Âu Cơ_score for variable instrumentation

"Âu Cơ" was one of the first pieces that I wrote after "returning" to composition and rediscovering my love for improvisation after being in the classical music scene and pedagogy throughout my undergraduate and graduate programs. 

The concept behind it was to tap into a primordial sense of music making and invent a musical language between the performers. It has been performed by a few groups now and each time of course completely different depending on the mindset of the performers and their approach to the piece. INTERWOVEN's performance of the piece is immaculate and their chemistry is palpable. 

The idea of "releasing" a piece implies that it has been "compressed" to a certain point and brought to a point of finality upon which it can rendered for subsequent performances. Âu Cơ, named after the matriarchal legend from Vietnamese lore, the origin of Vietnamese people, in a way, is an attempt to counter the compress/release mentality of music production and composition. Rather than writing a piece that could be rendered ad infinitum in more or less the same way every time, I wanted to create a piece that could never be captured exactly the same again--music that cannot be compressed and released for later consumption and only experienced fully in real time. 

Performances: 

June 2021 

Mazz Swift | Violin/Voice, Nuiko Wadden | Harp, Matthew Gold | C4, F4, and Bb4 Pitched gongs, Tam-tam, Vibraphone, and two octaves of crotales, and D.J. Sparr | Electric Guitar _ Performed at the Walden School Creative Musicians Retreat in Dublin, New Hampshire. 

October 15th, 2021

Tiffany Ta | Piano, Frank Nawrot | Electric Guitar, Luke Helker | Percussion, James Alexander | Cello _ performed at the inaugural KU Asian Classical Music Initiative in Swarthout Recital Hall, Lawrence, Kansas. 

June 2022 

New Music on the Point_unrecorded_performed at the talent show in Lake Dunmore, Vermont. 

Saturday, March 2nd, 2023 | 8:00 pm Edward M. Pickman Hall

performed by INTERWOVEN https://www.interwovenmusic.org/: 

Yoko Reikano Kimura_shamisen | koto | voice

Andy Lin_erhu | viola 

Hikaru Timaki_cello

Keiko Tokunaga_violin

performed at the Longy School of Music of Bard College as part of the 2023 "New Music Marathon: Weaving the Sounds Together."