works » electronic

Commissioned by the Chicago Civic Orchestra for their 100th Anniversary
Year Composed: 2020
Duration: 0:02:00
Premiere: 3/29/2020; Civic Orchestra: 100th Anniversary Virtual Premiere Concert
Featured in Yale University’s 295 Magazine

Program Notes:

As one of 7 commissions by the Chicago Civic Orchestra, the objective was to create a 2-minute electronic work within a week responding to the global challenges triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

By March 21st, 2020, more than 650 hate incidences on Asian Americans were reported to Stop AAPI Hate a tracking effort launched just a few days before. That number has since risen into the multiple thousands.

At that time, my childhood piano teacher of Chinese descent was recently a victim of a hit and run in Kansas City, Missouri. She felt deliberately targeted and had no idea about the rise in hundreds of attacks on Asian people around the world. In response to these events, I wrote PSA: 650+ as a quasi-public safety alert for Asian people to be aware of the escalation of emboldened violence against them on top of having to fear infection from the virus.

The musical atmosphere is inspired the Japanese survival-thriller film Battle Royale (2000) and the dystopian future imagined in the film Blade Runner (1982) which is set in the year of 2019 in Los Angeles where I was quarantined at the time of writing. The language is in Korean and English reflecting my own demographic which also serves to acknowledge that not all people from Asia, comprised of 48 countries speaking over 2,000 languages, fall under a monolithic identity nor experience.