I am a bassoonist, professor, sound artist, and social worker creating at the intersections of music, trauma, and healing. My practice explores my Asian American identity by examining the collective traumas experienced by my Japanese and Filipino ancestors. Using pilgrimage, autoethnography, and speculative fiction as methodologies, I compose with acoustic bassoon and field recordings collected at sites of family trauma (e.g., Hiroshima, Camp Tule Lake). I also integrate visual elements including sashiko (刺し子) embroidery, multi-lingual poetry, film photography, and butsudan (仏壇) installation. With audio distortion, repetition, and classical structures in my music, I process intergenerational trauma with sound, and I support others in using music as a tool for understanding resilience, reclamation, and liberation.
