Jun 2, 2008

This week’s diarist is Gregory Oh, artistic director of the highly acclaimed new music group Toca Loca, with Simon Docking and Aiyun Huang. He is the newest member of the musical staff of the Canadian Opera Company, and teaches at the University of Toronto. He kept his diary earlier this month.

“It must be so great making a living doing what you love!”

My friend Simon Docking (a fellow pianist) and I discussed our growing aversion to this cliched phrase over lunch today.

I am often tempted to respond with the truth– that what I really love doing is sleeping with beautiful women, which rarely proves profitable.

Simon and I are currently awash in the whirlwind of soundaXis, a three-week festival of art, music, architecture and ideas in Toronto. These days, a typical day consists of rehearsals from 9 a. m. to 9 p. m., with breaks for meals. Sometimes one needs to arrive at least one hour in advance to unload and set up gear, and more often than not, one uses most of the break time furiously practising, stealing mouthfuls of fast food and slugs of caffeine in between page turns. After one such day, I headed straight to my studio to learn the material for the next day’s work, got home around 3 a. m. and set my alarm for 7:30. After three weeks with “what I love,” I may be in the market for an affair.

Practising is part of a musicians’ life, and always a source of guilt. It is something easy to get out of and hard to see through, but it is the crucial link to keeping music a vocation, not just a job. It is where we experiment, discover and grow, and it is how we protect our artistic integrity. Recently, a much-anticipated date ended quite disastrously: “Maybe you should leave before you wear out your welcome.” Wounded and glum, I found myself in my studio, where I picked pieces at random and played for hours. It felt great, so I guess practising can also be a source of comfort.

In the end, I think it is just a misunderstanding. When people dress up in their Savile Row suits and head off to Bay Street, they are heading off to work. It is not surprising that they would cast an envious eye upon those lucky enough to spend their days “playing.”

Jun 3, 2008

This week’s diarist is Gregory Oh, artistic director of the highly acclaimed new music group Toca Loca. Oh is perfoming in the soundaXis ‘08 New Music festival, which runs to June 15. He kept his diary earlier this month.

It is widely accepted in the worlds of politics, big business and marriage that you should never utter those three damning words: I don’t know.

What is your position on buying polycarbonate from orphans in Tajikistan?

Where is the marketing report that was due last Friday?

When is our anniversary?

SoundaXis’s Music for 6008 Spokes is a “cyclist as musician” show that took place on Saturday afternoon. It included a bicycle ballet written by Julia Aplin and John Gzowski and danced/cycled by students from Etobicoke School of the Arts. Also on the bill was Eine Brise (by Mauricio Kagel) for mass formation of cyclists.

The “piece” consisted of a diagrammed formation of up to 111 “musicians” on bicycles who rode past the audience and at specified points carried out five actions, including ringing their bells, singing, whistling or making “wind noises.” Whenever I’ve shown the score to someone, they’ve invariably asked the same questions:

What does it sound like? Is it a good piece?

What is the artistic message being communicated?

This time, instead of unleashing the standard academic mumbo jumbo, I just told the truth: “I don’t know.” I followed with an “I have no idea” and finished with a vicious “Your guess is as good as mine!”

“I don’t know.” You should try it. It’s very liberating.

Jun 4, 2008

This week’s diarist is Gregory Oh, artistic director of the highly acclaimed new music group Toca Loca. Oh is perfoming in the soundaXis ‘08 New Music festival, which runs to June 15. He kept his diary earlier this month.

My inbox is currently packed with emails about upcoming CBC protests.

By the age of 10, I was already a faithful CBC listener. It was there on long rides in the family Volvo and I have fond memories of falling asleep to radio dramas or Brave New Waves. I lived in the U. S. for three years, and man did I miss the CBC.

There are things that sadden me about the changes and the rhetoric-laced debate. To those who protest — when was the last time stable funding to the CBC was made into an election issue? Supplementary: How often has this pledge been honoured?

I applaud the PR master-mind who framed the debate as classical vs. pop, because it should be about advocating for intelligent and original programming. I don’t think we need more Karajan or more Krall. Instead of asking “How can we capture the 30-to-49s?” the CBC should have asked, “What can we do that an iPod can’t?”

I love Joni Mitchell, but when I want to hear her, I lovingly finger my shiny touchscreen, not my yellowed radio dial. The CBC is the smart geeky kid trying to be a cool preppy, but it’ll never be hip as long as it needs consultants to define the concept; by the time they get the report, it’s already so six months ago.

The buzz is that they’re willing to lose 40% of their core audience to tap the “younger” demographic. It’s time to upgrade to the 32GB model.

Jun 5, 2008

This week’s diarist is Gregory Oh, artistic director of the highly acclaimed new music group Toca Loca. Oh is perfoming in the soundaXis ‘08 New Music festival, which runs to June 15. He kept his diary earlier this month.

“What should I be thinking about while performing?”

One of my cast members asked me this question today; I found it easy to answer, but difficult to answer well.

I’ve read interviews with high-performance athletes where they detail their exact mental process, from gun to finish line. I marvel at the precise mental choreography that is required for a performance where 0.01 seconds can spell the difference between fame and failure.

Personally, I’ve given some of my best performances while brain-dead and jet-lagged, or daydreaming about my next meal, or one time in Austria, winking at the cute blond in the upper balcony.

“Concentrate, focus, think about the music.” This kind of advice sounds like a homecoming cheer, and is equally useful. It’s the equivalent of answering “How will I know if it’s love?” with “You’ll just know.” Gee, thanks.

The pianist Anton Kuerti once advised me to “try to play one perfect phrase. If the first phrase isn’t perfect, move on to the next, and so on. It takes the pressure off.” And if you manage one perfect phrase? “Try for two.”

According to the pianist Gyorgy Sebok, learning is a constructive, meticulous process, but when performing, the challenge is forgetting everything you’ve learned. Violinist David Takeno offered this similar step-by-step approach:

1. Instinct

2. Intellect

3. Instinct.

I suppose what separates a musician from, say, a figure skater is that the latter would probably be thrilled to perfectly reproduce what they had done in practice, whereas I would just be bored. So — what should you be thinking about when performing? Trust your instincts and figure it out yourself…or play on an empty stomach. – Tomorrow: Life isn’t simple, so why should music be?

Jun 6, 2008

This week’s diarist is Gregory Oh, artistic director of the new music group Toca Loca. Oh is perfoming in the soundaXis ‘08 New Music festival, which runs to June 15. He kept his diary earlier this month.

I’ve been reading Phoebe Tsang’s latest chapbook, To Kiss the Ground, and today I shared it with one of my “new music” colleagues, who responded, “I don’t always like poetry, but I really liked reading her work!”

Phoebe was flattered, wryly describing the collection as accessible– “It doesn’t have to be a bad thing– to me it means that I didn’t arbitrarily cut words into tiny pieces, didn’t restrict myself to seven-syllable adjectives and every once in a while, I used a normal sentence structure.”

I’ve been thinking about accessibility and new music, especially amidst soundaXis. While I scoff at those who consider Messiaen’s work to be “contemporary” and find my-self railing against traditional harmony and the “neo-romantics” (the scarlet letter!), the last time my parents heard one of my concerts their response was, “Well… we can’t understand it, but we’re proud of you anyway!”

When I try to enter the world of the poetic avant-garde, I struggle to find meaning and often come away empty-handed, or at least empty-headed. As I guiltily reach for Tennyson and Dickinson, the irony is not lost on me.

To paraphrase (and mash up) two eminent composers, John Beckwith and Henry Brant, appreciating some music requires you to be an active and engaged listener, which is hard work. Life isn’t simple, so why should music be?

I suppose in the end it’s all about finding your own balance. Next weekend I plan to throw something lyrical on the MP3 player and curl up with some Christian Bok.

Credit: Gregory Oh; National Post

We hope you’ll join us at the Music Gallery this February 27th for a bit of music and an afterparty (sponsored by our label, Centrediscs). We hardly ever play Toronto these days, and having already released our CD in Berlin and Vancouver, we’re glad to finally introduce it to our hometown. More importantly, it’ll be nice to see (hopefully) some friends and have a drink, yes?

We won’t actually be playing anything from the album – instead, we’ll be taking a rare solo turn, each playing some of our favourite repertoire, including:

That which is bodiless is reflected in bodies – Matthew Burtner
lliK – Christopher Fox
AK-47 – Matthew Hindson
Grains – Unsuk Chin
Prelude and Fugue – Andre Ristic

800-820 opening act TBA
830-915 Toca Loca plays
915- join us for nerdy good times in the fellowship room

Admission $10 or $15 with a CD. If you’re strapped for cash, lemme know and we’ll figure something out.

THE CRITICS LOVE US

“Toca Loca…clearly believe that contemporary music should grab the listener as much as any other kind…they put on a passionate, disciplined performance that at times rocked harder than many shows I’ve heard in clubs.” – Globe and Mail

“The overall feel is of overhearing a reading of an off-Broadway musical…it’s great to hear new music experts let their hair down.” – Exclaim

“between the trio’s classical chops and its newfound techno soul, minds may well be blown.” – The Georgia Straight

“stands to be an explosive, brain-busting highlight” – EYEWEEKLY

“By far, one of my favourite shows from the past season…the musicianship of the trio is really unprecedented” – the Wholenote

(3.5 stars out of 4) “There’s no shortage of amusing gambits on this album…” – Globe and Mail

“The ensemble Toca Loca offered a vibrant short set of works by Georges Aperghis, Dai Fujikura, Louis Andriessen, and Andrew Staniland” – The New Yorker

LIKE US…

“Depending on your feelings towards Barbie rape, it’s either the best or worst of the fest.” – EYE WEEKLY

“one of the most unique if also convoluted shows at this year’s festival. There is something disturbingly contemplative about the show’s final moments…kudos for being so adventurous even if the end result is more of a misadventure. – Plank Magazine

“I must confess I don’t quite know what to make of the latest Centrediscs release…from Toca Loca” – the Wholenote

JUST WANT TO BE FRIENDS?

“self-referential, abstraction for its own sake, and the listener ends up feeling lost, left out or perhaps not smart enough.” – The Coast

“The best parts on this album were when they were screaming “Chiiii-iiiiii-iiiii-iiiii-na!” and “Chicken shit! Chicken shit! Chick! Chick! Chicken! Shit!” over and over. Everything else was just like the soundtrack to a bad horror movie, except the music would have been more horrific than anything in the film.” – Chart Attack

“I take no pleasure in saying this, but mean it very seriously: stop. All of you involved in this production, please, please, stop making this type of rubbish. Whatever you think you are doing, whatever mores you think you are challenging: you aren’t. You’re making shite that neither conforms to typical standards of pleasure nor challenges convention; all you succeeded in doing was gratifying your selfish needs to be on stage. You have robbed me of whatever eloquence I may possess: Just stop.” – Mondo Magazine

***½

There’s no shortage of amusing gambits on this album by Toronto trio Toca Loca, of composed responses to all things pop. Aaron Gervais’s Shoot Like a Film Star animates a snippet of junk e-mail text with energetic flourishes of voice and instruments (pianos and percussion), reinventing Dada for the spam age. Andrew Staniland’s Made in China worries over small musical aggregates while we soak in a phrase that contains a world of consumer goods. Juliet Palmer’s Five riffs on a song by Alanis Morissette, sending up pop’s insistence on repetition by writing canons that step on each other’s heels. Nicole Lizée’s Promises, Promises is a slippery, sharp-edge rumination on the passage of stylistic time, while other composers cut and rearrange elements of pop song structure. Nobody can resist the urge to complicate pop, though what would be really interesting would be to write something that’s as simple as pop, but that says more. R.E.-G.

purchase it here
original review here

September 10th at the Berghain in Berlin with VJ Safy Sniper, sharing with Kathleen Supove and Detroit underground pioneer DJ Jeff Mills!

http://www.myspace.com/clubcontemporaryclassical

October 15th at the Western Front in Vancouver.

http://front.bc.ca/newmusic/events/3281

More details here

Please note that the extra players mentioned are involved in the Grisey, not in the first show.

Witness our blog: xxxlivenudegirls.blogspot.com

Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace, 16 Ryerson Ave, presented as a part of the Summerworks Festival.

August 6th 4:30pm :: August 12th 10:30pm
August 8th 8:30pm :: August 15th 6:30pm
August 10th 6:30pm :: August 16th 12:30pm

Starring Patricia O’Callaghan, Christine Duncan, Ginette Mohr and Kate Fenton.
A Barbie Opera for the 21st Century! (click below for more information)

Though partly inspired by the marionette operas of Mozart and Haydn, Jennifer Walshe’s XXX Live Nude Girls will never be seen at the Four Seasons Centre. Her gritty, lo-fi score drives this exposé into the shiny plastic world of Barbie.

Produced by Toca Loca and directed by Graham Cozzubbo in conjuction with the Summerworks Festival, XXX dispels the stereotype of boys making war while girls host garden parties. Truth is, when playing with Barbies, cruel abuses are often closer to the rule than the exception. Sometimes the sweet girls just ain’t that sweet.

After stops in England, France, Germany and Austria, don’t miss the First North American Performance of this unique new opera!

The Company
Graham Cozzubbo – Stage Director
Gregory Oh – Music Director
Jennifer Walshe – Composer
Nan Shepherd – Stage Manager
Lina Marques – Costume Design
Derick Greenly – Video/Technical Director
Yesim Tosuner – Graphic Design
Daryl Banks – Photographer
Ginette Mohr – Puppets
Kate Fenton – Puppets
Christine Duncan – Vocals
Patricia O’Callaghan – Vocals
Max Christie – Clarinets
Mary-Katherine Finch – Cello
John Lettieri – Accordion
Steve Ward – Trombone
Callan Burgess – Video

Blog: xxxlivenudegirls.blogspot.com

Tickets: Advance ($12) artsboxoffice.ca or 416.504.7529 or in person at Arts Box Office (16 Ryerson Ave) or at the door ($10)

Festival Info: summerworks.ca

Warning: Crude Language, Explicit Sexual Content, Sexual Violence and Doll Nudity. This show is not suitable for children.

Check out this post if you are interested in helping out.

Thanks!