Erika Oba - Part 3

For Good Measure, by Ensemble for These Times (E4TT)
Episode 49: Erika Oba (part 3)

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 growing up as a Japanese-American woman influenced her musical journey and her recent exciting collaboration with Meredith Monk. 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

• 0:46 Has your music been influenced by your experience as a Japanese-American woman, and if so, how?
• 5:19 You mentioned different forms and structures?
• 6:20 You recently collaborated with Meredith Monk. What an amazing opportunity! What was that experience like?

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]. Has your music been influenced by your experience as a Japanese American woman? And if so, how?

Erika Oba: 0:52

I think so. Yeah. I mean, my, my parents both immigrated from Japan. So I feel like culturally, I grew up in a fairly Japanese household. And I feel like that, you know, that's just who I am and intractable from who I am as a person. And I think, yeah, I think consciously and unconsciously, it, it does inform the work that I do. And some of it, you know, is in just like thematic content, and you can maybe see that sometimes even just like in like, my titles and that kind of thing. But also, like, aesthetically, I do think that, you know, that has informed where I'm coming from. And, you know, I wasn't trained in any particular like traditional Japanese music traditions, but, you know, there are, like, different Japanese music traditions that are around me. So I feel like, you know, some of that has been absorbed. My, my mother for a while was studying Okinawa, Sanshin music was a three string, Okinawa, like banjo, and I, you know, I love that music. And there was a period of time when, you know, I was hearing quite a bit of x, my mom was doing it, and, you know, she was playing with local people. And it was fabulous local Sanshin player who was leading these groups, and I was so fascinated with that specific tradition. So I feel like for Sanshin music I've like definitely, you know, deliberately pulled like, like, not just musical content, but just like ideas about musical form and ways of like organizing music and ideas that I've tried to incorporate into some of my music. And then I also used to play briefly, I played like the traditional Japanese bamboo flute, the flute with a local Taiko group. And that that was also just super fun. And, and it was a it was like mostly older retired women who were just like super buff, and you know, really fit going with these huge Taiko drums. And for that tradition, to I think I got a lot out of just seeing, you know, different ways of conceptualizing music and how they communicate and organize musical ideas is, you know, its own language and tradition that's different from, you know, kind of the more traditional western music traditions that I went to school for. So I feel like both of those things, just being in those spaces, I like, absorb some things and tried to, you know, approach my music. You know, from from those angles to like, oh, well, like if we're not coming at it from necessarily like notated music. How do people like learn these really complex, long things by ear? And it's like, oh, that's how they do, you know? So? Yeah, I think those things have continued to influence how I think about music. And I've written a couple pieces where I was trying to kind of emulate the communal playing style. So it's, you know, it's non hierarchical. So it's not like you have a conductor and then you have to, but they can still have these like pretty complex ledger ensembles doing things. So I've written a couple pieces where I was like, Okay, well, how can I model this, you know, to varying degrees of success. I don't know that it's always successful. But it's been an interesting process and practice for me. So I'll probably keep experimenting with these things. for the Taiko groups, I mean, I think part of it is just that they train themselves to have incredibly good memories. And they have, you know, these pretty complex rhythmic patterns and beat cycles that they'll just like, learn and then like, internalize, and it's almost like dance actually, because a lot of it's very physical too, if you've ever seen taiko drums, so a lot of it's like, choreographed. Yeah, it's kind of like choreography too. And I was certainly never able to memorize things to the degree that they could so I was always like, translating what they were doing and like writing out notes for myself, so that I could like follow the map but you know, they would like go for like 20 minutes and they just like have it in their brains, which is Find very impressive.

Nanette McGuinness: 5:20

You mentioned different forms and structures?

Erika Oba: 5:23

Yeah, or like just ways of approaching, I guess, like musical form and like tonality even. So with the three string banjo, like you're not necessarily playing chords, right? So you just have these three pitches that you're working off of. And then it's usually like a counterpoint line against whatever you're singing. So yeah, like even just that, as a musical like structure starting point was interesting for me. So yeah, I would say like, even when I'm writing, like STRING QUARTET MUSIC, all like, some of that tonalities in my ear and in my brain while I'm trying to explore different ideas, not necessarily to try to like emulate it, but just as like, you know, what, one way of approaching sound and music that I find very generative.

Nanette McGuinness: 6:15

Yeah. And expanded temporal universe.

Erika Oba: 6:18

Yeah.

Nanette McGuinness: 6:20

You recently collaborated with Meredith Monk, what an amazing opportunity. What was that experience, like?

Erika Oba: 6:28

It was one of like, the more magical things I think I've gotten to do in my life, she was just such a wonderful presence. And I think she takes mentorship really, really seriously, and was just so generous in her energy. And her music was just, I don't know that I've played music on flute that felt so physically good to play. Just like the way like playing her lines resonated in my body, what was playing them felt good, and how it resonated with everybody else doing their parts, it was just a really wonderful experience. And it was my first big live performance that I'd done since the pandemic. So I feel like I got very, very lucky that, you know, I can ease my way back into performance with this kind of amazing ensemble and music opportunity.

Nanette McGuinness: 7:23

[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]