I got obsessed with Mark Applebaum’s Aphasia (2009) in the past two months. I perform my own music and often improvise, so studying and learning another composer’s piece with a score was challenging. But Applebaum is one of my electroacoustic heroes, and I have wanted to try Aphasia for a decade. After about two months of practice, I think I learned enough to enjoy performing it. Thank you for watching!
Tag Archives: performances
Feb-March Tour
I performed in 5 cities from Feb 25 to Mar 13.
2.25.15 Lyn Goeringer and I performed a duo improvisation at the Oberlin Faculty Concert. It was broadcasted online.
2.27.15 I did a joint concert with Matthew McCabe at the Columbus State University, GA
3.6.15 I was the keynote speaker at N_SEME2015. I performed my solo set and take about my experience as a solo electroacoustic musician.
3.9.15 I performed Toccata for Found Object and Computer at the University of Nebraska at Kearney for is annual New Music Festival. One gas station in Kearney had an interesting offer.
3.12.15 & 3.13.15 My band I’m With Joo Won performed at Gus’ Cafe in Pittsburgh and Oberlin Playlets. The poster features my hand! More importantly, I shared a stage with improvisational punk band.
And yesterday, IWJW released the first album under Starry Night Records.
In sum, life is good.
New Solo Set
I am in the process of making a new solo set. My solo concert in the past two years involved a lot of found objects processed with computer.
Then, I fell in love with no-input mixer and analog synthesizer while I was doing the 100 Strange Sounds project. As I got more acquainted with analog instruments, it felt natural to try a performance involving more circuits and less objects.
The first attempt was done at the Asheville Electro-Music Festival in May 17. The “premiere” was exiting, but also revealed things to improve. Let me share what I observed and learned from the recording made by Project Ruori.
- The second half of the performance is better than the first half. Beside the sounds, compare my posture at 4:00 and 14:00. Fourteen minutes is a long time to get into the zone. I need more practice and confidence.
- I should use stage monitors in large rooms. For found object performances, I turned off the monitors for feedback issues. I realize that doing the same is not good for this kind of performance. The electronic instruments sounded too far and muffled.
- Ditch the speech intro. My intention was to gradually change my speech into music, but it did not work. I tried this in other occasions, but it did not work well, either. As my undergrad teacher advised to me, start the show with music.
- The cabbage intro needs more preparations. I was expecting this kind of visual and sound, but the vegetable did not crush well due to the poor choice of the cabbage and limited table space. Perhaps I should cut the cabbage a little bit prior to the performance?
- Electronics part could use a better dynamic change. Some transition to softer part sounded as mistakes. Perhaps this problem is related to my observation 1 and 2.
- According to the audiences I talked to, the offstage melodica ending worked well. I should try to end the set by eating the mutilated cabbage in smaller venues.
Please stay tuned for videos of my future performances. Feel free to comment/mail your suggestion to improve the sound and visuals. I expect to become comfortable with this set by the third or fourth show. I will prepare and practice, but some things are only learned from performing on stage.
