Antonym @ APAP: Pentacle Tour Ready Lab
Jan
11

Antonym @ APAP: Pentacle Tour Ready Lab

sugar vendil/isogram’s showcase will take place in-person on Saturday, January 11 from 1:45pm-2:05pm at New York City Center Studios (Studio 5).

Antonym: the opposite of nostalgia is a memoir of a Filipinx American childhood that interweaves chamber music, dance, and nonlinear theater, excavating insignificant but deeply ingrained memories. Using field recordings of NYC, the four seasons serve as a cyclical frame and context for memory.

We are thrilled to have Mei Ann Tea joining our team as Director!

Artistic Director Bio
Sugar Vendil is an award-winning composer, choreographer, and interdisciplinary artist based in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn). A second generation Filipinx American, her work encompasses sound, movement, graphic scores, and electronics. She is a CUNY Dance Initiative Artist in Residence with York College/JCAL. In 2026, she will premiere her interdisciplinary performance Antonym: the opposite of nostalgia with her ensemble, isogram (Cindy Lan, Marie Lloyd Paspe, Annie Nikunen, and Annie Wang).

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Antonym: the opposite of nostalgia showing at Living Arts Tulsa
Oct
11

Antonym: the opposite of nostalgia showing at Living Arts Tulsa

sugar vendil/isogram will be in Tulsa to share “Antonym: the opposite of nostalgia.” Composed and choreographed by Sugar Vendil. Contributing choreography by Cindy Lan, Marie Lloyd Paspe, Annie Nikunen, and Annie Wang.

Antonym: the opposite of nostalgia is a memoir of a Filipinx American childhood that interweaves music and movement, taking an imaginative approach to interdisciplinary performance and music composition. It investigates the subtle yet profound experiences that shape identity.

By excavating seemingly insignificant but deeply ingrained memories, Antonym envisions the future as an escape from pain and ponders how we can possess painful memories without being beholden to them. Using field recordings of New York City to create a rich sonic landscape, the four seasons serve as a cyclical frame and context for memory.

"Antonym" invites audiences to reflect on their own relationships with memory, identity, and imagining their own futures. Awarded 2021 MAP Fund, 2022 New Music USA Project Grant, 2022 NPN Creation and Development Grant with co-commissioners Living Arts Tulsa, High Concept Labs, and National Sawdust, and 2024 NEFA NTP Creation & Touring Grant Finalist.

sugar vendil/isogram:
Cindy Lan, performer, violinist
Annie Nikunen, performer, flutist
Marie Lloyd Paspe, dancer, vocalist
Annie Wang, dancer, vocalist
Sugar Vendil, composer, choreographer, performer, pianist

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Jun
2
to Jun 5

Emily Johnson/Catalyst's Being Future Being at FTA

I’ll dance in Emily Johnson/Catalyst’s Being Future Being again, a work I’ve been a part of since 2021!

Celebrated for a distinguished body of dance works, Yup’ik artist Emily Johnson creates performance gatherings that center reworlding practices, Indigenous knowledge, and the sovereignty of communities, land and more-than-humxn kin. Being Future Being conjures present joy and delves into the power of creation to build an aural, visual and ancestral landscape of Indigenous power.  

Featuring a stellar cast of performers and an original score in collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Raven Chacon, Being Future Being is a multilayered performance for the stage, and beyond—a portal, a care processional, a site for transformation. As it (re)builds new visions of the forces that brought this world into being, Being Future Being invites audiences to become part of creating a radically-just and Indigenized future, one we can live in now and foster for generations to come. Info and Tickets

Created with and performed by Ashley Pierre-Louis + Brandi Norton + Stacy Lynn Smith + Sugar Vendil
Music composed by Raven Chacon
Lighting Design Itohan Edoloyi
Mask, Wearables, Portal Design and Construction and Production Manager IV Castellanos
Quilt Beings Design Korina Emmerich
Quilts Design Maggie Thompson
Portal Tattoos Holly Mititquq Nordlum
Costume Design Raphael Regan
Costume Draping Cathleen O’Neal
Management Support George Lugg
Additional contributors to the creation process Zachary Crumrine + Joelly Dundorf + Kevin Holden + Sara Lyons + Drew Michael + Tyler Rai + Joseph Silovsky.

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May
4

Rena Anakwe's Lifting the Ground Up at Lincoln Center

Lifting the Ground Up [iter.02] is a site-specific, public performance art ritual inspired by the element of earth and incorporates sound, visuals, plants, and scent. Through the restoration of native ecology, land stewardship, and communal care, it is a durational tribute to the communities of San Juan Hill. The project began in fall 2023 with a communal performance art ritual led by interdisciplinary artist, performer, and healer Rena Anakwe. The ritual was performed to prepare the land for a native planting ceremony with local NYC residents. On May 4, 2024, the plants will be revisited with a welcoming ritual and the project will close with a collaborative sound (healing) circle performance, featuring: Rena Anakwe, Darian Donovan Thomas, Olani Ewunnet, Sugar Vendil and William Alexander. Plants will be given away to continue their life cycles throughout NYC.

Information here

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Performance for sounders - April
Apr
6

Performance for sounders - April

From the Queens Museum website, where you can RSVP:

In conjunction with her solo exhibition, to reverberate tenderly, artist sonia louise davis invites musicians Rena Anakwe, Sarah Galdes, and Sugar Vendil to improvise with her three steel instruments, or sounders, for the first of two performances in the gallery space. Performers will use percussion, string, voice, and other experimental techniques to respond to the exhibition’s multi-sensory environment and davis’ large-scale mural, score for Queens Museum (2023). 

davis’ custom sounders reference the organic swoops and geometric linework of the artist’s graphic notation, which is a recurring motif in her work across media. There are strings to be plucked or bowed; a conical bell shape that amplifies the voice; and several resonators, such as hollow tubing, rattles, and cymbal-like discs. While taking influence from free jazz, Guatemalan artist Joaquín Orellana’s custom marimbas, and West African instruments across history, davis’ vivid monochromatic instruments encourage performers to make an original, unexpected sound. For the artist, her sounders level the playing field towards a new kind of improvisation: if you create a never-before-seen instrument, then no one is an expert. 

This performance will be accompanied by a guided free play, where visitors are invited to interact with the instruments in the gallery.

Please note seating is limited and first come first serve. Additional standing room available.

RSVP is required, sign up here. 

About the Performers:
Rena Anakwe is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, poet and healer working primarily with sound, visuals, and scent. Exploring intersections between traditional healing practices, spirituality and performance, she creates works focused on sensory-based, experiential interactions using creative technology. She is based in Brooklyn, New York by way of Nigeria and Canada. Her durational, two-part, public art project “Lifting the Ground Up [iter.02] is currently at Lincoln Center from Fall 2023-Spring 2024. Under the moniker ‘A Space for Sound,’ Anakwe released her album “Sometimes underwater (feels like home)” through RVNG Intl’s Commend THERE Label in Fall 2021. 

Sarah Galdes is a drummer, composer, and music producer. Born in Australia to Indian / Maltese parents, Sarah is currently based in NYC and engages with a wide variety of artists. She has delved into traditional South Korean Samul Nori drumming and North Indian music traditions to further enrich her rhythmic syntax. Sarah performs as a soloist using Sensory Percussion sensors and also tours and performs extensively internationally with artists such as Anna Wise, TEEN, Akwaeke Emezi, River L Ramirez, Overcoats, Efterklang, L’Rain, Lauren Mayberry (CHVRCHES) and many many more. Sarah co-runs a music studio in Greenwich Village called “Synthia.”

Sugar Vendil is a composer, pianist and interdisciplinary artist based in Lenapehoking, known as Brooklyn, NY. Vendil’s work germinates from a kinesthetic and improvisatory approach. A late bloomer, she began making her own work after over a decade of primarily performing as a pianist with her ensemble, The Nouveau Classical Project (2008-2021), and started dancing in 2020. She currently dances in Emily Johnson/Catalyst’s “Being Future Being.” Her piece “Antonym: the opposite of nostalgia,” a memoir of a Filipinx American childhood, will premiere at Living Arts in Tulsa, OK (2024). In 2023 she released an album, “May We Know Our Own Strength,” out on Gold Bolus Recordings.

About the Artist:
sonia louise davis (b. New York, NY, 1988) earned her BA with honors in African American Studies from Wesleyan University and is an alumna of the Whitney Independent Study Program. She is a 2023-2024 Artist in Residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Her latest solo exhibition, resonant frequencies, blossoming tones, at Hesse Flatow (NY) was listed a “must see” by Artforum in 2022. She has presented her work at the Whitney Museum (NY), ACRE (Chicago), Sadie Halie Projects (Minneapolis), Ortega y Gasset (Brooklyn),  and Artists Space (NY), among other venues. Residencies and fellowships include the Laundromat Project’s Create Change Fellowship, Civitella Ranieri, New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellowship at the International Studio & Curatorial Program, Culture Push Fellowship for Utopian Practice, and Stoneleaf Retreat. Her newest book, slow and soft and righteous, improvising at the end of the world (and how we make a new one) was published in 2021 by Co—Conspirator Press, which operates out of the Feminist Center for Creative Work in Los Angeles. Sonia lives and works in Harlem.

Upcoming Performance Date:

April 6, 2-3:30pm: Please note this performance will be followed by a talkback with the artist and collaborators.

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scenes from childhood at national sawdust
Mar
23

scenes from childhood at national sawdust

In an evening of kaleidoscopic sound and movement, Sugar Vendil demonstrates her range as an interdisciplinary artist. Vendil will share a set of new solo compositions for piano, voice, and live electronics, and a preview of her ensemble piece Antonym: the opposite of nostalgia with her performance group and collaborators, Isogram. While contrasting in scale and form, both works stem from Vendil’s childhood experiences, where boredom and loneliness yielded creativity and self-reliance (e.g., being a sort of one-womyn-band in her solo project) and a desire to reflect on those experiences as a grown-up (Antonym: the opposite of nostalgia).

Antonym: the opposite of nostalgia is a memoir of a Filipinx childhood that excavates insignificant yet indelible experiences and incorporates field recordings of NYC, using the four seasons as a cyclical time frame and context for memory.

Sugar Vendil / Isogram:

Cindy Lan, performer, violinist

Annie Nikunen, performer, flutist

Marie Lloyd Paspe, dancer, vocalist

Annie Wang, dancer, vocalist

Sugar Vendil, composer, choreographer, performer, pianist

Antonym is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Living Arts Tulsa, High Concept Labs, National Sawdust, and NPN. More information: www.npnweb.org. Antonym is also supported by MAP Fund and New Music USA Project Grant. Special thanks to the following organizations for providing development and/or showing opportunities for Antonym: NPN (2023 Development Funds); Mabou Mines Resident Artist Program (2019); High Concept Labs Artist in Residence program (2019) and Partner-Artist-in-Residence program (2023); Movement Research at Judson (2023).

Featured video from ​​Makenna Finch for Movement Research at Judson.

Vendil's new work for piano, voice, and electronics was made possible by a grant from the American Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation.

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Performance for sounders
Feb
3

Performance for sounders

From the Queens Museum website, where you can RSVP:

In conjunction with her solo exhibition, to reverberate tenderly, artist sonia louise davis invites musicians Rena Anakwe, Sarah Galdes, and Sugar Vendil to improvise with her three steel instruments, or sounders, for the first of two performances in the gallery space. Performers will use percussion, string, voice, and other experimental techniques to respond to the exhibition’s multi-sensory environment and davis’ large-scale mural, score for Queens Museum (2023). 

davis’ custom sounders reference the organic swoops and geometric linework of the artist’s graphic notation, which is a recurring motif in her work across media. There are strings to be plucked or bowed; a conical bell shape that amplifies the voice; and several resonators, such as hollow tubing, rattles, and cymbal-like discs. While taking influence from free jazz, Guatemalan artist Joaquín Orellana’s custom marimbas, and West African instruments across history, davis’ vivid monochromatic instruments encourage performers to make an original, unexpected sound. For the artist, her sounders level the playing field towards a new kind of improvisation: if you create a never-before-seen instrument, then no one is an expert. 

This performance will be accompanied by a guided free play, where visitors are invited to interact with the instruments in the gallery.

Please note seating is limited and first come first serve. Additional standing room available.

RSVP is required, sign up here. 

About the Performers:
Rena Anakwe is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, poet and healer working primarily with sound, visuals, and scent. Exploring intersections between traditional healing practices, spirituality and performance, she creates works focused on sensory-based, experiential interactions using creative technology. She is based in Brooklyn, New York by way of Nigeria and Canada. Her durational, two-part, public art project “Lifting the Ground Up [iter.02] is currently at Lincoln Center from Fall 2023-Spring 2024. Under the moniker ‘A Space for Sound,’ Anakwe released her album “Sometimes underwater (feels like home)” through RVNG Intl’s Commend THERE Label in Fall 2021. 

Sarah Galdes is a drummer, composer, and music producer. Born in Australia to Indian / Maltese parents, Sarah is currently based in NYC and engages with a wide variety of artists. She has delved into traditional South Korean Samul Nori drumming and North Indian music traditions to further enrich her rhythmic syntax. Sarah performs as a soloist using Sensory Percussion sensors and also tours and performs extensively internationally with artists such as Anna Wise, TEEN, Akwaeke Emezi, River L Ramirez, Overcoats, Efterklang, L’Rain, Lauren Mayberry (CHVRCHES) and many many more. Sarah co-runs a music studio in Greenwich Village called “Synthia.”

Sugar Vendil is a composer, pianist and interdisciplinary artist based in Lenapehoking, known as Brooklyn, NY. Vendil’s work germinates from a kinesthetic and improvisatory approach. A late bloomer, she began making her own work after over a decade of primarily performing as a pianist with her ensemble, The Nouveau Classical Project (2008-2021), and started dancing in 2020. She currently dances in Emily Johnson/Catalyst’s “Being Future Being.” Her piece “Antonym: the opposite of nostalgia,” a memoir of a Filipinx American childhood, will premiere at Living Arts in Tulsa, OK (2024). In 2023 she released an album, “May We Know Our Own Strength,” out on Gold Bolus Recordings.

About the Artist:
sonia louise davis (b. New York, NY, 1988) earned her BA with honors in African American Studies from Wesleyan University and is an alumna of the Whitney Independent Study Program. She is a 2023-2024 Artist in Residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Her latest solo exhibition, resonant frequencies, blossoming tones, at Hesse Flatow (NY) was listed a “must see” by Artforum in 2022. She has presented her work at the Whitney Museum (NY), ACRE (Chicago), Sadie Halie Projects (Minneapolis), Ortega y Gasset (Brooklyn),  and Artists Space (NY), among other venues. Residencies and fellowships include the Laundromat Project’s Create Change Fellowship, Civitella Ranieri, New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellowship at the International Studio & Curatorial Program, Culture Push Fellowship for Utopian Practice, and Stoneleaf Retreat. Her newest book, slow and soft and righteous, improvising at the end of the world (and how we make a new one) was published in 2021 by Co—Conspirator Press, which operates out of the Feminist Center for Creative Work in Los Angeles. Sonia lives and works in Harlem.

Upcoming Performance Date:

April 6, 2-3:30pm: Please note this performance will be followed by a talkback with the artist and collaborators.

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Sep
9

Touching Leaves Woman by Brent Michael Davids - Sept 9, 2023, 2 PM and 3 PM

This new musical work for voice and birdroar instruments by composer Brent Michael Davids honors Nora Thompson Dean (1907-1984), a Lenape teacher and herbalist who dedicated her life to preserving Lenape culture. The sung and spoken lyric consists entirely of her name “Weènchipahkihëlèxkwe” in Unami (Lenape for “downriver people”). Translated, her name was “Touching Leaves Woman” or as Nora herself suggested ‘Leaves-that-touch-each-other-from-time-to-time.’ A hand-notated music manuscript, inked on vellum, is part of the exhibition Nora Thompson Dean: Lenape Teacher and Herbalist and on view before and after each performance. The work runs approximately 20 minutes and will be performed in the Rotunda of J. Pierpont Morgan’s Library at 2 PM and in the Morgan Garden at 3 PM (weather permitting).

Tickets: Free with museum admission. More info here.

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Aug
25

Antonym: the opposite of nostalgia showing at High Concept Labs in Chicago

I’m back at High Concept Labs in Chicago, where I was in residence in 2019. I’ll share this work in progress with my dear collaborators flutist Laura Cocks, violinist Cinda Lan, dancer Annie Wang, and 2022 HCL Fellow Irene Hsiao.

Antonym: the opposite of nostalgia is a memoir of a Filipinx American childhood that interweaves music and movement, taking an imaginative approach to interdisciplinary performance and music composition. Excavating insignificant yet indelible experiences, Antonym envisions the future as an escape from pain and ponders how we can possess painful memories without being beholden to them. Using field recordings of New York City throughout the year, the four seasons serve as a cyclical frame and context for memory.

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Aug
4

INTERDISCIPLINARY ARTS LAB 2023 workshop: Sounding Movement, Moving Sound

All are welcome in this workshop; no dance or music experience necessary. We will explore ways that movement can initiate/inspire/influence sound, the physicality of sounding, and where these impulses lie in our individual bodies/histories. Through improvisation we will create choreo-soundscapes with the materials we have available (voice, body, objects, instruments). Musicians will investigate sound and movement with/without their instruments. We will also create loose scores together and freely document (write, notate) as we go, discovering our own individual methods of drafting scores. Bring a notebook and writing utensil, and if you’re an instrumentalist interested in exploring movement, your instrument as well!

Sliding scale $15-30

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Jul
22

Emily Johnson/Catalyst's Being Future Being: Land/Celestial at CSS Bard

2 shows @ 4pm and 6pm. More info here


from the CSS bard website:
The Center for Indigenous Studies at Bard College presents Being Future Being: Land/Celestial by Emily Johnson/Catalyst as part of a series of programming developed in partnership with CCS Bard to surround the exhibition Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-determination since 1969.

Being Future Being is a multi-scalar work, created by Emily Johnson for the stage and beyond. Featuring a newly commissioned score by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Raven Chacon and a stellar cast of performers, Being Future Being: Land / Celestial invites you into a series of intimate encounters with our more-than-human kin. As audiences journey to three separate outdoor locations, they form a powerful processional—one with the capacity to reshape the way we relate to ourselves, and to the human and more-than-human cohabitants of our worlds.

The performance is approximately 1 hour, followed by a reception, and a performance by Jeffrey Gibson and Arielle Twist.

On Sunday, July 23, 2023: 2:00pm, please join us for Jeffrey Gibson and Emily Johnson in conversation, moderated by Candice Hopkins. This conversation will take place at the Hessel Museum of Art.

For more information on other Being Future Being works and current calls to action, visit www.catalystdance.com.

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May
30

CARNEGIE HILL CONCERTS PRESENTS: BETHANY YOUNGE'S FLESH

I’ll perform music that incorporates voice and movement by composer Bethany Younge.

Lucie Vítková, Musical Body

Charlotte Mundy, Musical Body

Sugar Vendil, Musical Body

Bethany Younge, Soprano, Musical Body, Electronics

Pauline Kim Harris, Violin

Flesh is a culmination of some of Younge's most recent artistic adventures involving the expressive limits of the human body as well as the "fleshing," or animation, of non-human bodies (i.e. instruments and objects). Voices, extreme physical gestures, percussive violin-playing, and electronics contribute to a musical landscape that is at once futuristic and atavistic. Integral to each composition is Younge's highly personalized performance practice.

Program:

//Atavist I. for three musical bodies + electronics

(Pauline, Sugar and Bethany) 

//Atavist II. for four musical bodies + electronics

(Lucie, Sugar, Charlotte and Bethany)

Where Waste Piles for mezzo soprano and violin

(Pauline and Bethany)

Flesh for composer/performer + textile sensor costume

(Bethany)

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Dec
16

BĀS: the Harmony Between Me and You at BRIC

Photo credits (from left to right): JMA Photography and Julia Comita

Join us for a work-in-process showing of BĀS by 2022/23 BRIClab Performing Arts residents Sugar Vendil and Janelle Lawrence.

BĀS is a Black and Asian bridging project by composer-musicians and interdisciplinary artists Janelle Lawrence and Sugar Vendil. It seeks to address racial tensions and foster mutual understanding, empathy, and healing through active listening, music, movement, and storytelling.

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Dec
14

BĀS: the Harmony Between Me and You at BRIC

Photo credits (from left to right): JMA Photography and Julia Comita

Join us for a work-in-process showing of BĀS by 2022/23 BRIClab Performing Arts residents Sugar Vendil and Janelle Lawrence.

BĀS is a Black and Asian bridging project by composer-musicians and interdisciplinary artists Janelle Lawrence and Sugar Vendil. It seeks to address racial tensions and foster mutual understanding, empathy, and healing through active listening, music, movement, and storytelling.

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Sep
8
to Sep 10

Emily Johnson/Catalyst: Being Future Being at The Broad

Being Future Being delves into the power of creation, building from an ancestral landscape of Indigenous power. Created by choreographer and writer Emily Johnson, who belongs to the Yup’ik Nation, and featuring a score by Pulitzer Prize-winning Diné composer Raven Chacon, this multilayered performance invites you to experience a transformation, ushering into focus new futures with the potential to reshape the way we relate to ourselves, our environment, and to the human and more-than-human cohabitants of our world.

I’m proud to be a dancer in this work! Tickets and info here.

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Aug
5

Conjuring #3 at CARA

Conjurings braids invocation, incantation, questioning, un-earthing, and ceremony to open space for future (un)doings.

I’ll share an evening of music that encompasses my practice as a chamber musician, soloist, and budding synthesizer queen including new semi-improvised pieces for synth & voice. The opening installation-style performance of “ooh wo aa oo wa o” for vocalizing chamber ensemble will feature the final performance of my ensemble The Nouveau Classical Project: Laura Cocks, flute; Marina Kifferstein, violin (NCP alum); cellist Thea Mesirow; and guest clarinetist Yuma Uesaka.

Stick around for more performances by Aldrin Valdez and Les the DJ!

Doors open at 7:15 pm
RSVP

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Jun
11

LACO's CURRENT: Heartbeat

This concert, curated by Shelley Washington, will feature works by Shelley, Susanna Hancock, Darian Thomas, Aeryn Santillan, and me! I’m also the pianist for the concert and will play Shelley’s UNIFORMS with members of LACO and my own piece, ooh wo aa oo wa o.

More info at laco.org

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Jun
11

GATHER: A series of monuments and rituals - Rivers of Renewal

  • Lincoln Center- Hearst Plaza near the west side of David Geffen Hall (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

I’m composing music for electronics for Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya’s Rivers of Renewal. If all goes well, this will involve a midi ring worn by the artist, which will allow her to shape the music as she paints!

This participatory installation is a part of
 GATHER: A series of monuments and rituals

Phingbodhipakkiya’s Rivers of Renewal offers the opportunity to shed anguish and start over, letting go of whatever might weigh us down. Each April, Thai people celebrate the start of a new year during the Songkran festival, where everyone from children to elders takes part in throwing water at one another. The spirit of Songkran lives in this piece as visitors are invited to find release by throwing water at a cylindrical tapestry of mixed media and pigment. With every splash, the pigments run together creating rivulets and textures dripping from the tapestry onto the ground, creating a grand, layered commemoration of community catharsis. With this piece, we create a monument to restoration and renewal, celebrating the transformation that we’ve witnessed and the peace that follows.   


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Jun
11

GATHER: A series of monuments and rituals - Rivers of Renewal (Copy)

  • Lincoln Center- Hearst Plaza near the west side of David Geffen Hall (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

I’m composing music for electronics for Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya’s Rivers of Renewal. If all goes well, this will involve a midi ring worn by the artist, which will allow her to shape the music as she paints!

This participatory installation is a part of
 GATHER: A series of monuments and rituals

Phingbodhipakkiya’s Rivers of Renewal offers the opportunity to shed anguish and start over, letting go of whatever might weigh us down. Each April, Thai people celebrate the start of a new year during the Songkran festival, where everyone from children to elders takes part in throwing water at one another. The spirit of Songkran lives in this piece as visitors are invited to find release by throwing water at a cylindrical tapestry of mixed media and pigment. With every splash, the pigments run together creating rivulets and textures dripping from the tapestry onto the ground, creating a grand, layered commemoration of community catharsis. With this piece, we create a monument to restoration and renewal, celebrating the transformation that we’ve witnessed and the peace that follows.   


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Jun
5

GATHER: A series of monuments and rituals - Islands in the Sea

I’m thrilled to collaborate again with Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya on her installation, Islands in the Sea. I’ve composed a semi-improvised score for sarunay, 8 voices, and electronics, and will perform with my ensemble, Sugar Vendil/Isogram.

This participatory installation is a part of
 GATHER: A series of monuments and rituals

Artist Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya transforms the Paul Milstein Reflecting Pool into a site that honors the grieving process. Nine sculptures serve as beacons of reflection, lighting a path forward from losses that so many of us have suffered in the last few years. With this installation, visitors engage in a ritual reminiscent of Loi Krathong, a celebrated Thai festival of gratitude, forgiveness, and respect. Participants are invited to release a floating vessel to carry away their burdens, worries, or grief gently into the pool. Each vessel reflects the sky as it drifts along the water, forming a flotilla of shared struggle. The installation serves as a gentle reminder that while grief never fully leaves us, we can temper sorrow by embracing the many forms that grief and healing may take. 

Sugar Vendil/Isogram
Sugar Vendil, Artistic Director & Performer
Grace Aki, Performer
Chris Ignacio, Performer
Muyassar Kurdi, Performer
Cindy Galvis-Lan, Performer
Thea Little, Performer
JuYoung Ma, Performer
Veronica Mak, Performer
Linda McBride, Performer


Grace Aki is an actor, playwright, and visual artist.

Chris Ignacio is a NY-based performer and educator originally from San Antonio, TX. He recently was a puppeteer for The Met's Madama Butterfly and is currently pursuing his MFA at Arizona State University, in Theatre/Interdisciplinary Digital Media.

Muyassar Kurdi
is a New York City-based interdisciplinary artist. Her work encompasses sound art, extended vocal technique, performance art, movement, analog photography and film. She has toured extensively in the U.S. and throughout Europe. She currently focuses her attention to interweaving homemade electronic instruments into her vocal and dance performances, stirring a plethora of emotions from her audience members through vicious noise, ritualistic chants, and meditative movements.

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May
28

GATHER: A series of monuments and rituals - Islands in the Sea

I’m thrilled to collaborate again with Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya on her installation, Islands in the Sea. I’ve composed a semi-improvised score for sarunay, 8 voices, and electronics, and will perform with my ensemble, Sugar Vendil/Isogram.

This participatory installation is a part of
 GATHER: A series of monuments and rituals

Artist Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya transforms the Paul Milstein Reflecting Pool into a site that honors the grieving process. Nine sculptures serve as beacons of reflection, lighting a path forward from losses that so many of us have suffered in the last few years. With this installation, visitors engage in a ritual reminiscent of Loi Krathong, a celebrated Thai festival of gratitude, forgiveness, and respect. Participants are invited to release a floating vessel to carry away their burdens, worries, or grief gently into the pool. Each vessel reflects the sky as it drifts along the water, forming a flotilla of shared struggle. The installation serves as a gentle reminder that while grief never fully leaves us, we can temper sorrow by embracing the many forms that grief and healing may take. 

Sugar Vendil/Isogram
Sugar Vendil, Artistic Director & Performer
Grace Aki, Performer
Chris Ignacio, Performer
Muyassar Kurdi, Performer
Cindy Galvis-Lan, Performer
Thea Little, Performer
JuYoung Ma, Performer
Veronica Mak, Performer
Linda McBride, Performer


About the Performers

Grace Aki is an actor, playwright, and visual artist.


Chris Ignacio
is a NY-based performer and educator originally from San Antonio, TX. He recently was a puppeteer for The Met's Madama Butterfly and is currently pursuing his MFA at Arizona State University, in Theatre/Interdisciplinary Digital Media.

Muyassar Kurdi
is a New York City-based interdisciplinary artist. Her work encompasses sound art, extended vocal technique, performance art, movement, analog photography and film. She has toured extensively in the U.S. and throughout Europe. She currently focuses her attention to interweaving homemade electronic instruments into her vocal and dance performances, stirring a plethora of emotions from her audience members through vicious noise, ritualistic chants, and meditative movements.


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Look & Listen 2022: Dreaming Big at BRIC
May
6

Look & Listen 2022: Dreaming Big at BRIC

Dana Lyn • Alicia Waller + The Excursion • Sugar Vendil

Presented in partnership with American Composers Forum

My program will feature a screening of a short experimental film, May We Know Our Own Strength and my piece ooh wo aa oo wa o for vocalizing chamber ensemble. And maybe a new work for solo piano, voice, and electronics from my forthcoming album, Late Bloomer.

About my program

photo credit: julia comita

Short film: “May We Know Our Own Strength”

“May We Know Our Own Strength” is a short film by Jih-E Peng based on Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya’s installation of the same name. Sugar Vendil's score, featuring her own voice, electronics, piano, and violinist Hajnal Pivnick, recalls feelings of horror and pain, the act of healing through ritual, and collective mourning and strength.

“May We Know Our Own Strength is an abstract, hybrid narrative document centered around artist Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya’s similarly-titled piece exploring collective healing after sexual assault within AAPI communities, created tragically in the wake of the Atlanta spa shootings. In the spirit of the installation itself, ‘May We Know Our Own Strength’ recreates the process of trauma, the hurdles of healing, and the strength that can be found in sharing and community.”

For the installation, Phingbodhipakkiya weaved hanging paper sculptures of anonymous stories by NYC survivors of sexual assault and gender-based violence. All New Yorkers were invited to lay down their burdens anonymously at MayWeKnow.nyc. Each submission immediately activated one of sixteen internet-connected printers and lit a corresponding incandescent bulb, visible from a storefront window in the Meatpacking District at 401 W. 14th Street. During the course of the installation, Amanda held a vigil and 8-minute moment of silence at 8pm every evening as a memorial to the eight Atlanta shooting victims, as their names printed and all 16 incandescent bulbs of the installation shone resolutely into the night.

“ooh wo aa oo wa o” by sugar vendil for vocalizing chamber ensemble
Vendil will perform her work for vocalizing chamber ensemble “ooh wo ah oo wa o” with her ensemble, The Nouveau Classical Project (NCP). NCP will wear costumes created for “ooh wo ah oo wa o” by Jasmine Chong. Chong weaves rich and personal stories through a canvas of colour, silhouette, texture and form, producing pieces that are sculptural, romantic and meaningful. She was featured on Season 1 of Amazon’s “Making the Cut.”

“ooh wo ah oo wa o” reflects on the painful but necessary act of surrender through fluttering textures, glitches, and vocalizations. It was composed as Vendil decided to wind down NCP, the ensemble she founded in 2008, followed by having to make the heartbreaking decision to put her dear cat Coco to sleep. The work is dedicated to Coco.

It is scored for a vocalizing ensemble of flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano. “ooh wo ah oo wa o” has been made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

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