Music
I started playing guitar when I was 7 years old and began formal vocal training at 13. I love writing original music, rocking out, performing musical theatre, and incorporating my passion for technology in my musical expression. These past two years I've trained an artificial intelligence algorithm to explore performing music with me as well.
Vocals
Telling the story of the song and connecting with an audience is equal parts intellect & passion. I've been enthusiastically singing rock since elementary school with my rock band, Bad Donkey. I began musical theatre in middle school and began studying formal vocal technique when I was 13 to help me meet the challenge of singing on stage. Over time, I have developed a repertoire across a cappella, classical, jazz, theatre, rock & contemporary styles. I enjoy singing them all. I've been beatboxing and singing bass for one of my school a cappella groups, Pitches and Does. I've also recently been exploring the ukulele when my Grandmother gave me her mother's Kamika ukelele in the traditional koa wood. Given the pandemic, my voice recitals have been over zoom. Consequently, I've had to meet the unexpected challenge of connecting with a virtual audience.
Modern Major General
In a recent vocal recital, l performed Modern Major General from Pirates of Penzance. This song is particularly challenging given the rapid articulation demanded by the song's fast-paced comedic lyrics. This was one of my Grandmother's all-time favorite songs. She was a true Gilbert and Sullivan fan. Definitely one of my most challenging pieces, and a total blast to perform. Holy enunciation, Bat Man!
Nature Boy
Nature Boy is a classic jazz standard. It's all about vocal control and the emotional delivery of every line. The song has a gentle, mysterious quality. There is no room for missing notes or letting one fall flat since each is held as it transitions to the next. I've been working hard on improving my vocal tone since I began my formal training. Nature Boy really puts it to the test.
Being Alive
Being Alive is a "don't hold back" dramatic ballad. This song has a great dynamic range to match the emotional journey conveyed through the lyrics and performance. The character begins feeling that love is a waste of time. Total pain in the ass. But as he rants on, he beings to slowly realize how important and meaningful love truly is. Performing Being Alive challenged my ability to engage a virtual audience through storytelling and emotion.
Originals
My original compositions explore a range of styles. As my music skills have progressed, I've been transitioning to writing my own songs using a traditional singer/ songwriter approach. I've also been learning music production skills and enjoy exploring tools and technologies in the process. To date, I've written over 15 songs, all of which are performed by me. During the pandemic, I composed my first EP. Below are a few samples.
Israfil's Trumpet
Israfil's Trumpet highlights the plus/minus duality during the pandemic lock-down. On one side, there has been so much suffering and stress caused by the constant isolation from social distancing. There has also been a lot of political unrest and conflict. For me, my school was totally virtual for about 18 months. It felt like endless doldrums. There were moments when I was in a serious funk. But on the other side, nature had a bit of a revival when human activity was suppressed. So is this a blessing, or is this our doom?
Beautiful Tears
One day, I joined a classmate for lunch by happenstance -- we didn't know each other beyond first names. As we talked, she began to tell me about a breakup she was going through. She laughed as she reminisced on happier times while trying to hide her anguish. This conversation inspired me to write"Beautiful Tears." I had recently learned how to write modally and decided to write this song in Lydian mode.
Happy For You
Happy For You is the inverse love song. It's about the bittersweet -- realizing that being happy for someone can also be accompanied by feeling incredibly sad. The song goes through the emotional journey of when the person you love finds love with someone else. Sorrow, longing, blame, anger, and eventually, acceptance. Even realizing the silver lining that grappling with pain can make us stronger and more resilient.
OK
Ok began as an a cappella piece. However, as I experimented with parts utilizing different patches, turning my synth into horns and strings, I fell in love with the classical feel of the piece. The French horn alongside the bass sounded fantastic. I then experimented with vocoding and realized the power of fusing old-time classical music techniques with modern vocoding vocals. The fusion of the two creates a gorgeous piece that has the emotional beauty of classical with the ethereal sound of modern vocoding.
Orange and Green
A happy song. Finally. I took this on as a personal challenge and had to summon up my inner Kermit the Frog to strum all those happy chords on my guitar. Although the mood of this song goes against my natural teenage angst, I am pleased with the result. The lyrics are about being able to self-reflect and appreciate other perspectives -- to see the world in orange and green rather than black and white. Ok, you got me. This song is less about being happy and more about being hopeful.
Growing Up In Greek Letters
My first EP! It's finally out, and before I turned 18, no less. The title is a nod to being a teenager during Covid and its neverending variants. In the spring of 2019, I remember being told as I left school, "see you in two weeks!" Two weeks turned to two months turned to two years. Now we are finally back in person without masks (for now). What a time to grow up. Social distancing, political and racial unrest, climate change, misinformation, mental health crises -- need I go on? Songwriting became an essential outlet for me.
Composing with Artificial Intelligence
I've always had a passion for technology. I took two AP computer science classes during my freshman and sophomore years. I've been lucky to be a high school intern at the MIT Media Lab and work with graduate students to combine my growing robotics & coding skills with my passion for music and to learn about AI (see my Creativity & Computation page for the technical details of my projects). Below are two of my personal explorations where I've used the AI technologies that I've explored during my time interning at the MIT Media Lab to my own creative musical pursuits. Technological innovation will always lead to the development of new tools that support the human creative process. AI is definitely going to do this for music as it is already transforming other disciplines and industries. This was a chance for me to explore the process of composing with AI.
Algorhythm
I used a generative AI technique, called a VAE, in this piece. Using a google notebook, I explored using an AI that generates drum sequences. In practice, 90% of the sequences it generated were completely unusable, but through a little bit of grit and editing, I used it in one of my original instrumental pieces. The use of AI in music composition is still in its early stages. I look forward to the point where I can use AI as an effective creative tool.
Woah
This piece is pure vocoded a cappella with an AI beatboxer. As I played around with Ok, I composed a beautiful a cappella part that would become the core of Woah. I used an AI algorithm (wavGAN) trained on my voice to generate each beatbox beat, then generated beat sequences using a VAE (see computation page). I wanted this song to highlight the way a cappella can take a bunch of different notes at different timings and bring them together into something beautiful.
Band Work
I started my band, Bad Donkey, when I was 10 years old. I'm the lead vocalist and lead guitar player for the band. We kept playing together in high school (at least up until the pandemic). Our bassist graduated from Cambridge Rindge and Latin last year and is now at the University of Toronto. So, it's been a time of transition. Nothing compares to the raw power and energy of a rock band! We've played at some really fun venues as part of open mics and recitals.
Scullers Jazz Club
Schuler's Jazz Club is legendary, and it was so much fun to perform on stage. We performed a set with classic rock tunes like It's Still Rock and Roll to Me and Stray Cat Strut. The performance was very fun and the audience had great positive energy.
Ryles Jazz Club
Ryles Jazz Club was a Cambridge institution but sadly didn't survive the pandemic. Many of Bad Donkey's earliest performances when we were still in middle school happened here.
The Burren
The Burren holds open mic sessions for kids multiple times a year. I have performed my original music here as a solo act as well as with my band. I have met many talented young musicians at these open mic events. I have often come away with inspiration for new songs.