Say You Will (Ft. Caroline Shaw)

https://vimeo.com/183369057
film by Yuchi Ma

X i a o B i n g   [ 2 0 1 6 ]

" F e e l    L o v e "   [ 2 0 1 6 ]    piano  &   voice   demo

Written by Raman Khalaf and Khaled Kurbeh between 2015 and 2017, Al Baseet from their debut record on Henrik Schwarz's new label BETWEEN BUTTONS depict their reflections on absurdism, solitude, the simple man, and despair. The pieces on the record blur the lines between written and improvised moments and articulate the past 2 years in a fictional narrative.

Aphorisms was recorded at UFO studios, The Vinary and Red Bull Studios, Berlin, with an ensemble: Tom Berkmann (double bass), Moussa Coulibaly (djembe), Ashraf Kateb (violin), Mathias Ruppnig (drums) and Nora Thiele (frame drum and raq). The artwork is an etching work by Yaser Safi. Further photography by F. Anthea Schaap is documented in the bilingual Arabic / English booklet. Designed by Rik Watkinson.

Aphorisms

Buy @ Between Buttons

Khaled Kurbeh & Raman Khalaf Ensemble - Al  Baseet

F e e lL o v e  [2016]    feat. Tristan Heinicke (USC Kaufman Dance Collaboration)

This piece is based on a poem by Gertrud Kolmar, a German-Jewish writer who died at the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943. There is so much joy and beauty in Gertrud Kolmar’s poetry, but this poem about her love for her people and her anguish over their impending doom just seemed like it needed to be sung. I tried to show how powerful her voice is, how she had the courage to embrace her Jewish identity even as Europe’s Jews were being targeted for destruction.

"Wir Juden" was premiered by LA Master Chorale in April 2017. USC Chamber Singers read and recorded it in May 2017.

Text adapted from Gertrud Kolmar's "Wir Juden":

Nur Nacht hört zu. Ich liebe dich, ich liebe dich, mein Volk,
Und will dich ganz mit Armen umschlingen heiss und fest, 
So wie ein Weib den Gatten, der am Pranger steht, am Kolk, 
Die Mutter den geschmähten Sohn nicht einsam sinken lässt.
Wenn deine zitternden Arme nun grausam eingeschnürt,
So lass mich Ruf, der in den Schacht der Ewigkeiten fällt,
Die Hand mich sein, die aufgereckt an Gottes hohen Himmel rührt.
O könnt’ ich wie lodernde Fackel in die finstere Wüste der Welt 
Meine Stimme heben: Freiheit! Freiheit! Freiheit!
Ich fühle die Faust, die das weinende Haupt auf den Aschenhügel mir zerrt.

English translation by Schocken Verlag (1947):

Only the night listens. I love you, I love you, my people, 
And want to hold you warm and close in my arms
As a woman embraces her husband bound to the whipping post,
As a mother at the pondside won’t let her reviled son sink all alone.
If your trembling arms are now cruelly bound,
Let mine be the cry that plummets into the pit of eternity, Mine the hand that stretches up to touch God’s high heaven.
Oh, if I could lift my voice like a flaring torch in the dark waste of the world 
Lift my voice: Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!
I feel the fist that drags my weeping head to the ash heap.

Wir Juden - USC Chamber Singers

育つ, "sodatsu", means "to grow" or "to cultivate".

育つ Sodatsu

i. the menu
ii. pool
iii. host

This piece serves as an illustration of a possible outcome of entertaining the wild. 
"It’s best to resist the urge to pet and hold them." -The National Park Service

This was performed on the March 4th, 2018 Composition Showcase by Shusanik Hovakimyan.

USC Composition

Three Movements for Solo Piano

This piece explores the feelings and imagery of my experiences in sauna and ice plunging during my study abroad in Finland.

Premiered at New Music on the Point June 18, 2018

Thanks to the incredible musicians/friends who made it happen:
John Pickford Richards (viola), Elijah Spies (viola), Louise King (cello), Laura Nygren (bass), Will Yager (bass)

plunge

For solo soprano and SSAATTBB choir
Duration: 10 minutes
Text by Nina Shekhar (written below); score preview available here: http://ninashekhar.com/blush/

Commissioned by The New York Virtuoso Singers and Harold Rosenbaum, conductor
Aine Hakamatsuka, soprano soloist

Program note:
The act of blushing is defined as a reddening of one’s face normally due to embarrassment or shame. During puberty, many adolescents experience more frequent blushing for physiological and social reasons. Becoming a woman is a beautiful yet especially emotionally difficult experience. Young women often fear their changing bodies and minds, alarmed by their new curves, feelings, and desires. Even though they are fundamentally the same people now as they were before, everything feels radically different, and this process may feel like an out-of-body experience. Societal pressures can exacerbate these feelings of anxiety and shame, causing young women to “blush” at themselves while navigating the transition to womanhood. Learning to love your own mind and body is not easy. But realizing your inherent strength and remarkableness is a first step. Because being a woman is not something to be ashamed of – it’s something to revere. 


Text: (written by Nina Shekhar, composer)

look away
from the monster
in the mirror
I don’t know
her painted lips
mascara smeared
across her cheeks
look away from
the mask they’ve made
I blush and
wear my ugly
and cry

what have I become?
I don’t know my new skin
I’ve molted my youth
I bloom
my curves
molded like clay
I don’t know this mind
I don’t know this heart

I breathe the same breath
but fire fills my lungs
I stand proud
a queen

here I bleed
I bleed all my love
as future life
drips to my feet
I wax and wane
like the moon

I hold my strength
in my hips
I hold my warmth
in my breast
what a gift this life is
look into my eyes
here stands a woman

blush

an improv piece I wrote this month

made w/ ableton live, a comb, and a lap harp

ｈａｉｒｌｅｓｓ

USC 2020 BM Music Composition
Composer ll Pianist ll Vocalist

Victoria Vasta (b.1998) is a Russian-American LA-based composer, pianist, and vocalist. Victoria grew up as a classical pianist (attended the Orange County School of the Arts in the Pianists Program under Sarkis Baltaian), only discovering composition in her late high school years. She began attending USC in the fall of 2016 in the Thornton School of Music (BM Music Composition). Victoria studied (BM Music Composition 2020) composition with Nina Young, Donald Crockett, Ted Hearne, Andrew Norman, Sean Friar, and Veronika Krausas. Victoria has worked on multiple different collaborative projects, most recently with another composer, poet, live electronics, vocalists, and choreographers.

youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCblKBJUw3pZRAkMubIcB4hQ?view_as=subscriber
instagram: @victoriavastamusic
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/victoriavastamusic/?ref=bookmarks
vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user116290844

*also, finally found a place where I can display my love for photography*

Three Movements for Solo Piano

Victoria Vasta

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