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Show Notes
Episode 6 Tim Welcomes Conductor Kelly Kuo
While sharing a beer (Chimay for Tim, Yuengling- not Yingling!-for Kelly), the two conductors discuss how music is medicine. They talk about the production of Carmen Kelly is conducting which is placed in Haiti with Haitian Creole dialogue and Haitian instruments arranged into the score.
They talk about Kelly’s upbringing as a child of Hakka immigrants from China, his trilinguality speaking Hakka with his family as a child, learning English in daycare, and finally learning Mandarin in college.
They dig into the further impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act and beyond. Kelly speaks more about his family’s experience as Taiwanese emigrants studying in the US. He shares about growing up in rural Oregon in a primarily white community and the inherent pressure therein. Kelly also shares his personal experience of racism in his neighborhood, including the impact of burying such painful moments as a means of allowing himself to move forward.
They unpack their feelings since the Atlanta attacks. Kelly shares his experience over the last month as the husband of a massage therapist who is also Vietnamese American. The importance of representing one’s people as people of color, especially in the wake of the Atlanta shootings.
Kelly gives advice to humans looking to show solidarity and support for AAPI peoples in these tender times: Educate yourselves! He invites you to challenge yourself to take five minutes next time you eat a delicious meal to read about the history of that culture’s people in the United States.
Kelly has a lot going on- you can check it all out here:
Kelly Kuo’s website can be found here: https://www.kellykuo.com/
For more information on the Orlando Opera’s Production of Bizet’s Carmen, Link to livestream: interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?id=36&name=E349459
More information and trailer for Charlie Parker’s Yardbird which Kelly conducted at Seattle Opera youtu.be/KYMrBTUR510
Oregon Mozart Players on “She Says” a program of music composed by women, available online until May 10th www.oregonmozartplayers.org/she-says
Kelly also talks about his work shining a spotlight on historical BIPOC composers and librettists with American Lyric Theater in “From Erased to Self-Empowered, Celebrating BIPOC Composers and Librettists” www.altnyc.org/events/from-erased-to-self-empowered
You can find Tim’s Website here: timothylongmusic.com
Special Thanks to Martha Redbone for her permission to use her song “Medicine Man” for the opening credits.
More of her work can be found here and you can subscribe to her Youtube channel here.
More information on Foundry Arts, the producer of Unequal Temperament, is available at www.thefoundryarts.com
Foundry Arts is a lab for opera using collaboration and partnership to invest in artist development, dialogue, and expression, to sustain a rich, diverse, equitable, inclusive, and sustainable cultural landscape.
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