Commitments

As an Asian-American artist from Queens, NY, I've always been passionate about integrating the arts in community work and social advocacy, particularly to center non-Western genres and underrepresented works. My academic background is in the fields of Comparative American Studies and Gender, Sexuality, & Feminist Studies, and I am a researcher of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP) at Oberlin College & Conservatory, mentored by musicologist, scholar, and educator Chris Jenkins. Informed by these educational and lived experiences, my approaches to programming, performance, and teaching are grounded in social advocacy, cultural diversity and representation, as well as student empowerment. 

As a Teaching Artist at the 2024 Classical Music Institute in San Antonio, TX, I studied pedagogical methods and taught young students across San Antonio of all levels under an El Sistema model. I have provided free lessons for low-income music students through the organization Through The Staff, and have worked closely with organizations such as Back to Bach, Tiwanazu Project, Fischoff Chamber Music Academy, and  Minnesota Public Radio to organize events bringing music education to schools in New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Texas, Ohio, and more.

Being a visual artist myself, curating collaborative arts projects is integral to my experiences as a performing artist. I've found that interdisciplinary collaborations create dynamic experiences for both artists and audience members. When curated around social impact and cultural relevance, these projects bring together communities in unique and vibrant ways. 

Recently, at Oberlin Conservatory, I performed the Chinese work 'Liangzhu' (Butterfly Lovers' Violin Concerto) featuring traditional Chinese dance alongside my friend Lindsey Zhou. Most meaningfully, as a student at Juilliard, I organized a candlelight vigil in honor of the victims of the 2021 Atlanta shooting against Asian women. This vigil featured speeches by several local Asian fem artist-activists alongside both Asian fem-identifying dancers and musicians from Juilliard, as well as a lantern lighting. I've also collaborated with photojournalist & activist Cindy Trinh, actor Aileen Kiyoko, and writer Christine Fang on a powerful interdisciplinary portrait series called "Invisible No More", which documents the stories of sixteen AAPI women and fems. As a lead organizer of the 2021 tuition freeze protests at The Juilliard School, I helped facilitate several cross-discipline performances during protests and teach-ins for dancers and actors to unite with jazz and classical students at school. Finally, in bringing together interdisciplinarity with accessible music education, I directed multiple free outreach collaborations between Poiesis Quartet's non-profit organization and local youth programs in Cincinnati to bridge art and music at Camp Art Academy and the Springer School.

Over the years, I'm grateful to have organized & participated in many protests and community events involving music and art. I've also spoken at panels, interviews, and more about misogyny in music, Black & Asian solidarity work, Culturally-Responsive Pedagogy, and the role of art in radical activism. When we allow artistic performances and creations to be explicitly in conversation with activism and social justice, we also encourage and create routes towards accessibility, diversity, and solidarity through art.