Erika Oba - Part 5

For Good Measure, by Ensemble for These Times (E4TT)
Episode 51: Erika Oba (part 5)

Looking for a way to listen to diverse creators and to support equity in the arts? Tune in weekly to For Good Measure!

In this week’s episode, we talk to Erika Oba about recent exciting projects, the impact diverse mentors have had on her, and advice for aspiring women composers.  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 Does having women mentors make a difference?
• 1:43 Does it make a difference having mentors or teachers who look like you?
• 3:16 Did you have events cancelled during the pandemic?
• 4:20 Any advice for young women composers or for emerging/aspiring composers in this pandemic landscape?
• 7:15 What upcoming events or projects are you looking forward to?

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]. Does having women mentors make a difference?

Erika Oba: 0:50

Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, I think I think it's made a huge and I think it's made maybe a difference in how like, they approach mentoring, too, because like, they knew what the landscape was like. And, you know, Gabriela Lena Frank often talks about how she's trying to be the mentor that she was, she wishes that she'd had when she was younger. And, yeah, she's very thoughtful and conscientious of that. And I think that makes a huge difference. And like, the kind of relationship that I'm able to have with her, and it's something that I really want to work on. So you know, as I, you know, hopefully progress in my career, I'm able to be that person for younger people coming after me. And in my private lessons, I try really hard to like, you know, never, you know, always like, hear, hear where my students are coming from because I feel like that was a struggle in some spaces I was in.

Nanette McGuinness: 1:43

Does it make a difference having mentors or teachers who look like you?

Erika Oba: 1:48

I have longed for that a little bit. And if I have opportunities to interface with more Asian American female composers, I think I would like to, actually a I recently got to meet and know Jen Chu, who I, she's so wonderful, she's multidisciplinary artist, doing really, I should have I should have listed earlier when I was talking about influences, like encountering her work blew my mind and has like, been very, very inspiring. And like, I the only live concert that I've gotten to see that it wasn't performing in this fall was Jen shoes. And just like, completely, like shattered my soul. And yeah, I mean, I haven't gotten to study with her, but like, just like, meeting her and encountering Her work has, I think, been really wonderful. And yeah, I would I would like to I think if I could find some Asian American female mentors, I would like that my sister, actually, I guess my older sister. She's two years older than me. So she's not that much older than me. But she's also a composer. And I should have mentioned her earlier. She's my first mentor. Oh, that's sweet. Sweet. Yeah, just seeing her do what she does, ahead of me, I think did make it feel possible for me to do the things that I do. So in that way, I guess I had at least one model of someone who literally looks like me.

Nanette McGuinness: 3:16

Did you have events canceled during the pandemic?

Erika Oba: 3:20

Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, and I think that might be ongoing. I have some things scheduled in the spring that I'm a little bit nervous might get postponed or turned into live streams or like even so my, my chamber group, the Sl(e)ight Ensemble that I mentioned earlier, we were originally going to do a live performance in November at the Center for New Music in San Francisco. And then, as we got closer to it, we opted for a live stream with Delta variant doing its thing. And I think people still being quite cautious about going out to live shows. So yeah. And actually, my spring is getting quite full because things that had been scheduled, you know, earlier this year, got postponed, and now they're all scheduled. In the first half of 2020 do Oh, yeah. So it fingers crossed, I'm Hope. I'm hopeful that things are going in a good direction.

Nanette McGuinness: 4:21

Any advice for young women composers or for emerging aspiring composers in the pandemic landscape?

Erika Oba: 4:28

Yeah, I would. I guess the advice I wish I'd gotten as a young woman composer, that I would like to impart on as many younger woman as I can, is to Yeah, just find the people that will support you like the if you're a composer, just find the performers that will be excited about the things you want to try and support you in that find the mentors that will go to bat for you. Because that that makes such a huge difference and to not try to contort yourself to fit what you think other people want you to be whether that's your mentors or institutions that you're at, and you know the strength in numbers so if you find the people who will support you and that you can form you know, communities and coalition's with you you'll be stronger for it and you'll be able to make more and interesting work that's longer lasting. So, yeah, I think that that's, that's part of my advice and to Yeah, if a space or people are not serving you, and they don't see you for how you want to be seen, like, leave it. I know, that's easier said than done, especially if you're like, at school or something. But I feel like I, you know, in various points in my life, I expended a lot of energy trying to like fit into certain molds that were not serving me in the ways that I think they needed to. So yeah, try to own on the things that you are and support the people around you that look like they need it. And, in turn, you'll get your support to, and for pandemic era, composing advice. And personally, the upside for me, of having my performance courier put on complete hold was that I had more time to study and compose. So yeah, not having gigs on the weekends means that, you know, you actually have time to sit at home and like study scores and compose a little bit. So I guess, if you're able to take that time, you know, study and just make a regular habit of composing and work on that craft. And also, I think one upside of these past few years is that people are a lot more open and now used to doing remote collaborations. So that's definitely, I think, a rich avenue for exploration. And if you're able to find people to connect with, even if they're not local to, you know, you can write new works for somebody, have them read it, workshop it and just kind of hone up on your skills that way, and also, like, create more community, even if someone like lives in New York, or Boston, or the Midwest, or whatever. And you're here. And I think that that can be really valuable. And I've found great value in being able to do that.

Nanette McGuinness: 7:15

What upcoming events or projects are you looking forward to?

Erika Oba: 7:19

My most immediate one is when I just mentioned, I have a live stream, from Center of New Music's channel on this coming Wednesday, December 15. My chamber group decided to do a themed concert of new works centered on California Ecology. So our program is of California Ecology. And each of the three ensemble members contributed a new work. And we also got to commission to composers Kian Ravaei and our dear friend, Julie Herndon. So we've got new works by these five composers. And, yeah, I'm excited to share that we had like a soft premiere house concert that we did. That was really lovely. And I feel very grateful, we got to do that. And I'm also excited to share it again. And we filmed it properly. So like it'll, it'll be a proper performance. And then, in the spring, we're doing that program one more time at UC Davis is one of our members, Jacob lane is currently getting his doctorate at UC Davis. And then other projects. One of the things that got postponed is a music show of a play that I was supposed to music direct at shotgun players at Ashby stage in Berkeley, they're doing a reading of a show called my hate letter to the great American theatre by Diana Oh, and I'm very excited by some exciting music, and potentially, maybe some, some original music might be added to this show. So that's in February. And then I'm currently writing music for a play by the playwright Carol lash off. And she's been working on a play of sort of a remix, which I think she's calling it a remix, reworking of the 1908 play the melting pot, but Israel's angle. And so I've been we've been working, we've been collaborating on this for a few years now. So this was one of the things that had gotten postponed to. So I'm really excited for that it's going to be a reading like a concert reading. So it's, it's not really a musical, it's a play with and it's not quite incidental music either. So it's like a play with some music integrated into it. And we're supposed to fingers crossed, have our reading for that in April. And then, you know, after a pretty long COVID hiatus, I'm kind of coming back into my jazz piano life as well. And I have a new trio that I'm forming with a drummer and a bass player that I'm pretty excited by and we have a show in March scheduled and second show, hopefully, sometime later, maybe in May.

Nanette McGuinness: 10:04

[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]