January 2020 News/Rambling: awards, rejection, and getting work out there

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2019 closed with some awesome things happening. I was awarded an ACF Create commission to write a piece for Boston-based duo Box Not Found, a 2020 National Arts Club Fellowship, and was invited to perform at Re:Sound in Cleveland and one of my dream venues, La MaMa. A lot can happen in two years...in 2017 I was hesitant to call myself a composer and got rejected from every residency I applied to. 

As artists, we all get rejected more often than not (I applied to ACF the year before, and I just got a rejection the day before yesterday), so it feels great to not get rejected. It’s also important to remember that these competitions do not valuate our work. I honestly see applications as cheap PR (especially compared to actual PR), a way to get work in front of as many people as possible.

Of course, all this supposed validation is followed by the immediate feeling that I’m a hack and got lucky somehow. Can’t stay in that mindset for too long though—I’ve got work to do!

Last weekend, I attended the Chamber Music America conference, a forum in which to get work in front of presenters and learn through panels and talks, as well as see showcases. CMA’s theme was “Music, Equity, and Our Future,” and it is clear that they have true conviction in this idea. Case in point: they are not afraid of tough conversations, as demonstrated in their panel “The Artist’s Perspective,” featuring Aaron Flagg, Tania León, Jerry Medina, and Tomeka Reid. I wrote more about it on an Instagram post:

 
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CMA day 2/#caturday: 1) met Hugh (up for adoption!) 2) Attended a panel on equity with Aaron Flagg, Tania León, Tomeka Reid, and Jerry Medina. . I asked a question (which I am paraphrasing here) about how we go beyond talking about issues of inclusivity and tokenism and effect change when PoC are lacking on the leadership/curatorial levels. Right now it’s about correction, and it is challenging to do anything differently or better when teams lack a variety of people and perspectives. I mentioned that I’m tired of talking, sometimes I think, I just want to BRING IT and REPRESENT rather than having this same conversation over and over again, with the same sentiments being echoed repeatedly. (Which is why I still haven’t written my article on PoC perspectives on diversity initiatives...) Aaron said, “If you’re tired, I’m exhausted!” But he mentioned how access to power is important and can be useful (as in, knowing people who have power and seeing if they can help), how he stuck around on certain boards, how the process was at times frustrating but had he left, things may not have improved the way they did. And afterwards he said, write the article! And so did someone else who had been sitting next to me. . Also got slightly admonished for using the term “PoC,” because one of the panelists felt that labels are the problem, that people see us that way because we see ourselves that way. I can understand why they’d say that; it’s partly a generational thing, it’s partly a “well, things worked out for me doing it this way” thing. And I never referred to myself in that way, not because I didn’t think I wasn’t, but because yeah, didn’t like labels, after all we’re all just “people.” I wish life was actually that simplistic. The nuanced racial dynamics I’ve experienced prove otherwise. Anyway I have more thoughts on that but will save them for a proper blog post (that I may never write) . Well crap I guess I just wrote an article on this POST . 3) Meowmy dis IS tiring I’m tired . #brevity #composer #pianist #questions #artist #nyc #newyorker #cat #tortitude

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And back again to the topic of getting work out there: I got to do a pitch session since someone didn’t show up, where artists practice pitching and then presenters give feedback. It was very helpful, and 2/3 presenters were friendly except for the last one, who had an all-too-familiar look on her face of being pissed at me for existing. She softened towards the end after I explained the collaborative fashion concept behind my ensemble, The Nouveau Classical Project.

I’m generally not great at pitching and I find it challenging to balance making the work and putting the work out there, or to put it crudely, selling the work. I’ve been able to get opportunities organically by talking to people in random social settings, or making in-person connections by seeing a show at a venue or meeting people at events.

Anyway! That’s been my January so far. Feel free to share any thoughts or ask questions in the comments.



Auto-bio, or how I got over my fear of composing

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Watercoloring, my new hobby

Watercoloring, my new hobby

 

During school, I was focused on building classical repertoire. I started The Nouveau Classical Project around the same time I began my master’s program with $175 and luckily, musicians who were willing to volunteer to play for free for our very first benefit. The economy was ROUGH!

NCP started off very classical it has changed with me. After finishing my master’s, I became more interested in new music. I had also wanted compose but stopped whenever I tried to start: I respected composers and their craft so much that I thought I had no right to do it. Along with that, I was worried that I would not be good or successful at it since I did not start at four, like I did with piano. So I immediately walked away from the idea. 

As NCP grew, we commissioned composers and I, along with some members of my ensemble, would think of collaborative possibilities. This was the extent of my making activities. In retrospect, I wanted to be actually making things and not just assembling pieces, and that frustration would come out in weird ways.*

After primarily pursuing a career in performance and being solely a pianist for several years, I felt not just a desire, but a burning need to express and share my experiences and perspectives as a Filipinx American woman. It crossed my mind that I would have started doing this sooner if I saw more Filipinxes doing this.** Part of my motivation was just showing up, being a representative or an example for my people, but maybe that rationale was also a way to make it less personal and therefore less terrifying.*** I hit a turning point, where I decided I would make an attempt at this strong but long-feared desire to compose music.

A couple of things happened one year that pushed this decision. I was a Fellow in the Target Margin Institute for Collaborative Theater Making, which was not about theater, but about questioning one’s practice. This fellowship was a year long, and at some point during that year, two friends from high school around my age passed away. They were too young to die, and I realized that life is simply too short to not try to do something you want to do, regardless of whether or not you achieve conventional success. One other thing happened that I would rather not detail here. But just mentioning it so you know there was one other thing.

For the fellowship, I was meant to explore how to play the piano in unconventional ways, but as the fellowship went on, the TMT mentors (David Herskovits and Moe Yousuf) noticed that I often kept talking about how I wished I could compose. So they made my final investigation about finding ways to compose rather than about making a “good” composition, which further encouraged me to give myself permission to just try. Moe even said that my investigation should be trying to make a “bad” piece of music. It was hard to break out of my shell, so a lot of my practice has had to do with dismantling the perfectionist mentality.

I have always been a late bloomer so I suppose starting late makes sense. It is still often scary, and it is not easy, but I love what I do and I am grateful to be able to do it!

*This can be a whole other essay.
** Yes, there are many Asians, but we all are so different, so no, when I see another Asian I do not necessarily see someone who represents me.
***I wonder if this is part of the thought behind the zeitgiest of identity-focused art? By making it about ourselves but related to a broader identity it’s theoretically bigger than ourselves and feels altruistic? Anyway check out my piece Islander, which explores the residue colonialism has left behind and the resulting fragmentation of identity! :-D