Laós Chamber Music - Panel Discussion 05/06/23 скачать в хорошем качестве

Laós Chamber Music - Panel Discussion 05/06/23

Earlier this month, The Gathering had a wonderful opportunity to collaborate with Laós Chamber Music, a new classical chamber music series hosted at Church of Our Saviour in San Gabriel, CA. Ahead of Laós’ season finale concert on May 6th, 2023, The Gathering hosted a panel discussion with two featured Asian American composers Niall Taro Ferguson, and Nicky Sohn, as well as soprano soloist Kelci Hahn. Moderated by The Gathering Team member and Laós Chamber Music Artistic Director, Dustin Seo, the panel delved into a deep discussion of their Asian American identity in intersection with their artistry and professional career as classical musicians. A fascinating topic during the discussion was each panel member's relationship as Asian Americans with their practice of a western, eurocentric artform. The panel brought up the fact that in some ways, success as a classical musician was their way of “succeeding” as an assimilated Asian American, and questioned whether their adoption of a western artform took away from their opportunity to explore more eastern practices of art. But ultimately, regardless of that difficult conversation, the musicians continue to celebrate their voice as classically trained musicians, and now find creative practices that reflect their intersectional identity as Asian Americans. As Asian Americans, we often find ourselves alienated on either side of our identity. And yet, just like we discussed in our panel discussion, our intersectional identity does not take away from our “asianness” or “americanness,” but rather empowers us to be distinctly unique, and find our creative and identity expression in whatever is most authentic to us.