Vân-Ánh Võ at YBCA Forum, January 22, 2016

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts presents The Odyssey - from Vietnam to America featuring Vân-Ánh Võ & the VA'V
2016-01-22
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum
701 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA
8:00 PM, Friday, January 22, 2016

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2016 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2016 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[7:17 PM] introductions by Cathy Lam, moderator
* Each panelist (Khatharya Um, Thuy Vo Dang and Alexander M. Cannon) responds at length to a single question from the moderator
* Then one more question for each to respond to one after another
[7:47 PM, thanks and done]

[8:09 PM; lights down]
Part I: Leaving

1. [8:14 PM] War
2. [8:19 PM] Leaving
3. [8:22 PM] Pirate
    
   Part II: Scorching Sun
4. [8:26 PM] Scorching Sun
5. [8:26 PM] Lullaby
6. [8:29 PM] Thirst
7. [8:35 PM] Sea of Tears
    
   Part III: Nuoc - My Country
8. [8:37 PM] Nuoc
9. [8:38 PM] My Country
    
   Part IV: Light of Hope
10. [8:42 PM] Awakening
11. [8:44 PM] Light of Hope
     
    Part V: Beyond the Seas
12. [8:52 PM] the Americans
13. [8:53 PM] How About Us?
    [set ends 8:58 PM]

[9:24 PM lights down]

1. [9:25 PM] Dat Nuoc Loi Ru (Lullaby for a Country)
2. [9:34 PM] Hanh Van (Vietnamese folk song)
3. [9:39 PM] Luu Thuy Truong (Green River Delta) (Vietnamese folk song)
4. [9:44 PM] the Cycle
5. [9:52 PM] Summertime
6. [9:58 PM] Day Dream
7. [10:08 PM] Go Hunting [set ends 10:15 PM]
    
   Encore
8. [10:15 PM] ? (Vietnamese folk song)
9. [10:20 PM] ? (Vietnamese folk song)
   [show ends 10:28 PM; all off after a minute or two]

• Philip Blackburn: environmental sounds;
• Dan Cantrell: accordion, musical saw, percussion, vox;
• Alex Kelly: cello , percussion, vox ;
• Jimi Nakagawa: taiko drums, percussion;
• Vân-Ánh Võ: đàn tranh, đàn bầu monochord, đàn T'rưng (bamboo xylophone), klông pút (traditional drums), vox;
• Ian Winters: video and multimedia work.

Promo blurb from YBCA: Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award-winning composer Vân-Ánh Võ will premiere a new musical event, The Odyssey.; Inspired by the epic journey of the Vietnamese boat people, this performance reflects upon the resilience of the human spirit and the price of freedom. In this performance, Võ integrates traditional and modern instruments, video, field recordings, and interviews with those who survived the the voyage of fleeing Vietnam by boat. YBCA also posted a brief promo for the work on YouTube.

Promo piece for the Pre-show talk.

Lou Fancher posted a nice article about Vân-Ánh at SFCV.

Cy Musiker posted a brief audio interview and article about the work on NPR.

Stephen Smoliar posted a promotional article about this show at the Examiner website, then followed it up with a review from tonight's performance.

Tonight's show was a nice alternative to the usual rock and jazz that tends to fill out our schedule. Despite the lengthy description above and even more detailed program notes, the first half was quite abstract, no more or less evocative of the source material than classical works like the Pines of Rome or the tone poems of Debussy and Ravel. I quite liked it, even if I had a hard time following the narrative structure. Probably would have been easier if the house lights were left up (for reading), but all in all, I prefer listening in the dark, so I'm not complaining as much as offering commentary.

Alex Kelly made a terrific opening statement in his initial solo, playing through a fuzz box with a wah-wah pedal: he definitely earned the Hendrix of the Night certificate with that one.

Dan Cantrell got us smiling later in the set when he took a polytonal vocal solo – from Tuva to you, don't try this at home kids unless you're willing to shred those vocal chords a little on those basso profundo fundamentals!

Vav had plenty of star turns tonight; no surprise there, after all it was her show!

Free of structural expectation, the second half, a handful of distinct songs, was a little easier to digest. I dunno that I'm all that keen to see another show by these folks again real soon, but I'll certainly keep my eyes and ears open for new works in future seasons.

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2016 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2016 event list! ☸ On to the next event!