This piece was originally written for piano trio, as part of a composer-performer collaborative suite “Impressions of House and Home” that explores various interpretations of home and how our distinct cultural upbringings influence our musical language. When thinking about what to write for a piece on “house and home”, my mind was immediately flooded with memories of various music from my childhood in Japan. I drew from two main melodies: one, the school song of the Japanese elementary school my mother and I attended, and the other, the melody of a traditional holiday folk tune. I also used fragments of short songs that would play over public speakers down my street, and rhythms reminiscent of traditional Japanese festival dance. While the piece itself is not quite a narrative of my sentiments of home, it is a collage of – like the title suggests – traces of music both literally and figuratively from home.

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This piece was written during a three-week residency, and while I had an incredible experience composing the piece during that time, I wanted to continue working on the piece as I felt that some of the musical ideas could translate stronger in a larger orchestration. Thus, I expanded Lineage Traces for full orchestra. 

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Here is a reading of the orchestra version with the Oberlin Orchestra (will be premiered in Spring 2020), and an explanation of the work's role in exploring cross-cultural understanding.

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Here is a performance of the piano trio in February 2019:

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And a 

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This piece was written during a residency at Arts Letters & Numbers with the KOI collective, a group of women composers at Oberlin Conservatory, and in collaboration with its 2019 ensemble-in-residence comprised of fellow Oberlin musicians. The four-part suite, “Impressions of House and Home”, explores the various interpretations of home and how our unique, distinct cultures influence our musical language. For more information about the KOI collective, visit https://bit.ly/2Sxe8F0