Garcia

Kalun Leung (Performance, Composition)
Bettina Szabo (Choreography)
Travis West (Instrument Design)

Program Note:

Garcia is the middle name of my childhood nanny who helped take care of me from birth to age 4. The single digit years of a human life are so formative and foundational, but it is often this decade that is most easily forgotten.

When Jackie found me on Facebook in 2020 during a time of intense identity reckoning that was brought on by COVID-19 among other challenges, I saw it as a fascinating opportunity to uncover my past through her memories. What was I like? Was I a brat? 

This piece is inspired by this process of uncovering memories through others and through self-discovery. Having immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong at age 4 with only one memory from this time, reconnecting with my nanny was a way for me to reconstruct how I navigated immigration and assimilation as a child, and to ascertain why I am the way I am.

Sounds are recorded, triggered and manipulated via this memory "sound palette" that is represented by the space around the performer, and the trombone is used as a memory logger and jogger, stylized by the performer's movements.