Kakao Kookie

In one of my classes at Teachers College, we were grouped into “garage bands” for the semester. Each of us comes from diverse musical and cultural backgrounds, and all have different ideas and preferences towards music. We have the challenging, but ultimately extremely rewarding, task of creating music together every week - generally based off of a class prompt, but always with the freedom to interpret it in our own way. The music we have created together is something that none of us could have created on our own, and much of it ranks among the most meaningful and powerful musical experiences I have been a part of. Being a part of this ensemble has taught me so much about the importance of collaboration, taking extreme compositional and performance risks, and the strong connection music has with the place and time in which it is created.

Listen to a live recording of our first composition: "No One Sleeps"

Vocals: Jean Lee Duong
Clarinet: Jared Field
Trumpet: Jarritt Sheel
Marima: Chris Stutts
Piano: Lina Zhu