A musical artist with a sewing machine and yarn, a pianist with sound altering tools, and experimental vocalists took the stage earlier this month in the Performer-Composer Master of Music program’s first student-alumni showcase.
The showcase, on Feb. 1 at Arnold Hall, created a space for students and alumni to experiment and collaborate as well as form community within the newer program, which was introduced at the College of Performing Arts in 2020.
Two MMPC alumni performed original work as the prepared acts of the night and students not a part of the set were encouraged to bring their instruments for a group improvisation at the end of the event. The showcase was organized by Fay Victor, a professor at the MMPC program and a composer, and Samantha Kochis, an alumnus of MMPC and a current faculty member.
“I hope that it also shows the diversity of this program in particular and truly of what’s possible for artists of various practices to come and just explore and create and be a community,” Kochis said of the event.
After the scheduled performances, students brought out their instruments, and microphones were prepared on stands for anyone who wanted to participate.
The music at the showcase was abstract and modern. During the group improv, vocalists’ bubbling sounds and hums, drum beats, and kazoo harmonies blended together and synthesized into a 12-minute song. Band instruments such as flutes and drums were blended with orchestral basses and unique vocals.
Marisa Tornello, a 2021 alum of the program who uses they/she pronouns, opened the showcase with a musical performance art piece where they used extended vocal technique, live looping, and a sewing machine. Tornello asked the audience members to participate by using the four needle and thread options she had laid on the ground to weave a path through a piece of white yarn.
Through live lopping, Tornello created an echoing siren-like call while they sang over it and cut up and sewed a t-shirt that they were wearing.
“It was helpful to have a space that was so open to an interesting experience,” they said.
The showcase also featured prepared piano artist Shinya Lin, saxophonist Jonathan Reisin, drummer Robbie Bowen, vocalist and composer Fay Victor, and flutist Samantha Kochis.
Lin, a 2023 alum, performed an improvised piece with Reisin, who played the saxophone. There are two ways that Lin plays prepared piano — the first requires small tools to be installed in between the strings of a piano to change the sound; the second is by using tools to hit the strings and frame of the piano.
During their performance, Lin switched between standing over the piano adjusting the tools and the sound of the strings to sitting at the piano bench while Reisin, with steady and sudden puffs of the saxophone, created a tempo that frequently sped up and slowed down.
As a prepared piano player, it can be difficult for Lin to find a partner that compliments the volume that their medium requires. “Johnathan was one of the few people that I feel totally comfortable with playing prepared piano because people will usually play very loud, and prepared piano is super soft most of the time. So, he’s one of those people that recognized the usage of different sounds,” Lin said.
Victor saw the showcase as an opportunity to expand the reach of the music community at CoPA. “This was a way to begin that process and so that MMPC students really have access to more people in a wider New York community,” she said. “I think there can’t be enough opportunities to get to play together. So it was really great to see, and I’m already thinking about the next opportunity to make it happen again.”