JAMES STRECKER: Please tell us about a creation of yours featured at this year’s Toronto Summer Music Festival. Why exactly does it matter to you and why should it matter to your listeners?
ALICE HONG: “…for not all is lost” is a composition commissioned by Toronto Summer Music in 2021. This piece was a great opportunity for me to reflect on the pandemic lockdown in a musical way and to put a positive spin on some very uncertain times. I hope the message behind the piece remains applicable to listeners post-pandemic: to stay hopeful and to celebrate the good people in our lives during trying times. In 2021, the piece also offered a way to reconnect with Toronto Summer Music, Jonathan Crow and Philip Chiu during a time when traveling to Toronto was definitely not an option! It is especially special to me this year because through the generosity of TSM, I am able to attend a performance of the piece in person – and on my birthday!
JS: What are the most important parts of yourself that you put into your creations?
AH: I like sharing darker moods in my pieces than I like to share as a social person. I really appreciate that outlet and freedom.
JS: What causes you to compose or create as you do? Is it because you play a specific instrument, for instance?
AH: Being an instrumentalist definitely plays a large role in my composition process. Aside from approaching the creative process physically as a violinist, I often have the opportunity of writing new pieces for instrumentalists I know (sometimes that person being myself too). It makes the creative process that much more special to have that performer’s personality, experiences and sound in mind when deciding how a piece will unfold and what story it will tell.
JS: What are your biggest challenges as a creative person?
AH: Imposters syndrome is not very fun, but it’s definitely something that has pushed me to be stronger and braver about being committed to what I hope to put out in the world. Another challenge for me personally is work/life balance. It’s hard to resist the urge to work constantly or to constantly think about work – but I guess that’s the price of doing something fun for work!
JS: What are the hardest things for an outsider to understand about your life as a person working in the arts?
AH: In recent years, I’ve poked my head out from the classical music world a bit more and have gained some insight on what someone’s life looks like outside of classical music. I have to say, there are equally as many things I didn’t understand about that life as someone outside of classical music would understand about mine! There are two common concepts I often hear and love to challenge: that everyone in the arts is starving and that what we do is unrelatable. In Atlanta, I recently started a small business – Luxardo Entertainment Group – that puts on performances marrying classical and pop music, performed by classical musicians. It helps the musicians learn music and meet people outside of classical music, and it draws audiences into concerts that will introduce them to some classical music. Fun!
JS: Let’s talk about the state of the arts in today’s society, including the forms in which you create. What specifically gives you hope and what specifically do you find depressing?
AH: When I was a string fellow at TSM in 2017, Andrew Kwan did several public talks asking us musicians what we were going to do to keep classical music alive. That question stayed with me well beyond the month-long festival. With successful performers being active on social media and YouTube, as well as mainstream media depicting musicians in more shows and movies like Bridgerton, Tár, Chevalier, and Maestro, I think there are a lot of big moves being made to keep classical music alive and well. I don’t find this particularly depressing, but I do think it would be really cool to see Asian female composers programmed more often, especially in orchestral settings!
JS: What new works are you working on at present?
AH: I’m currently working on two orchestral pieces, commissioned by Dr. Chaowen Ting and the Georgia Tech Symphony Orchestra, to be premiered November 2023. That same November, I’ll have a solo vibraphone piece premiered in Kyoto, Japan, and I’m chipping away at that as well. I’m also writing a two-violin and piano piece, for my dear friend Atlanta Symphony Orchestra violinist Bob Anemone, another dear friend pianist Choo-Choo Hu, and myself for an upcoming ensemble vim concert in the 2023-2024 season.
JS: What do you yourself like about the music you create?
AH: I like that I stick to what I like. There’s often an emphasis on pushing boundaries in new music, and I am all for that. However, I really love cheesy music and sometimes my music can be cheesy – and I stand by it!