? This movement explores the line between politeness and impoliteness in encounters with cultural differences.
3. My Dear Absent Voice
Sometimes, I find it challenging to make my voice heard in the face of injustice. This difficulty can be attributed to various factors, including my conservative cultural background, strict family upbringing, or societal neglect within Western contexts. It may take the form of active suppression, passive dismissal, or a combination of both, making it a complex topic. The purpose of this movement is to portray the obstruction and stifling of self-expression as an Asian woman in the Western society.
The text in this movement:
Frequencies oscillate in unseen waves,
Interpret the whispers of absence.
Oh here comes the Queen!
Queen of silence, your muted throne echoes my heartbeat. Quiet, you are speaking the language of the unheard,
unspoken, unseen, unclaimed, unfamiliar, unexplored, unnoticed! A coda of “lalala,” a silent plea,
accompanied by the absence of voice.
The voice of a pianist,
The voice of a composer,
The voice of a woman, who happens to be an Asian Can be heard?
憶故人, Improvisation on 'Thinking of An Old Friend'
PAN Project Ensemble
guqin, Jeff Roberts; shakuhachi, Ned Rothenberg
The basis for this guqin & shakuhachi improvisation is the well known Chinese guqin piece 憶故人 (Yìgùrén), ‘Thinking of an Old Friend’. The origins of this piece date back to the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and the guqin handbook 神奇秘譜 (Shénqímìpǔ). Yìgùrén is an often played piece because it represents an essential function of the guqin tradition: self-cultivation and self-expression. Over the course of a continuous 3,000 year history of practice, the elite Chinese scholars, who were the players of guqin, developed self-cultivation practices on guqin related to Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism. In the Daoist context, guqin players would cultivate what the Daoist philosopher Zhuang Zhao referred to as 真人(zhēnrén), or ‘Real Self’. Through trusting the naturalness and spontaneity of one’s own intuitions (直, zhí), the real self would emerge as a unique personal style of playing on guqin. Such expression of inner depth on guqin was usually reserved for the playing of guqin alone, playing for a friend or for a small circle of friends. The title “Thinking of an Old Friend’ reflects this self-expressive context and has been a sentiment present in the guqin tradition for thousands of years. This is evidenced in the ancient story of the guqin scholar who, when hearing of his close friend’s death, broke his guqin over his knee, stating that he could no longer play guqin because the only person who understood him and his guqin playing was no longer alive.
CAMP Ensemble
And the Glaciers Echoed
Bass Drum & Electronics, Kevin von Kampen
And the glaciers echoed is inspired by Katie Paterson’s installation entitled Vatnajokull (the sound of). She used a waterproof microphone that transmitted live sound from the Jökulsárlón lagoon in Iceland, which is the largest glacier in Europe. She made a link to encourage people to connect emotionally with melting glaciers. Climate change is having a dramatically damaging effect on glaciers, and the call made a connection to see it happening. Unfortunately, this call doesn't exist anymore due to the melted glaciers. This installation touched me a lot and interested me in researching how melting glaciers are happening tremendously around the world. I can’t even imagine how bad the following national disasters will be after melting glaciers. “In 2016, a four-thousand-foot previously frozen mountain slope in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve collapsed, unleashing a flood of rock and mud over nearly nine square miles of glaciers. The release was so massive it was equivalent to a magnitude 5.2 earthquake…” I felt astonished and suffocated by the information about glaciers. Thus, I want to mark the processing of melting glaciers by music. During my music, you could hear the scattered dripping sound, the cracking sound, the “echo” sound of glaciers (you could also see it as whale’s sound), the calving sound of glaciers, and the collapse sound, etc.
Borderless Flows
Pan Project Ensemble
PAN Project Ensemble
piri, gamin; guqin Jeff Roberts; Shakuhachi, Ned Rothenberg; sarangi, Deepak Paramashivan; qanun, Afarin Nazarijou
At one point in Tang Dynasty China during the Silk Road era, Indian and Persian Musicians were living in the Chinese Tang Capital Chang-an (modern day Xi’an) and performing a court music called Banquet music (yanyue) alongside Chinese musicians. In fact, one Persian instrument, the barbat, assimilated into Chinese culture to become what is known today as the quintessential Chinese instrument Pipa. Such is the great historical interculturalism buried deep in the roots of music cultures on the Asian continent that today are often overlooked or forgotten. But those intercultural connections are right there on the listening surface of the music. In this improvisation, Borderless Flows, it seems the instruments that have the closest connection are the Indian Sarangi and the Persian Qanun as adjacent India and Persia have a long history of intercultural exchange, including scales, melodies and music forms related to Hindu and Islamic traditions. However the Chinese guqin’s language of bending notes (huayin) matches quite naturally with bending note languages.
Mixed Ensemble Improvisation
PAN Project Ensemble & CAMP Ensemble
piri & saenghwang, gamin; janggu/jing, Woonjung Sim; guqin Jeff Roberts; shakuhachi, Ned Rothenberg; sarangi Deepak Paramashivan; qanun, Afarin Nazarijou; piano, Eunmi Ko; found object percussion, Kevin von Kampen.