Webster University Dance Ensemble Concert
April 28, 2023 
Browning Mainstage Theater, Webster University
St. Louis, MO

Audio Collaborator: Justin Blackburn
Thumbnail photo: https://cdn2.opendemocracy.net/media/images/path_through_trees_oryjljI.width-800.jpg

Light On The Path was originally a collaboration with choreographer and aerial dancer Monica Newsam for performance on the Webster University Dance Ensemble Concert. Ms. Newsam’s vision of the work as a metaphor for life’s challenges, our choices and human connections, and moving ever-forward to new grounds and experiences despite the past that would define us and hold us back was musically corroborated in sonic metaphors of light, a progressive arc, and overt construction and collaboration of ideas. Ultimately, the music seeks to traverse the varied interior landscape that we as humans share -- most importantly, hope.

This work is dedicated to my lifelong friend and sister, Christina.

Light on the Path

May 26, 2010 Ganz Hall, Roosevelt University, Chicago, IL


Better Angels - III. Ruminative

May 26, 2010 Ganz Hall, Roosevelt University, Chicago, IL

Better Angels - Prelude + I. Buoyant; with fluency

Better Angels - Postlude

Lisa Kaplan, piano
April Mok, computer/electronics

Once Again the Bright Kingdom - I. Straight

Once Again the Bright Kingdom - II. Menacingly

Once Again the Bright Kingdom - III. Meditatively

International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)
David Bowlin, violin
Kivie Cahn-Lipman, cello

Duo - II. Vivo impetuoso

In this imagining of an aural landscape evocative of space, a dichotomy between the technological and the human is framed so as to illuminate their inter-dependence and the ways in which they act as extensions of each other. At its most explicit, the dichotomy involves pitting claustrophobic complexity against expansive simplicity, while the blurring of its distinction is affected through the blending or supplanting of vocals with sine waves, as well as bleeps adopting the inflectional profile of human speech. The overarching organization is achieved through the implicit use of musical motives, counterpoint, and key relationships, which are generally associated with the realm of acoustic music.

Seven on the 25th, 1986

April Mok is a composer whose work typically displays an affinity for highly linear/contrapuntal textures and a mixture of tonality, polytonality, and atonality that lends it a pliable contextuality. She often incorporates existing music of widely divergent styles in her projects as models, inspirations, and guides to sensibility, the music of Fats Waller and Nirvana being notable examples. Her “fantAsia” for mandolin and piano is published by Wolfhead music.

Mok

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