Erika Oba - Part 1

For Good Measure, by Ensemble for These Times (E4TT)
Episode 47: Erika Oba (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 Erika Oba about how being a multi-instrumentalist and a cross-genre composer influence her compositional process.  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

• 0:49 You’re a flutist and a pianist as well as a composer. What was the timeline for these for you in your musical journey?
• 1:40 Any standout performance memories? Would you like to tell us about your current ensemble?
• 2:16 How has your experience as a musician added to your compositional process?
• 3:13 Do you mostly compose at the piano, on the computer, or does it depend on the piece?
• 3:37 You play jazz and classical music. Do you compose both, too: are they “competing compositional children” or is the boundary fluid?
• 5:16 Who are your major influences?

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 Erika Oba, who we spoke to in May 2022[INTRO MUSIC ENDS]. Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us! You are a flutist and a pianist as well as a composer? What was the timeline for these for you and your musical journey?

Erika Oba: 0:55

I started piano when I was about five years old. And then I picked up flute in the fifth grade. And I started composing sometime in middle school. And through middle school high school, I played in you know, youth orchestras on flute and I was also playing in jazz ensembles. And for my undergraduate, I studied jazz piano performance at Oberlin Conservatory. And then I did my graduate studies in composition at Mills College, and sort of came back to playing flute more seriously in my 20s. Partially through the program at Mills. Well, I was composing, but I was also performing quite a bit in other people's projects. And so now, I tried to do all three as much as I can.

Nanette McGuinness: 1:38

Any standout performance memories?

Erika Oba: 1:40

Yes, yeah, I have several groups going right now. One of my ensembles, I've had the good fortune of being able to continue even with the pandemic. And yeah, I would say some standout performances were recently would be that group, I've been lucky enough to get to perform with them a couple of times this fall. And I'll talk about it a little bit more, I think, at a later point. But we have a live stream of a show we just filmed coming up, and I was very happy with how that came out.

Nanette McGuinness: 2:14

How has your experience as a musician added to your compositional process?

Erika Oba: 2:19

I feel like everything I do informs everything else I do. So you know, on a pretty basic level, I feel like being a wind player has helped me right. Well, one for wind instruments a lot easier, but also just for like melodic instruments. And playing piano, obviously. I mean, everything, you know, harmony, arranging, just like thinking, theoretically. And I feel like piano is just very, very useful for being a composer of any sort. And as a jazz musician, I feel like having an improvisational background has really informed my compositional process at every stage.

Nanette McGuinness: 3:10

Do you mostly compose at the piano on the computer? Or does it depend on the piece?

Erika Oba: 3:16

I usually start at the piano. Occasionally I'll start on flute. But I would say the vast majority of the time I start at the piano and then you notice a certain point of the process, I might take it to the computer for notation reasons. And then that also becomes part of the process.

Nanette McGuinness: 3:35

You play both jazz and classical music. Do you compose both? Two? are they competing compositional children? Or is the boundary fluid?

Erika Oba: 3:45

I'm not really I guess. I write for, I would say until fairly recently, the majority of my composing was for ensembles that I was in. So if that was like a chamber ensemble, I'd be writing for whatever chamber group I was in and post playing in a more jazz oriented ensemble. You know, that was more how that might work might be oriented. But I feel like the you know, the people that I'm working with tend to overlap and what they do as well. So I would say it's less a binary between like classically oriented music and jazz oriented music and more like along the spectrum of improvised music, experimental music and through composed music. I mean, even when I'm writing for my chamber ensembles, if the performers are game I'll, you know, often incorporate elements of improvisation. And you know, if the Jazz Ensemble I mean would be game, I might write something like, you know, like, a little bit more through composed so I feel like there's elements of both, regardless of what setting I'm writing for. I think I'm lucky enough to be surrounded by performers who are often in a game for anything and willing to experiment or go outside of whatever their normal zones might be.

Nanette McGuinness: 5:14

Who are your major influences?

Erika Oba: 5:16

I would say that my first major musical influence was Peter Applebaum, who's originally from the Bay Area and is now a New York based artist, composer, a saxophone player multi instrumentalist. He, I met him when I was 12. And he was one of my first like, serious music mentors. And I remember going to see a live show of his at a very, you know, impressionable preteen age and just being like, so blown away with the music that his ensemble is doing. And getting so excited for the first time like thinking like, oh, like, I might want to do this with my life, like, that feeling was great. This life music thing is amazing. And he's continuing to be an influence on me, like, I try to listen to everything he puts out. And I've got, I've had the good fortune of getting to perform with him as an adult. He has a band that's based in New York, but sometimes comes out here and plays and he's letting me like, sit in on some of his gigs with his band. And, yeah, so in that way, I think he continues to influence me and other musical influences Myra, definitely. Like some of you know, like, she's coming from a more experimental tradition, which like, actually, Peter is too they have some overlap in their mentorship. But when I met Myra, I hadn't done too much of like the experimental improvise side of jazz. And she just opened up my world to, you know, that whole world. And she's part of the reason why I ended up going to Mills, because I was like, oh, like, I like what Myra is doing. And like, I guess, some people are doing and experimenting with that, you know, in this scene over here, and maybe I can expand what I'm doing that way. So yeah, Myra is definitely musical influence. And I guess like, in terms of like, conceptually, artistically, the work of Fred Hall has had a big influence on me. And the work of you know, all the other artists that Asian improv arts like John Jiang and Francis Wong. You Yeah, I just, I just, I didn't know about them growing up, even though I grew up in the bay area. So I you know, I met Francis sometime in my 20s and became more familiar with his body of work and John James body of work and fed his body of work and, you know, listen to the records and read a lot of Fred hos writings in particular that, I think had a pretty big influence on like, my thoughts on Oh, like, what am I doing here? And like, what, why am I doing this? And why do I want to do this? So yeah, those are those are some that I think continued to inform me, Bartok. I listened to a lot of Bartok string quartets. When I was working on mine,and Charles Ives lately, I've been like, interested in some of what he was doing and listen to some Charles Ives. I mean, I don't know if that I don't know if either of those influences manifests like musically in my work, but like I have found them interesting to study.

Nanette McGuinness: 8:25

[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]