Monica Chew - Part 1

For Good Measure, by Ensemble for These Times (E4TT)
Episode 52: Monica Chew (part 1)

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 Monica Chew about her path from computer science to music. If you enjoyed today’s conversation and want to know more about Monica Chew, check her out here: www.monicachew.com. Parts of this episode originally premiered on June 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

• 0:49 In addition to being a pianist and a composer, you also have a phD in Computer Science and worked at Google! What drew you to that field?
• 2:13 What did you work on at Google?
• 2:41 What correlations have you found between music, computer science, and engineering? What influences do you see from one to another?
• 4:30 Changing careers took a good deal of courage! What led you to become a composer? Does your career look different from what you envisioned as you were growing up?
• 6:10 Can you talk about the string quartet you wrote that required digital rehearsal and remote performance?

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're joined by Monica Chew, who we spoke to in June 2022 [INTRO MUSIC ENDS]. Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us. In addition to being a pianist and a composer, you also have a doctorate in computer science and worked at Google. What drew you to that field?

Monica Chew: 0:59

Well, I just want to say, thank you for having me on your show. And I'm really excited to be here. And as to your question about what drew me to computer science, it's really it's really not a very considered a story. So what happened was, during high school, I wanted to go to music school. When I graduated, and because of lack of funding from my parents, I just decided to go to the only undergraduate school that gave me a full ride, which was the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. And fortunately for me, I found a really wonderful piano teacher there. And I was able to simultaneously do a computer science degree. So that's how that happened in undergrad. And it was it was fun. I mean, it's fun to make things I like to make anything really. So making music making tools making software. Yeah, so I think they're both very friendly fields. for creatives. What did you work on at Google? I worked on security and spam and phishing and malware. So I basically was hired into the security department. And then, towards the second half of my time there, I worked exclusively on email. So I was responsible for preventing phishing emails from reaching your inbox, as well as a spam

Nanette McGuinness: 2:42

What correlations have you found between music, computer science, and engineering? What influences do you see from one to the other?

Monica Chew: 2:51

Now, this question actually comes up quite a bit, but I don't really see those two fields as inherently related. They both are, from an outsider's perspective, like, the work of like, you know, playing music, or writing music or writing code. And people just sort of think that's what computer scientists does, or a musician does. But actually, there's a ton of a ton of project management work, and administrative work, as you know, well from being the director of a small ensemble, and that work is actually very similar, just the work to sort of manage everything and getting everything done that you need to, to really execute an idea. So those are very similar. And the process of I mean, ideas are easy to come by, right. So the process of taking an idea, like maybe have an idea for a program or, or for writing a piece, and, or a piece of software that you want to write, or you think would be useful, all three of those things. The process for like taking that idea and figuring out what needs to happen in order for the idea to actually get made. In a lot of ways it's really similar. I mean, there's, of course, plenty of people who are interested in both technology and music, but it's it's never for me, it's never been, oh, I'm views. These are two parallel fields. I've, I'm drawn to one because of the other.

Nanette McGuinness: 4:30

Changing careers took a good deal of courage. What led you to become a composer? Does your career look different from what you envisioned as you were growing up?

Monica Chew: 4:41

Well, I haven't been composing for really very long, just less than five years. I think it's been four years. The reason I started composing was actually pretty typical of the hubris that a lot of engineers exhibit, which is that they think they can do anything like How hard could it be right? And so I had this thought that maybe I could write some music and Nobody really discouraged me. So I just decided to do it. And I did it. And it probably wasn't very good. But you know, it was a lot of fun. And my first composition project was actually a song cycle that I wrote, for my friend who, you know, Jamie Lee, and we did it, we did it together. And that was part of what made it really fun is working with a friend. And you know, I, what I learned about composing over the past couple of years, is that it's really important to me to be able to provide music for other players that they, they enjoy playing and it fulfills a need for them.

Nanette McGuinness: 6:11

Can you talk about the string quartet, you wrote that required digital rehearsal and remote performance?

Monica Chew: 6:17

That was a project that I self produced, nobody asked me to do that. And I, I paid a quartet to play it. And it was, it was published on the YouTube channel for Senator of new music. And an amateur quartet went to that concert and really connected with that piece. And they reached out and asked if they could have the score, and they wanted to play it for the road community concert event. All over zoom. And I of course, was very delighted to have this happen. And I offered to sit on, sit in on some rehearsals and give them feedback and whatever they needed. So I did that a couple of times, and that I went to the concert. And it was actually super touching, like even more so than the concert that I paid to produce my own piece because there are these people who are desperate to play music together. And because of COVID, this is what they could manage. And I felt really good about being able to provide a score that they could use to come together and play music, and that other people enjoyed listening to. And that was really special to me.

Nanette McGuinness: 7:39

[OUTRO MUSIC] Thank you for listening to For Good Measure, and a special thank you to our guest, Monica Chew 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]