If you were frequenting this site over the course of the past few months, you might recall that last month I announced that I was selected as an inaugural member of the Asian Arts Initiative’s Sound Type Music Writers Workshop in Philadelphia.
Sound Type is Asian Arts Initiative’s Music Festival and Writers Residency designed to support and uplift new, experimental and courageous music from the Asian Diaspora and beyond. The Asian Art Initiative will also provide a series of workshops, gatherings and mentorships to primarily BIPOC musicians, journalists and critics to help build a sustainable ecosystem for them.
As a member of the workshop. I’ll be attending and writing about the showcases of the Sound Type Musical Festival, as well as other music-related programs at the festival. The commentary, articles, interviews and reviews will be published after the 2024 season.
The first show of the series will feature Victoria Shen with Qiujiang Levi Lu on March 23, 2024. Shen’s work eschews conventions in harmony and rhythm in favor of extreme and abrasive textures and gestural tones built around analog modular synthesizers, vinyl/resin record and self-built electronics. My understanding is that tickets are still available for the show. So, Philadelphia friends, come on through to check out a night of boundary-pushing music — and hang out with your boy. Maybe we can stop at Bar or Tattooed Mom after.
https://asianartsinitiative.org/programs/victoria-shen-live-in-concert
Before the show, AAI will be hosting two events:
Friday, March 22, 2024: A Conversation with Victoria Shen. Moderated by Joyce Chung, Curator at Asian Arts Initiative, the pair will delve into the creative practice behind Shen’s current exhibition at AAI and how Shen experiments with making instruments and spatial relationship of sound. This event is free but you need to sign up for tickets. Information can be found here: https://asianartsinitiative.org/programs/victoria-shen-artist-talk
Saturday, March 23, 2024: Sound Type Seminar with Victoria Shen and writer and designer Mindy Seu, moderated by AAI’s Anne Ishii. The pair will discuss their boundary-pushing work and its relation to Sound Type’s mission: uplifting new, experimental, courageous music from the Asian diaspora and beyond!
https://asianartsinitiative.org/programs/sound-type-seminar-victoria-shen-and-mindy-seu
Check out the bios and information on me and the rest of the fascinating and extremely talented members of the Music Writers cohort, check out the following link:
https://asianartsinitiative.org/news/meet-our-writers-2024-sound-type-music-writers-workshop