Reflection

The process of creating this work has been very different from most of my other work. Most of my work involves learning and rehearsing someone else's music. Usually the composer is still alive and sometimes I'm fortunate enough to have them in the room as part of the process, but most of this work involves making decisions about a composer's pre-existing work. Since we are creating original work in ECM, there are extra steps in our process that I don't usually take into account. We have instead spent much of our early planning phase by improvising, and listening back to moments that the group would like to expand upon.

One of the most important aspects of making progress in our early process involved saying "yes" often and putting plans into action early instead of relying on long brainstorming sessions. This allowed us to experiment and and get our ideas out, then make judgment calls later. Naturally, we have had to make changes and cut material to better fit our narrative. This required us to stay detached to many of the ideas we improvised and might have felt strongly towards in the moment.

This project borrows much from film, theatre, and poetry. These creative processes are also new and fairly foreign to me. Our project relies on staging, props, and original pieces of writing which I have never included in my own previous performances. Costume and prop design are new parts of the process for me which have been both a joy and challenge to incorporate in our performance.

This process has made me more sensitive to other media that can enhance a musical performance. I was not previously aware of all the forms of digital live media that I can hopefully incorporate in future performances. I may not be fully literate in these programs just yet, but the exchange that comes from collaborating with artists from other disciplines has been one of the most rewarding and meaningful experiences of my semester.