EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, COMPOSER, CONDUCTOR: EMILY JIANG
PRODUCER, DIRECTOR: BRIAN DOOM
EDITOR: LENA BROOKS
ON-SITE SINGERS: CATHLEEN KALCIC (SOLOIST), BARBARA SAXTON, ANNA CHASE, CIARA KARSKI, EITHNE PARDINI, YITING JIN
TELEPRESENCE SINGERS: ARKADY MARTINE (SOLOIST), MARI NESS, TEDDY BUCHANAN, MIKE SWIRSKY, ALYC HELMS, RACHEL SWIRSKY
“Telepresence” is the third song in “The Evolution of Telecommunications”, a song cycle written for a combined choir of telepresence singers and on-site singers. Current personal telecommunications technology makes it impossible to perfectly coordinate the entrances and exits of telepresence singers because each telepresence singer experiences a uniquely different lag time, the time that it takes video and sound to travel from conductor to singer back to conductor. Telepresence was written to showcase this technical issue. The telepresence singers are supposed to sing in unison with the on-site singers at the very beginning of the song, but the listener can hear the effect of the lag, and how the telepresence singers are not in synch with anyone, even though each telepresence singer is carefully following the beat of the conductor. This rhythmic discord is intentional and challenges the traditional concept of what a choir needs to sound like. The resulting rhythmic discord can be likened to the current state of internet communications, where a multitude of voices can create an interesting cacaphonous texture that can be its own beautiful message when taken as a collective whole.
Emily Jiang delights in painting with words and with sounds, and as a composer she especially loves the challenge of transforming a poem into a song. She is the author of “Summoning the Phoenix: Poems & Prose about Chinese Musical Instruments”, which won an Eureka! Honor Award and was listed among The Best Children’s Books of 2014 at Kirkus Reviews and The Huffington Post. A graduate of the Clarion Writers’ Workshop, she holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Saint Mary’s College of California and a BA in English from Rice University. Her music compositions can be heard at Interfictions and Strange Horizons. More information at: www.EmilyJiang.com
CREW
Camera Operators: Mike Cantor, Lisa Tesler, Stan Ng
Gaffer: Stan Ng
Sound Recorder: Andrew Heller
Script Supervisor: Michael Laird
Makeup Artists: Lindsey Mitchell, Nikki Khall
Production Assistant: Chrys-Anthony Booker
Special thanks to Scary Cow!
GRATITUDE & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Music Consultant: Mary Tusa
Costume Consultant: Anna Chase
Cloth Cutters: Jeffrey Niederauer & Tamara Armishev
Tablets and/or Data Supporters: Rina & Jacob Weisman, John Sasinowski, Daniel Yang, Eithne Pardini, Barbara Saxton, Yiting Jin, Cathleen Kalcic, Ciara Karski
Tech Advisors: Tully Foote, Donia Benke, Woolf Dobson, Sara Asher, Yiting Jin
Thanks to Henry Lien, Arts Editor of Interfictions, for his joyous and unwavering support!
Thanks to the Jiang Family for rehearsal space support!
And finally, thanks to the composer’s musical community, The Peninsula Women’s Chorus, for all their loving support!