Composer: Nicky Sohn, https://www.nickysohn.com
Choreographer: Jennifer Hackbarth
Guitarist: Bokyung Byun, https://www.bokyungbyun.com

This work was created as a part of the Cloud Collaboration 2021 with Sounding Board Project (https://www.soundingboardfest.com/)

This year’s project, Cloud Collaboration, aims to bring artistic minds from all around the world to create multidisciplinary works through virtual collaboration. The extended isolation from the pandemic has made collaborative art making more challenging than ever, but through virtual collaboration, the Sounding Board Project was able to provide a platform where artists can meld their creative ideas and energy together for creation of new works regardless of any distances or barriers between them.

The Cloud Collaboration invited a diverse array of four guitarists, four composers, and four choreographers from all around the world. Each group consists of 3 artists from each discipline, and together they will present multi-perspective and multi-cultural forms of expression through music and dance. The Cloud Collaboration will be premiered in August 2021.

Minty Breeze (2021)

Performed by the Carpe Diem String Quartet (www.carpediemstringquartet.com/) on Monday, November 8, Houston, TX

Composer’s program note:

“Three Questions That Began From a Small Flame” contains three movements and were actually ideas that sprouted from a single movement string quartet titled “Burning”, which I wrote over the winter of 2020. “Burning”, in a musical sense, opened me up to the intricacies of string quartet writing and filled me up with self propelled inspiration for the next projects to come. However, in a personal sense, it casted my instability and doubtfulness in concrete—it left me mixed up with ominous questions for myself. After things had settled, it was clear that these questions were threefold, rather simple in a superficial way, and horrible to let sit in my head for too long. Contrary to self-interest, I wrote a movement for each question.

“Can you stop the time? (no)”, out of the three, is the easiest to answer and the hardest to accept. Currently taxiing on the runway into my 30’s, looking back at my 20’s in disbelief that it’s already over, I can only wonder where it went—how I spent so much time and what I did in the last decade. Time is sometimes killed, we say that time is at a crawl, we know a minute is 60 seconds, a year 365 days. With time, we can make back so much of what we’ve lost, but never a moment in time. A moment is a phenomenon that happens so quickly it is considered a miracle if you manage to capture it, if that’s even possible. Having lived almost entirely past my twenties has perhaps made me a bit more knowledgeable in the various rules of the universe, but mostly it’s ingrained in me the rules of time, and how important it is to recognize time as we are spending it.

“Are we too late? (maybe)” is a question, tinged with doubt, for when you make a leap into anything—when you fall in love, or when you fall out of love, or when you are trying fix something broken, or before you start something, or as the planet is dying—it’s a question echoing inside of me and this generation as a whole. Where a small apology would do a world of healing is not when you ask it. It’s when everything has gone a bit too far off center and an uncertainty is everywhere that hope also is. As our relationships get distant, as the sea level rises, and as we are inventing a solution to our problems because predicaments this big have never yet been figured out, a “maybe” is our only burning torch in the roughness of “Are We Too Late?”, and our questions do not end there.

I ask (and answer) the final question “Can I change? (yes)” as a 29 year old who has keenly felt her own flaws and knows how it will affect the future if nothing is done to improve on them. So much time is spent obsessing things over beyond our control, sparking an internal conflict on entirely external things. I’ve noticed this particularly during the pandemic, a time of isolation greater and more widespread than the world has ever experienced. You couldn’t leave your house, and it just so happened that the biggest room in the house was your own head. Although this could be a great way to improve upon yourself, it’s a shortcut to a loop of negativity with no one to pull you out. But despite the low points, this time of reflection on black eyes and regrets in my life made my faults incredibly clear. The question I now ask myself was once directed at the people around me, asking in frustration whether they could change. Now that I’ve refined my questions to just three and have answered them, it’s time to start moving.

II. Are We Too Late? (not Yet)

I. Can You Stop The Time? (no)

III. Can i change? (yes)

Performed by Robert Fleitz on February 8th at Paul Hall, New York

	I completed On the Other Side of The Rainbow during the winter of 2016 in New York City. I was very lucky to collaborate with the wonderful pianist Robert Fleitz on this project. Not only was Robert an excellent performer but also a fascinating and engaging thinker. After a few meetings and conversations, I learned of Robert’s love for The Wizard of Oz. Since I had never seen the movie before, I thought it would be interesting to write a piece based solely on the performer’s taste. I settled on the form of a two-movement piece with the inspirations from the witch’s broom and the ruby slippers.

	Chronologically, the second movement, Are you forgetting the ruby slippers? was written first. Since The Wizard of Oz is an extremely well-known movie, I had a vague idea of the plot as I was exposed to certain images in popular culture. I finally watched the movie right before completing the second movement, and that led me to change my approach. My original plan was to write a through-composed piece that did not return to previously stated material. However, after seeing the movie, I decided to end the piece with the opening motive, reminiscent of Dorothy’s return home to Kansas. 

	Rather than focusing on one specific idea or mood, the first movement, Beautiful Wickedness outlines the whole atmosphere and spirit I received from watching the movie. It incorporates the black-and-white tornado scene where Kansas transforms into the colorful and mythical world of Oz. The Wicked Witch’s broom motive also joins in throughout the movement.

II. Are you forgetting the ruby slippers?

Recorded by John Hong and Robert Fleitz on April 22nd at The Juilliard School

Weather Change for Clarinet and Piano (2016)

Recorded by Hahnsol Kim, violin; KJ McDonald, violin; Jacob Vandersloot, viola; Philip Sheegog, violoncello; Fifi Zhang, piano

Train of Thought was composed for the generous commission by the New York Choreographic Institute at New York City Ballet. I was very fortunate and privileged to be invited as one of the composers to partake in their 2016-17 season. The roots of this piece began germinating by the conversations I had with the Italian choreographer, Fabio Adorisio and the life transitions during the period. 

With a free-flowing, fluid dynamic and a resemblance to through-composed form, the composition was structured mostly around small melodic ideas blossoming in a sporadic manner. As I was on the train getting back to New York City, I had bursts of ideas looking back on some of the memories, that inspired the piece. Scattered ideas and memories creating a train of thought during my train ride back to reality are shown through the loose running structure in the music.

Train of Thought

Opening chorus of Emperor's New Clothes
Performed by the UCLA Opera department
Ostin Music Center, California on March 1, 2018

Another proclamation here,
A royal invitation there
To lure each ambitious weaver,
Every cut-from-cloth deceiver,
To magic fabrics for our lord,
The Emperor of cloth and cord.
The sire of silk! The king of crepe! Oh, when he passes people gape. Though he is—we secretly agree—
A real ruby-buttoned booby
And though in rule he lacks finesse, No man can claim he’s better dressed. He has replaced diplomacy
With regal haberdashery.
While we wait for a royal prince
Our Queen sits neglected for prints Of purple plumes, for saffron thread, Vermillion caps that warm the head. For emerald, indigo, and pink.
You would almost begin to think
That the Emperor has no clothes!

Emperor's New Clothes - Opening Chorus

Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra conducted by Fergus McAlpine on Saturday, August 11, 2018 at Aspen Music Festival

Program note:

	“Bird Up” encapsulates the composer’s perspective on the erratic nature of New York City, as seen through the lens of the bizarre and chaotic humor in the Eric Andre Show. Throughout several years of living in the absurd and unpredictable environment that is New York, the composer found that his skits were a clever match to the everyday unpredictability of the city. The skit that inspires this piece reflects the extreme end of the chaos that New Yorkers often encounter with a humorous twist, Eric Andre dresses up as a bird and confronts strangers on the street. The composer develops the piece around direct inspiration from the show, the primary motivic material of the piece is derived from the opening chords of the tv show. Incorporating this motive in several modes, the piece gradually transforms, reflecting the humor of the ever changing yet constantly absurd reality of the show and New York City.

Bird up (2018)

Premiered by Robert Fleitz; piano, Members of the Chelsea Music Festival under Ken-David Masur; conductor on Tuesday, June 11, 2019 at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, New York

	“If You Love for Beauty” is a piece commissioned for the 10th anniversary of the Chelsea Music Festival. Reflecting upon the momentous career of the exceptional romantic pianist and composer Clara Schumann, it was inevitable to be moved by her role as a female musician in the 19th century. As a contemporary female composer from Korea, studying Schumann’s life was an essential and significant path for me—it led me to a perspective in which I closely reevaluated my work and what it meant to be outside the status quo. I felt it was necessary to honor and dedicate this piece to her work, as well as interpret her artistic ideas into mine. To do this, I incorporated and quoted the form and melodic ideas from Schumann’s lyrical and ornate “Liebst du um Schönheit”. In contrast to my usual rhythm driven work, this composition for piano and strings is focused heavily on melody and harmony, and is embellished with florid texture and drama. Recognizing the sound and spirit of Schumann’s oeuvre, “If You Love for Beauty” resonates with a vibrant and romantic mood.

If You Love For Beauty (2019)

Premiered by the Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra under Hugh Wolff, August 14, 2019 at Benedict Music Tent, Aspen

Program note:

	“On Its Way” is an orchestra piece commissioned for the Jacob Druckman Prize of the Aspen Music Festival. This kinetic composition shows the vivid color of something often overlooked as grey and mundane: a life in transit, actions existing seemingly only for the purpose of a final destination. Pondering on the oversimplified idea of a final stop brings one to realize that the commute never stops—there is always something to wait for, always somewhere to be. Coupled with this year’s theme, “Being American”, the endless exploration towards a different, novel place is an element that is indelible in the history here. The work, and most importantly, the spirit of American composers show that the music here is no different than its history—it is one continuous path of evolution, never ceasing to find an ultimate conclusion. Striving to capture the beauty of movement, “On Its Way” brings excitement and energy to the wait.

On its way (2019)

Performed by Bokyung Byun, July 14, 2019, Fresne Saint Mames, France

“Ganggangsullae” was written for my dear friend and inspiration Bokyung Byun for the first year of Sounding Board Project. Sounding Board is a collaborative project Bokyung and I began in the winter of 2018, hoping to make an environment for composers and guitarists to collaborate and enrich the repertoire of guitar music. I was fortunate enough spend about two years right next to Bokyung in LA and really learn her process of learning and performing music in the finest quality possible. I wanted to incorporate a Korean folk tune from the region Bokyung is from and Ganggangsullae is one of the most well-known tunes in the country. The piece is reminiscent of the theme and variation form to present Bokyung’s absolutely mind-blowing understanding and execution of guitar playing. I dedicate this piece to Bokyung Byun and thank her with all my heart for being the best friend anyone could ask for and the biggest inspiration and motivation for me and my music.

Ganggangsullae (2019)

Premiered on March 4th, 2020 at Wortham Theater Center, Houston by Camille Jasensky; soprano, Masha Popova; flute, Pablo Munoz Salido; viola, Hope Cowan; harp, Chelsea de Souza; piano 


Program note:

	“The Moon Above Keeps Watch Tonight” was commissioned by the Dacamera Young Artist Program. Librettist Amanda Hollander and I have been collaborating to write an opera based on Gwangsoon Ryu, a war heroine of Korea, for several years. She made a trip out to Korea to do more research on the subject matter earlier last year and she wrote this portion of the text during that time. As we were working together very closely, she would show me the text as soon as she had something, and the moment I saw the lullaby text, I immediately fell in love with it—somehow,  the melody came right into my head at first sight. I have not had a proper chance to really realize the work until this commission came to me, and I am so grateful I could finally showcase this beautiful text.



Text:

Written by Amanda Hollander

The moon above keeps watch tonight.
Sleep safely in her patient light.
Dark stars gaze down to watch the snow
Your room warm in the candle’s glow
 
Don’t fear the sun
When dawn is far
Don’t hide your face
From cloud and star
 
Dream of pinecones
Dream of rain
Dream of wind-tossed
Grass and leaves

The mountain bends her snowy head
To guard you as you sleep in bed
The moss and rose await their birth
While hush of winter stills the earth

Dream of springtime
Dream of trees
Dream of blossoms
Shaken free
 
The moon keeps watch for you tonight.
She whispers stories with her light.
The sun will fall and dreams will fly.
The moon will open up the sky.

Nicky Sohn

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