2010: Emily Hay & Motoko Honda

“Emily Hay vocalizes through her flute and blows a mighty mean streak that picks up emotion along the way. She carries each melodic fragment on high and packs it with energy. She inspires.” —Jim Santella

She extends traditional roles and capabilities of her instruments by incorporating the complexity of contemporary classical technique with the spontaneity and experimentation of free improvisation. The result is startling interpretations of sound and intense ensemble interaction. Her explorations on the flute and alto flute embody unusual tone colors and soaring rhythmic structures, augmented by electronically generated effects and often overlapped by unusual vocalizations ranging from primal to operatic with lyrics and sounds from the stream of consciousness.

Motoko Honda is a pianist, keyboardist, improviser, composer, and sound architect living in Los Angeles. Graduated from California Institute of the Arts. She is an Electro-Acoustic-Prepared piano soloist, sound artist collaborating with visual artists and dancers, and recording artist for films covering wide range of music from classical, avant-garde, jazz, punk, contemporary, world and new music. Being a frequent “pick of the week” by Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Weekly, also documented as a featured musician in documentary film Good Ear, she has performed at major venues such as Ford Theater, Barnsdall Gallery Theater, REDCAT/Disney Hall/MOCA, and many festivals. Continuing to pursue the boundaries of different kind of music, Motoko is known to weave through genres of music and create something unique and personal every time.

Pianist Motoko Honda is the walking definition of the phrase “sound sculpturist.” She stands as much as she sits during her performances: either to direct her ensembles with a sweep of the hand or stabbing point of a finger, or to just lean into her open piano to perform some sort of bewitching skullduggery on its prepared strings—all the while working her (bare) foot pedals to create loops of electronic squiggles and sighs. Not content to simply compose and make music, Honda, in the sage words of Greg Burk, “colors the air.”

Artist (photo by Photographer)