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Theresa Wong

Theresa Wong is a composer, cellist, and vocalist actively exploring the intersection of music, creative experimentation, and the synergy of multiple disciplines. Raised in upstate New York and the San Francisco Bay Area, Wong studied classical piano and cello from an early age. Her interests expanded into design, leading her to Stanford University’s product design program, as well as the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and Fabrica, an experimental research center in Northern Italy. While living in Venice, Wong realized her vision to unite music with the inquisitive process of design, with the primary intention of finding transformation through performance. Upon returning to the United States, she completed an MFA at Mills College where her teachers included Fred Frith, Joan Jeanrenaud, Joëlle Léandre, Annie Gosfield, Alvin Curran and June Watanabe.

Embracing multiplicity, Wong's artistic practice follows inquiries into song forms, improvisation, just intonation, and intermedia performance. Her works include Fluency of Trees, for solo cello and voice, which premiered at the Other Minds Festival in 2022, She Dances Naked Under Palm Trees, commissioned by pianist Sarah Cahill for The Future Is Female project, and Harbors, co-composed with Long String Instrument inventor Ellen Fullman and chosen as one of Wire’s top 50 releases of 2020 In 2022, Wong was the inaugural Sound/scapes artist at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, creating three site-specific performances inspired by artworks in the museum's collection. Her multimedia piece The Unlearning (Tzadik), 21 songs inspired by Goya's Disasters of War etchings, premiered in 2013 at Roulette in Brooklyn and was also featured in the 2016 New Frequencies Festival at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. O Sleep, an improvised opera for an 8 piece ensemble exploring the conundrum of sleep and dream life, was presented at Southern Exposure in San Francisco in 2010. Recent commissions include works for Peninsula Women's Chorus, San Francisco Girls Chorus, Long Beach Opera, NakedEye Ensemble, Splinter Reeds, and Del Sol Quartet.

In 2018, Wong founded fo’c’sle, a record label dedicated to adventurous music from the Bay Area and beyond, featuring inaugural releases by Ellen Fullman with David Gamper and Stuart Dempster, Chris Brown, powerdove, and Lijiang Quintet. She has shared her work internationally at venues including Cafe Oto and the Barbican Centre in London, Festival de Arte y Ópera Contemporánea in Morelia, Mexico, Fondation Cartier in Paris, Fabbrica Europa Festival in Florence, Sydney Festival, MONA FOMA Festival in lutrovita (Tasmania), and The Stone in New York City. Wong is a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellow and currently lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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Theresa Wong's "The Unlearning" out on Tzadik Records on September 27th

Theresa Wong's "The Unlearning" out on Tzadik Records on September 27th

Source: Michael Ricci

Theresa Wong is a cellist, composer, vocalist and improviser based in San Francisco. Her first CD release, The Unlearning is a collection of miniature songs for violin, cello and two voices inspired by the Disasters of War etchings by Francisco Goya. Composed from 2009-2011 and recorded in duo with herself and violinist/vocalist extraordinaire Carla Kihlstedt, this is an intimate and unique work that brings all her remarkable skills as a vocalist, performer, composer and conceptualist together into this new and ...

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