I also write music.
Here are some examples.

 

Before I Die

performed by Miki Sawada and inspired by Candy Chang’s global art project, “Before I Die” https://beforeidieproject.com with permission from and gratitude to Candy. Produced by Gather Hear, Inc. with support from New Music USA


Out of the Flowers – for string quartet

Performed by Craft Ensemble, 2021

SoundCloud and Video links

String quartet based on a quote by Basho: "The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers."


Joshua Fit the Battle – for violin and bass clarinet

Written for and performed by Box Not Found, 2018

In 1961, my father was 10 and lost his older sister, Linda, to kidney failure. The pain was so great and there was no support for grieving families at the time, so his parents—my grandparents—removed all evidence that she had ever lived. A year later they had a “replacement child,” my uncle, who did not learn about Linda until he was ten and found a box of get-well cards in the attic addressed to a sister he never knew he had.

About a year ago, my father and his two brothers decided to bring their sister back into the light by creating a memorial award in her name. More info on Linda and the award can be found here.

I grew up with photos of Linda in the house and have always known this story, but when the memorial award was set up, I wanted to retell her family’s story in my own way. I wrote a Pecha Kucha poem—a series of short vignettes—based on this story and then turned it into a piece of music for Box Not Found. 

Performed by pianist Miki Sawada http://www.mikisawada.com/ This piece is based on a shape-note song by the same title from the "Northern Harmony" collection. Written in 1948, the words are about the peace that comes only in the afterlife. I chose to write this piece based on the paradox that all is well here and now, and all is also not well, which I illustrate using two tonal centers. There is also a chorale-like moment in the middle which is a distilled version of the original shape-note melody.

All Is Well – for solo piano

Performed by Miki Sawada, 2017