Micah Huang, 13岁
Micah Huang 2013年作为作曲家的作品, 音乐家, and sound artist exposes social injustices as well as explores music’s ability to heal and transform.
作为富布赖特学者, Huang visited Hungary to work alongside the marginalized Roma people to amplify and help preserve their musical traditions. 他最近的两幅作品， 血染金山， a theatrical podcast about the 1871 Chinese Massacre in Los Angeles (2021), and 美国梦/亚洲噩梦 (2022) examine the historical and contemporary effects of violence and trauma on Asian Americans 和ir descendants.
现在，他的最新努力包括规划和生产2024年的L.A. 鬼节, 通过音乐庆祝亚裔美国人的历史和文化, 讲故事, 重新构想传统习俗. 黄在这个项目上的工作是由 his recent selection for Community Partners and California Arts Council’s CA Creative Corps Fellowship.
“这真的很刺激, 也是一种荣誉,谈到他的入选，黄说, noting that he is among 33 artists chosen for the fellowship and “tasked with serving and revitalizing marginalized communities throughout L.A. 和奥兰治县通过艺术活动.”
每个项目都有10万美元的运营赠款支持, 为伙伴组织提供额外支持. The fellowship was created to support artists and culture bearers of all disciplines and practices who, 根据社区合作伙伴网站, “have a demonstrated history of working in relationship to a community identified within the lowest quartile of the California Healthy Places Index.”
这个奖学金标准对黄来说再合适不过了, whose musical works seek not simply to expose neglected histories but to inspire conversations about them.
出生在北卡罗来纳州, Huang is the child of two peripatetic classical 音乐家s who settled in Southern California and teach at 克莱蒙特学院 (his parents, 郝和瑞秋, 两人都是斯克里普斯学院音乐系的成员).
He decided to enroll at Pitzer as an undergraduate after studying for two years in a cross-discipline studies program at San Francisco State University. 作为一名转校生, Huang said he was “just overwhelmed by the kind of resources that Pitzer had as a private college. 当时发生了很多事. I ended up taking a lot of music courses and [then] doing a self-created major.”
Unlike his parents, Huang wasn’t automatically drawn to classical music. 他直到十几岁才正式学习音乐, 他在许多乐队里弹吉他, 包括波莫纳的一个朋克乐队. 他的爱好很广泛。, 包括国际音乐, dance, 和ater which have all served as influences on his work today. One influential experience from his undergraduate days was Pomona College’s Afro-Cuban Ensemble, 他在课堂上唱歌，演奏康加舞和铃铛. He also learned to play the Dundun (large two-headed drums) and bell in an informal group specializing in Malinke music (from the Mali-Guinea border region) that was organized by his friends and classmates Andrew Kemble ’13 and Justin Dixon ’16.
这些经历, 他说, 导致他开始“重新评估自己的一些文化根源”, 祖先的存在, and hearing the sonic properties of that music and East Asian music that is kind of ambient in my consciousness.”
That reevaluation eventually encouraged him to use music to explore the raw and still-painful experiences his own family had endured and, 因此, 左无人值守. Investigating that wound was an opportunity to convene with his ancestors.
“My family has been one in which lots of violence has manifested in their lives, 一路回到中国,他解释道. “My grandfather … my father … we were all walking around with this pain. 这种愤怒. There’s still so much that’s been packed in, suppressed and hidden for so long … still unfolding.”
This journey sparked a catharsis for him, but Huang says he still treated it with great trepidation.
“这么长时间以来，我一直在努力保护音乐的安全，”他说. “我已经回避这个问题太久了. 我怕音乐, 这是我与人交往的方式吗, would somehow be contaminated by stigma—not only about being Asian American, 但作为美籍华人, 这本身就是一个复杂的说法.”
但批评者却不这么认为. 金山之血 得到了媒体的一致好评，包括 华盛顿邮报》, KCRW, 和 奥兰治县登记册. 安嫩伯格媒体 称赞 美国梦/亚洲噩梦 for the way it “melds technology and sonic art to build an unforgettable performance exploring the violence Asian Americans have experienced, 以及对未来的展望.”
黄弥迦13年后的表演 美国梦/亚洲噩梦 在斯克里普斯学院
Today, 有了这些经历, 黄期待着明年的节日, which will take place next August and will be associated with activities in L.A.的唐人街.
“The music/theatre/讲故事 aspect will build on the work my team did with 金山之血 and 铁马路,他说, ，与令人惊叹的东风舞狮团合作, 谁是我们在唐人街的官方合作伙伴.”
But it will be more than just an opportunity to stage a performance. Huang is always mindful of the healing focus of his music 和 importance of public performances to the healing process.
“现在治疗真的很流行. But it has to be done collectively,他解释道, “and that’s where art and ritual come in. I truly feel that energy—the one that thrives in that network of connection. 我相信那种能量. 真的. 它有能力带来真正的改变.”
