RANDOM WALK
2024
composition, installation
from Sonata for the Body in Three-Part Time (Past)
A duet for two pianos across time, composed by physically performing the mathematical process of a "random walk" on 19 classical piano pieces I played as a child, as an exploration of my experience of performing gender, race, and music throughout a decade of traditional conservatory training. One half is played live in present day, and the other half is stitched together from videos of my childhood performances.
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What is the past? A series of memories, thought of in the present.
Memories as they happened, remembered in a certain order.
What is the past? Memories chopped up, reordered, formed into a new understanding.
The past is a story of memories you tell yourself to make sense of your present moment.
This story I’m telling myself is a story of performance.
Performance of gender, performance of race, performance of music.
Performance through the body.
Performance through the hands.
