Theresa Wong‘s Fluency of Trees is a solo work exploring connection to the primal sentience of the natural world. The piece synergizes song forms, noise, and harmony through a unique timbral merging of amplified cello and voice. The work stems from the ongoing inquiry, “how can I rediscover the core of the cello as wood and string and hair, or even simply as a tree?” The tuning is centered around a lower A 216 Hz and in scordatura, allowing for harmonic explorations in just intonation, a tuning system based on the natural overtones of resonating frequencies. Examining alternate harmonies, tunings and resonances is a vibrational act of seeking new modes of relating to one another and to the environment around us. Through amplification, the work illuminates the vast sonorities of the cello and voice as tonal, percussive and textural terrains, synthesized in a continuum of sound. Originally premiered at the Other Minds Festival 2022 in San Francisco, this performance will include expanded and newly created material. This is a NYC premiere.
Theresa Wong cello, voice
A livestream will be available free of charge at 8pm on the day of the performance and archived for future viewing. Watch below or on YouTube.
Theresa Wong is a composer, cellist, vocalist, and intermedia artist active at the intersection of composition, improvisation, and the synergy of multiple disciplines. A 2024 Guggenheim Fellow in Music Composition, her works include She Dances Naked Under Palm Trees, commissioned by pianist Sarah Cahill for The Future Is Female project; As We Breathe, an installed song commissioned by Long Beach Opera for the 2020 Songbook; and Harbors, co-composed with Long String Instrument inventor Ellen Fullman and chosen as one of The Wire’s top 50 releases of 2020. Her multimedia piece The Unlearning, 21 songs inspired by Goya’s Disasters of War etchings, premiered in 2013 at Roulette and was also featured in the 2016 New Frequencies Festival at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Recent commissions include works for San Francisco Girls Chorus, Peninsula Women’s Chorus, NakedEye Ensemble, Del Sol Quartet, and Splinter Reeds. She has shared her work internationally at venues including Cafe Oto and Barbican Centre in London, San Francisco Asian Art Museum, Museo d’Arte Orientale in Torino, Sydney Festival, and The Stone in New York City. Wong is based in Berkeley, California and is the founder of fo’c’sle, a record label dedicated to adventurous music from the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.
Theresa Wong‘s Fluency of Trees is a solo work exploring connection to the primal sentience of the natural world. The piece synergizes song forms, noise, and harmony through a unique timbral merging of amplified cello and voice. The work stems from the ongoing inquiry, “how can I rediscover the core of the cello as wood and string and hair, or even simply as a tree?” The tuning is centered around a lower A 216 Hz and in scordatura, allowing for harmonic explorations in just intonation, a tuning system based on the natural overtones of resonating frequencies. Examining alternate harmonies, tunings and resonances is a vibrational act of seeking new modes of relating to one another and to the environment around us. Through amplification, the work illuminates the vast sonorities of the cello and voice as tonal, percussive and textural terrains, synthesized in a continuum of sound. Originally premiered at the Other Minds Festival 2022 in San Francisco, this performance will include expanded and newly created material. This is a NYC premiere.
Theresa Wong cello, voice
A livestream will be available free of charge at 8pm on the day of the performance and archived for future viewing. Watch below or on YouTube.
Theresa Wong is a composer, cellist, vocalist, and intermedia artist active at the intersection of composition, improvisation, and the synergy of multiple disciplines. A 2024 Guggenheim Fellow in Music Composition, her works include She Dances Naked Under Palm Trees, commissioned by pianist Sarah Cahill for The Future Is Female project; As We Breathe, an installed song commissioned by Long Beach Opera for the 2020 Songbook; and Harbors, co-composed with Long String Instrument inventor Ellen Fullman and chosen as one of The Wire’s top 50 releases of 2020. Her multimedia piece The Unlearning, 21 songs inspired by Goya’s Disasters of War etchings, premiered in 2013 at Roulette and was also featured in the 2016 New Frequencies Festival at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Recent commissions include works for San Francisco Girls Chorus, Peninsula Women’s Chorus, NakedEye Ensemble, Del Sol Quartet, and Splinter Reeds. She has shared her work internationally at venues including Cafe Oto and Barbican Centre in London, San Francisco Asian Art Museum, Museo d’Arte Orientale in Torino, Sydney Festival, and The Stone in New York City. Wong is based in Berkeley, California and is the founder of fo’c’sle, a record label dedicated to adventurous music from the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.
