Stir Q&A: At Sonic Boom, piano sensation Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa tackles 10 pieces by 10 BC composers
Practising Japanese, morning smoothies, and walks around Trout Lake help her get in the right mindset
Vancouver Pro Musica streams the Sonic Boom Festival via Youtube from March 23 to 28
AFTER HAVING to cancel last spring, the Sonic Boom Festival is back stronger than ever online. It’s upped the ante of its adventurous new-music offerings, increasing programming to include a combination of 2020’s postponed concerts plus a range of new events—all free and accessible via Youtube.
The celebrations kick off with Vancouver’s Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, who was to have been the featured artist of 2020. On March 23, the contemporary-music piano premieres no less than 10 pieces by BC composers. Offerings on the prorgam include Rodney Sharman’s Wounded, Jennifer Butler’s Shelter, Peter Krejcar’s Diaphanous, Chris Albanese’s Remaining Gestures, Walker Williams’s Small, MJ Paquette’s Play(h)ers Passage, Glenn Sutherland’s Holy Ground, Javier Canseco’s Scattered Light, Kara Gibbs’s Intertidal, and Jeffrey Ryan’s Aftershock. All we can say is “Wow”.
The rest of the programming includes 2021 featured artist and longtime VSO oboeist Beth Orson premiering a concert of new works for solo oboe and English Horn, the Pacific Baroque Orchestra playing new music on old instruments, and much more; the full lineup is here.
We talked to Iwaasa about what it’s been like interpreting so many new compositions, and how she’s been coping in this pandemic year.
Ten pieces: How much time does it take to learn this many new pieces, and how do you break it up--one at a time or in chunks?
“Being the Sonic Boom featured artist gives the unusual opportunity of being paid to workshop the pieces with the composers several months before the concert. So I prepared all of the pieces to play to the composers in…November 2019, and for them to take away and make revisions. Then I work in chunks. Of course, this concert was originally scheduled for March 26, 2020, so these pieces have had the added benefit of an added year of maturation.”
In the leadup to the Sonic Boom concert, what do your last few days look like as you prepare?
“Wake up. Meditate. Practice Japanese with my morning smoothie. Walk to Trout Lake, around it, and back home. Shower and dress. Practice piano. Eat. Practice and do some work on the computer. Teach a piano lesson. Cook and Eat. Teach another piano lesson. Practice. Unwind with an audio book. Sleep.”
Which two songs best illustrate the wide range of styles on this program, and why?
“It's impossible to choose only two, because the range is not a linear scale, it's more like a constellation of styles! But I really felt like many of the composers had written with me in mind, because there's a lot of my favourite things in this program. like a wide exploration of piano timbres, including extended techniques; some gorgeous minimalism, both the hypnotic repetitive kind and the sparse, barely-there kind; and some dark and sexy theatrical works at the piano.”
All of these composers are from BC. What has creating this program taught you about the composing landscape here, and are there defining characteristics in your mind?
“For Sonic Boom pieces are chosen by a jury. As the performer, I only saw the pieces after the selection had taken place, so I didn't get to take stock of the full range of submissions as a whole. Based on this cross-section, the field is still male-dominated, despite the presence of extremely gifted women working in the field: this program has seven pieces by men, two by women, one by a trans/nonbinary composer. The racial balance is analogous, with the vast majority of pieces by composers of European heritage. Composition in BC still shows a greater diversity of musical styles than of composers.”
What's it like to perform again as a musician weathering shutdowns, and can a virtual concert replace a live one?
“I am so grateful to Vancouver Pro Musica and the other arts presenters who are still finding ways to bring artists and audiences together in the face of the many limitations we are now facing. But I can't tell you how much I miss live shows, both as an artist and as an audience member. I've read that audience's heart and breathing rates sync up as we experience art in a theatre. And it's palpable, how feeling together, as a group, really heightens the experience. This is a fundamental part of being human; it just can't be replicated online. I've been wondering, lately, how much of this happens because we're all breathing the same air, and in so doing, we literally become part of each other, at a microscopic level. Perhaps feelings are literally, not just metaphorically, contagious.
“This past year has been a time of huge change and contemplation for me, and I doubt I'm the only one. I just hope we will be able to take what we've learned about ourselves and our culture, and come out of this pandemic more empathetic and more equitable than we were going in.”
Find more information on Sonic Boom here.
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