Erika Oba - Part 2

For Good Measure, by Ensemble for These Times (E4TT)
Episode 48: Erika Oba (part 2)

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In this week’s episode, we talk to Erika Oba about working with performing artists in theatre and dance, and how improvisation has helped her compositional workflow. If you enjoyed today’s conversation and want to know more about Erika Oba, check her out here: erikaoba.com. Parts of this episode originally premiered on May 2022, found on Youtube, click here.

This podcast is made possible in part by a grant from the California Arts Council and generous donors, like you. Want to support For Good Measure and E4TT? Make a tax-deductible donation or sign up for our newsletter, and subscribe to the podcast!

Intro music: “Trifolium” by Gabriela Ortiz, performed by E4TT (Ilana Blumberg, violin; Abigail Monroe, cello; Margaret Halbig, piano),  as part of “Below the Surface: Music by Women Composers,” January 29, 2022
Outro music: “Lake Turkana” by Marcus Norris, performed by E4TT (Margaret Halbig, piano), as part of “Alchemy,” October 15, 2021

Transcription courtesy of Otter.ai.

Producer, Host, and E4TT co-founder: Nanette McGuinness
Audio Engineer: Stephanie M. Neumann
Podcast Cover Art: Brennan Stokes
Interns: Roziht Edwards and Merve Tokar

Don't miss Ensemble for These Times' upcoming concert 'Mujeres Ahora' on May 9 at the Community Music Center, presented as part of the San Francisco International Arts Festival. For more information, go to www.E4TT.org.

Chapters

• 0:45 What is your compositional process like?
• 2:16 You’ve expressed interest in “exploring ritual, diasporic identities, and community through performance.” Could you tell us more about this?
• 5:08 You’ve worked as a dance accompanist at Mills College and Berkeley Ballet Theatre. Has that also informed your practice?
• 6:43 So for you, composing dance music and the classical chamber music are very different practices? Is there any cross-pollination?

Transcript

Nanette McGuinness: 0:16

[INTRO MUSIC] Welcome to For Good Measure, an interview series celebrating diverse composers and other creative artists sponsored by grant from the California Arts Council. I'm Nanette McGuinness, artistic executive director of Ensemble For These Times. In this week's episode, we continue our conversation with Erika Oba, who we spoke to in May 2022 [INTRO MUSIC ENDS]. What is your compositional process like?

Erika Oba: 0:49

It really depends on who I'm writing for and what context. But I would say that I found the most fruitful, kind of like method or steps is when I start by improvising if I start at the piano, and like just record myself improvising different things, that's generally like the strongest way that I've found. I've tried other things too, but I'm finding that that's generally, that's the strongest starting point for me, for some projects, if I'm not collaborating with someone else, and given like, you know, like, well, this is what the piece is about. I found that like thinking conceptually, and thematically is helpful to me, as well. So if I'm writing like a chamber music piece for, like a group that I'm not in, for example, if I'm not performing in that ensemble, sometimes that takes a little bit more mining to think through, like, Well, where am I going with this, but once I have that seed of an idea, kind of improvising around whatever that concept is, and then recording myself and then going back and listening and seeing if I like it, and then maybe transcribing a snippet, and then working from there is I think, a useful way to approach things for me personally.

Nanette McGuinness: 2:16

You've expressed interest in exploring ritual, diasporic identities and community through performance. Could you tell us more about this?

Erika Oba: 2:25

Yeah, so I've had the good fortune of being able to work with a lot of different types of performing artists, dancers, like actors, playwrights, in addition to you know, the fabulous musicians I'm surrounded by. And I feel like, you know, the barrier has a really rich scene for people working in different cultural practices and kind of exploring how to add and create new things, drawing on different traditions. And there's a couple choreographers in particular, who I feel like really influenced how I think about my own creative process and the kinds of things I might want to make. So there's a wonderful choreographer, Sammay Dizon, who is a Filipina choreographer who I've gotten to work with a couple times, and she's done some incredible, like deep, deep work, drawing on different spiritual cultural traditions from her heritage. And, but like kind of setting them in a modern dance context and creating kind of these like new ritual spaces. And really just seeing how she worked was pretty transformative for me and seeing the effect that that like deep, intentional practice can have on the people she's performing with, and also the audiences and kind of like the community species spaces that she's building through that work. And then another choreographer I've gotten to work with is, Byb Bibene, who is a Congolese choreographer. And he also, I mean, in some ways, similar to some may drawing on some, like, various spiritual, cultural, different traditions from his own heritage, and then kind of putting them in a more modern dance context, but but still very, very different, like, only similar and that they're like, kind of exploring these, like, some of the similar questions. But, you know, the way it manifests that, you know, they each have their own practice that is deep and involved in their own ways. But I've gotten to play with him a little bit. And yeah, just seeing like the communities he's building out of these things, and kind of exploring how to, you know, create something new, that has deep relevance for the people who are participating in either as performers or audience members, was just, like, deeply moving to me to be able to see that and I feel like there are other musicians and composers also exploring some of these similar threads. So that's been really stimulating and interesting for me and something that I'm continuing to think about how to integrate into my own work.

Nanette McGuinness: 5:09

You've worked as a dance accompanist at Mills College and Berkeley Ballet Theatre. Has that also informed your practice?

Erika Oba: 5:16

Yeah, I think I got my start working with dancers, I think when I was doing dance accompaniment work at Mills College, and then shortly after that at Berklee Ballet Theatre, and that was, as a pianist I was doing, you know, piano accompaniment work for their dance classes. And yeah, I got to do ballet and some modern dance. And regardless of the type of music, I was mostly improvising on piano, so I feel like those experiences made me a better improviser just across the board. Because, you know, you have to respond in real time and really give something specific, you have to give energy and be involved in you know, in communication with the dancers, and dance instructors. So I feel like that definitely affected just how I approach music since then. And now in my performing life, I work quite a bit with dancers, but primarily as a improvising flute player. So the, the content of what I'm doing is a little bit different. But I feel like the kind of the mentality I approach it with is coming from a similar place, which is, you know, collaboration and listening and paying attention and doing tuning into what people do something completely different from what I'm doing and what I have, you know, no idea how they do what they do. But it's one of my favorite things to do. I absolutely love working with dancers.

Nanette McGuinness: 6:44

So for you, composing dance music, and classical chamber music are very different practices. Is there any cross pollination?

Erika Oba: 6:52

most of the music I've done for dancers has been mostly improvised, I mean, it composed in the sense that some of it, I might like, come up with, you know, some sort of concept or structure that I'm working with, depending on what's being asked of me. But generally, not through composed music for dancers, I did do like a recorded like a fixed media thing for a zoom dance performance during the pandemic, that I was actually very happy with that collaboration process and what came out of it. So I guess that's like the most fixed thing I've done. And that wasn't really like, I wasn't notating any of it. But it was like a fixed composition in that way. Some of my concert music has, again, depending on the performers might have some sections of improvisation, but I guess compared to the dance work significantly more composed. In terms of process, I think one of the things I've gotten out of working with dancers is just kind of the immediacy of live performance, like the energy of life performance, which you know, concert music has as well. But I feel like working with dancers has pushed me to really, like, think harder about how to like, really be immediate and present in performance. So when I'm writing, you know, that's an energy that I'm trying to cultivate and channel. And also just, you know, from, like the perspective of like, movement based music, having, you know, certain characteristics that I think are now just part of, you know, how I think about music and not to say that everything I write is gonna be like, you know, like a danceable groove based thing. But maybe even more thinking about gestural energy, I think is something that I think about a lot when I'm composing. So

Nanette McGuinness: 8:53

Right, that you've developed your own kind of gestural vocabulary or repertoire of vocabularies that you can pull on when you're thinking visually.

Erika Oba: 9:03

Yeah.

Nanette McGuinness: 9:05

[OUTRO MUSIC] Thank you for listening to For Good Measure, and a special thank you to our guest, Dawn Norfleet for joining us today. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to our podcast by clicking on the subscribe button and support us by sharing it with your friends, posting about it on social media and leaving us a rating and a review. To learn more about E4TT Our concert season online and in the Bay Area where to make a tax deductible donation, please visit us at www.E4TT.org. This podcast is made possible in part by a grant from the California Arts Council and generous donors like you. "For Good Measure" is produced by Nanette McGuinness and Ensemble for These Times, and designed by Brennan Stokes. With special thanks to audio engineer extraordinaire Stephanie Neumann. Remember to keep supporting equity in the arts and tune in next week "for good measure." [OUTRO MUSIC ENDS]