Not a recital

"You're in your final year, so are you going to have a year-end recital? Jazz voice?"

Sorry, no. Firstly, I'm not a performance nor jazz nor voice major. Secondly, what I'm interested in is more than jazz and singing and the combination of both.

So I'm doing an independent project exploring sound and music. Yes, I'm climbing onto the sound art fence.

Course title
Sound and Music: Beyond Categories

Statement of aims
This interdisciplinary study aims to explore the categories of sound art and music and the boundaries that both distinguish and unite them.

Description
In the context of this study, I will undertake to explore the possibilities and limitations within the domains of sound and music. A combination of readings, journaling, listening and practical experiments will lead to a final year-end project that will incorporate techniques from both sound art and music (e.g. field recording, sound editing, sound sculptures, installation, performance, composition, computer music, and improvisation). The final project will consider concepts proper to both mediums, and those that characterize and distinguish each medium, e.g.: noise and silence, melody, rhythm and harmony, speech, language and conversation, modes of listening, site vs. stage, soundscape vs. arrangement etc. These concepts are non-exhaustive and can be applied across categories, which is the point of this study.

During this study, I will apply (and combine) the expertise I have acquired over my music degree: jazz performance (piano and vocal), composition and improvisation, digital music, music history, film music, and avant-garde music. I will also apply skills and concepts studied in digital media and community arts, which were my in-faculty/out-of-major courses.

50% - Journaling, listening reports, reading reports, phenomenal experiments, phenomenal observations
50% - Final Project

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So far, I plan my final project to be site specific. It can be a performance or installation or the combination of both. I'm pretty ambitious, but I need to consider the limitations (individual skills, time, technical equipment, etc.) and embrace them too. No fun being too ambitious then everything falls apart eventually. Knock on wood.

My final semester will be a good one. I love my life :D


*Marc Couroux was my sound art professor last term. That was one of the courses that I felt the most passion in throughout my degree. I was extremely curious about and interested in many concepts in sound art, and I feel a great [dis]connection with it as a [non-]musician.

*Casey Sokol is one of the most inspiring mentors in my life. I'm taking piano and voice improvisation class with him. His class allows me to explore how to be myself myself and a professional musician at the same time. That balance between emotions and skills becomes so beautifully (and sometimes vulnerably) embraced in my musical life.