Photo by Piero Chiussi
Aine E Nakamura
voice, performance, composition, improvisation, movements, mixed art, stories
What formal details do I choose or not choose? What grammar do I create or not create? What cultural context do I evoke or not evoke? I pursue sensibility and spirituality as my aesthetics through a focus on the nuanced possibilities of my voice. My voice is of and with my body. I am a singer, and I am song itself.
My poems are my body, my body, body, body.
'It' cannot be defined
Instead, I weave 'them'
for me to be
song
I am a singer, performance/performing artist, and composer. I recently focus on orality and movements of body. Stories and imagery are also my creative approaches. My transborder art drawing upon sensibility and spirituality is my way of showing resilience. My artistic quest began as a search for my own language to embrace and express self, which cannot be told simply through one disciplinary or cultural frame. I moved closer to my woman artist identity, acknowledging my transnational complexity and ambiguity. Crossing the boundary within and outside of my body, I reach out from my transborderness. Defying traditional power structures that preclude new ways of feelings, I nurture my self, my spiritual, artistic and intellectual space, and multiple delicate stories in a new art I investigate. Through my approach toward and embodiment in wider space, time, nature and peace, and questions on hierarchy in music, linguistic and cultural grammar, I wish to be a song for inner and beings.
In my work, Life of A Flower-War and lullaby, which had become the genesis of my new art, I performed as a flower, which lived during a war time, from a sprout to the end of the blooming, through my improvised vocal sounds, melody, body movement, and imagery about the war, mother and her child, from the eyes of a flower.
On the occasion of The 2022 Stückemarkt at Berliner Festspiele Theatertreffen, I was invited to revisit, refine and present Circle hasu We plant seeds in the spring of mountains in Berlin, Germany (May 11-15 2022). I premiered this one-woman project at the Gallatin Galleries in New York (Jul 16-Aug 13 2021), in which I presented my art language through multiple performances and media presentations. I will present my new work Under an Unnamed Flower at the 50th International Theatre Festival at the Venice Biennale (Jun 26-Jul 3 2022).
My other solo performances and installations include mixed art at HfM Hanns Eisler Berlin (2022), mixed music at A Concert of Electronic Music in honor of Mario Davidovsky (2019), 8-channel sound art work at Dias de Música Electroacústica (2019), and mixed art at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (2018). Premieres of my compositions include 6 stories at the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival performed with cellist Madeleine Shapiro (2018), The Story of Oica at the October New Music Festival in Finland with Mikro Ensemblen (2018), and The Unseen World with International Contemporary Ensemble at the Abrons Arts Center (2019). My other appearances include The Two directed by Dmitry Krymov (New York Theater Workshop project, 2019), and OPERA Ensemble at the Watermill Center through my artist-in-residence with Lucie Vítková and the ensemble (2021). I have curated and produced collaborative art events Listening to Nature supported by Tishman Environment and Design Center (2017), and Exploration in Sound and Body supported by First Performance in New York (2018). I am an awardee of the Venice Biennale 2022 Site-Specific Performance Grant, The Fulbright Fellowship in the arts (2021-2022, Berlin, Germany), The Leo Bronstein Homage Award from New York University for my MA studies, The Honorable Mention Award for the 2020 Pauline Oliveros New Genre Prize for my art of voice and body, and the APNM 2019 Electronic Music Competition. I have given workshops, talks and lecture-recitals at several places including Theatertreffen at Berliner Festspiele, University of Pittsburgh, McGill Schulich School of Music, and Humboldt University of Berlin.
In addition to my artistic pursuit, I studied orality in ritualistic songs by women and villagers in Okinawa and Yaeyama supported by the Asian Pacific and American Institute at NYU, and the Dean's Award for Summer Research.
My mentors include composers Elizabeth Hoffman, Joan La Barbara, actor Anna Deavere Smith, scholar-artists Nina Katchadourian, and Michael D. Dinwiddie from my studies at New York University (MA 2020, Thesis: My Art of Voice and Body); composers and musicians Richard Harper, Jane Ira Bloom, Kirk Nurock, Diane Moser, Dave Douglous, and Chris Stover from my studies at the Jazz and Contemporary Music at The New School; Isamu Goya, under whom I studied Okinawan traditional music (uta-sanshin) in Noborikawa-ryu; Itaru Mitsuzuka from my early classical voice training; and scholar Yoshinori Murai who taught me the viewpoint of chiisaki-tami (small people).
I reside in Berlin, Germany in 2021-2022 as a grantee of the Fulbright fellowship for my peace-promoting art project. I am a Fulbright fellow at College of Music, Composition, at Universität der Künste Berlin (Berlin University of the Arts), and Institute for Musicology and Media studies of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Humboldt University of Berlin).
Composer pioneer Annea Lockwood commented on my work: Circle hasu,
“Its intense vulnerability and the beautiful layering of voices—distant, close, together with [her] movements, flowing was very moving.”
Ongoing & Future Projects
○Fulbright fellowship 2021-2022 Berlin, Germany
○Under an Unnamed Flower at La Biennale di Venezia (Venice Biennale) - Biennale Teatro Site-Specific Performance Jun 26-Jul 3 2022
○Ohajiki and pink shoes, Fulbright project at the Medientheater at Humboldt University of Berlin, July 7 2022 (main performance) & short performances in front of Jacob-und-Wilhelm-Grimm-Zentrum Library, July 8 & 12
○Poetics of Peace, New York Public Library Short-Term Research Fellow 2022-2023
Selective Performances & Presentations
○lecture-recital, joint colloquium of Kolloquium Medien und Wissen & Kolloquium Mediendramaturgie, Institute for Musicology and Media Studies, Humboldt University of Berlin / 2022.6.2
○Circle hasu We plant seeds in the spring of mountains at Berliner Festspiele 2022 Theatertreffen - Stückemarkt / 2022.5.11-15
○workshop, songs in bodies, at Berliner Festspiele 2022 Theatertreffen / 2022.5.14
○Lecture-recital I am song itself at the symposium AKUSTISCHE INTERFACES, Humboldt University of Berlin / 2022.5.4
○An evening of listening, dreaming, voicing with Brandon LaBelle and Annette le Fort, performance my skin listens to voice at Errant Sound / 2022.4.30
○Performance at Loophole Berlin / 2022.3.14
○Oica, premiere of a mixed art of multi-channel media, voice, and body / Studiosaal HfM Hanns Eisler Berlin / 2022.2.6
○Performance at Sowieso Berlin / 2022.1.7
○composition Kaya no Soto for vocalist Kanae Mizobuchi, pianist Satoko Inoue, and tubist Kota Sakamoto / Tokyo Arts and Space / 2021.12.11
○composition Elevated Moon for cellist Craig Hultgren / presented by Composer's Voice / 2021.11.26
○Late Autumn (performance), Okaasan, and Now Our Hands are Safe (video works) / Green Hill Gallery Berlin 2021.11.5 - 12.5
○Solo show Circle hasu: We plant seeds in the spring of mountains / The Gallatin Galleries NYC 2021.7.16 - 8.13
○new work for the Masked Music Commissions, The Association for the Promotion of New Music / 2021.7
○Performance at The 4th AEMC Conference on Music Communication and Performance / 2021.6
○kaeru, fixed media work, Earth Day Art Model / 2021.4
○Lecture-recital: Circle hasu: My Art of Voice and Body
The 2021 McGill Music Graduate Students' Symposium / 2021.3
○Lecture-recital: Voice as Body, Voice and Body
The Music and Movement Virtual Conference, University of Pittsburgh, & Penn State 2021 New-Music Festival and Symposium / 2021.1 2021.3
○Circle hasu, video documentation, Earth Day Art Model / 2020.4
○Circle hasu, mixed music, A Concert of Electronic Music in honor of Mario Davidovsky, winner / NY 2019.12
○Sound installation (8-channel work), Dias de Música Electroacústica, Culture and Sustainable Cities / Lisbon 2019.11
○pieces on prayer, The VU Symposium for experimental, electronic and improvised music: Pushing the envelope, My appearance was supported by C.V. Starr Fund of the Asian Pacific/American Institute and, NYU Dean's Conference Fund Award / Park City, UT July 2019
○The Two directed by Dmitry Krymov / NY 2019.2
○The Unseen World premiered at the Abrons Arts Center, for and performed with ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble) / NY 2019.4
○Exploration in Sound and Body, collaborators: dancer Miki Orihara, pianist-improviser Yuko Fujiyama, supported by First Performance, New York University / NY 2019.3
○The Story of Oica, fully notated music, October New Music Festival for and performed with the Mikro Ensemblen / Oulu, Finland 2018.9
○6 stories, mixed music, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival performed with Madeleine Shapiro, Abrons Arts Center/ NY 2019.7
○The River, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts / NY 2018.5
○Public viewing of Dmitry Krymov Lab / NY 2017.9
○Listening to Nature supported by Tishman Environment and Design Center / NY 2017.6
○MoMA Bang on a Can: Music Among Friends, John Cage for MOMA, Mannes School of Music Ensemble / NY 2017.5
○One Woman Live Show at Kitasando Strobe Cafe / Tokyo 2015.11
○One Woman Live at JZ Brat SOUND OF TOKYO, collaborator: painter Shinichiro Sugiyama / 2014.11
○Asagaya Jazz / 2012.10, 2014.10
○Sophia University, Education in Ghana x Share / Tokyo 2014.3
○Tokyu Plaza Omotesando Harajuku / Tokyo 2013.12
○One Woman Live show at Strobe Cafe sponsored by TV Kanagawa, collaborators: tap dancer Shoko Taniguchi, Kahiko Hula dancer Miilani Cooper, etc. / 2013.6
○Okirai Summer2012xLIGHT UP NIPPON / Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture 2012.8
○Furano, Hokkaido 2012.7
○Tokyo Midtown / LIGHT UP NIPPON 2012.7
○One Woman Live Show at Shibuya PLUG / Tokyo 2011.9
○2011 Canadian Music Fest / Toronto 2011.3
Awards, Grants & Residency:
○Venice Biennale 2022 Site-Specific Performance Grant
○Berliner Festspiele 2022 Theatertreffen - Stückemarkt
○Fulbright fellowship in the arts 2021-2022 Berlin, Germany
○Artist-in-Residence at the Watermill Center, OPERA Ensemble April 7-May 7 2021 NY (virtual attendance)
○Honorable Mention Award for the 2020 Pauline Oliveros New Genre Prize, The 39th IAWM Search for New Music Competition 2020
○The Leo Bronstein Homage Award, New York University 2020
○APNM 2019 Electronic Music Competition, winner 2019.12
○Dean's Award for Summer Research, and Dean's Conference Fund Award, summer 2019
○C.V. Starr Fund Award, Asian/Pacific/American Institute 2019
○The Aiko Susanna Tashiro Hiratsuka Memorial Performing Arts Scholarship, Japanese American Citizen League 2018
○tvk live sponsorship 2013.6
Selective Publications
○Space Sculpting, fixed media, The SEAMUS Electroacoustic Miniatures Series - Monophonic 2020
○Composition, poem, On the Rabbit Hole, Gallatin Galleries 2020
○On the Night of the New Moon, poem, Eleven and a Half Journal 2018
○Vocal recordings for catchat for babies (DVD) released by TBS and Columbia Entertainment
Selective Media Appearances:
○Artists’ Talk with Tjaša Črnigoj, Kolektiv Igralke, Aine Nakamura & Amanda Wilkin at Berliner Festspiele 2022.5
○FEM Music Radio Show, CoLaboRadio/Freie Radios Berlin Brandenburg (fixed media) 2022.1
○Yomi Time, [WHO] Interview 2021.9
○Radio Campus Brussels (fixed media) 2020.9
○Nippon Broadcasting System (live performance) Suono Dolce 2011.6, 2012.10, 2014.12
○FM Nack5 (live performance) 2014.10
○FM Setagaya 2013.8-
○Co-hosted a music program of Radio NIKKEI 2012.12-2013.3
○J-WAVE Music Hyper Market / Toko no Dendo Featured Artist 2012.11
○Tamagawa Takashimaya x FM Setagaya (live performance) / La Dolce Vita Cindy Suzuki 2012.9
○JFN / Once (live performance) 2011.7 & 2012.9
○J-Wave Hello World 2010.11
Other Engagements:
○Workshop, songs in bodies, at Berliner Festspiele 2022
○Songs from Ryukyu Islands for Listening Journal, Lumbardhi, Kosovo 2020
○Singer, voice over, translator. Clients included NHK (TV), NHK World (TV), TPS, Inc.(TV programs), Four Seasons Hotel, and Swissotel Osaka, Japan 2011-2016
○Curatorial work, Institute of Global Concern, Sophia University, Tokyo 2013-2015
Education:
○Fulbright fellow at Humboldt University of Berlin, Media Studies, and Berlin University of the Arts, Composition 2021-2022
○MA, Composition and Performance concentration, New York University 2018-2020
○Jazz & Contemporary Music, The New School, BFA program 2016-2018
○BA in foreign studies and curatorial studies, Sophia (Jochi) University 2004
○Qualified as a curator (official curator certificate, Japan) 2004
Other backgrounds:
○Trained in Okinawan traditional music (uta-sanshin) under Isamu Goya, Noborikawa-ryu
○Studied Classical voice under Itaru Mitsuzuka
○special thanks to Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio and Yoshito Ohno
For my full C.V., please contact.
Photography by Ioana Bultoc
中村愛音
[短いプロフィール]
歌い手、パフォーマンス・アーティスト、作曲家
ソロの出演出展は、ベルリンBerliner Festspiele Theatertreffenおよびニューヨーク・ギャラテン・ギャラリー個展『Cirlc hasu: We plant seeds in the spring of mountains』、ニューヨーク「A Concert of Electronic Music in honor of Mario Davidovsky」、リスボン「Dias de Música Electroacústica」等。 ニューヨーク・インターナショナル・コンテンポラリー・アンサンブル、フィンランド・ミクロアンサンブルらにも作曲を提供、共演する。ベネチア・ビエンナーレ「Site-specific Performance Grant」、フルブライト・フェローショップ、ニューヨーク大学「The Leo Bronstein Homage Award 2020」、「Honorable Mention Award for the 2020 Pauline Oliveros Prize」受賞。APNM2019エレクトロニック・ミュージック・コンペティションのウィナー。ニューヨーク大学修士卒業。 2021年9月より、フルブライト・アーティストとしてドイツ・ベルリンにて制作・発表を行う。
2022年『Cirlc hasu: We plant seeds in the spring of mountains』をベルリン Berliner Festspieleにて、Stückemarktプロジェクトとして再演するほか、ベネチア・ビエンナーレにて、新作『Under an Unnamed Flower』を発表する。
作曲家アネーア・ロックウッドは、中村のソロ作品『Circle hasu』について、以下のように話す。
「濃密な繊細さと、美しい何層もの声は、彼女の動きとともに、近くに聴こえたり、遠くから聴こえたり…その流れは、とても感動的なものだった」
[長いプロフィール]
I am a singer, and I am song itself. 日本人ともアジア系アメリカ人ともはまることができない、その一方ではなく、どちらでもある、自己、どのようにも定義し得ないもの・複雑さを、見つけ、守り、そしてそこから伝えることの意味をさぐる。また「女」という芸術や小説の材料ではなく、「わたし」という第一人称から、わたしたちに触れていきたい。
米ワシントン州出身、ワシントン州と横浜市に育った。レーナ・マリアのコンサートに感銘を受け、高校時代にクラシック声楽を学び始めた。上智大学在学時(村井吉敬ゼミ、学芸員課程)にゴスペルクワイアSAfro FAmilyにてパートリーダー等。また、登川流呉屋功氏に沖縄島唄・三線を学ぶ。2010年秋よりシンガーソングライター、インディーズミュージシャンとしての活動を始めた。各国の音楽フェスに出演、またコンピレーションに楽曲が収録される。2014年11月JZ Brat SOUND OF TOKYOにてワンウーマンライブ。
2016年、芸術の追求とトランスナショナルなアイデンテティの模索のため、米国へ。以降新しいスタイルの制作を行うようになる。女性として日本ではうるさすぎた自己とからだを大事にしながら生きるという選択でもあったように思う。 また、渡航前に二度、渡航後に一度、手術を経験したことも、わたしのからだからの芸術づくりに影響した。声とうた、うたと言葉、からだと声を、行き来し、また一体となりながら、うたう。言葉になる前のうたは何か。体を動かすことで、私は、言語や文化や男目線の文法ではなく、もっと広い空間からわたしの体をみて、いかして、うたいたい。そこからわたしたちの内面、存在に触れていきたい。
ニューヨークにて監督/デザイナーDmitry Krymovの前衛プロジェクトの音楽メンバーになったことを機に、音楽フォームが無い状態での即興、ストーリーからのアプローチによるヴォイスに取り組むようになる(2019年にThe Two 出演)。さらに、ジャズスクールJane Ira Bloomのクラスにて、体のみで自己紹介する機会があり、その体験が「聴き方」を変化させる。2017年5月John Cage music for MoMA音楽メンバー。2018年春ニューヨーク・パブリック・ライブラリー・フォー・パフォーミング・アーツにてソロ作曲作品を発表。初めて声と体の追求を始める。2018年7月、ニューヨーク・シティ・エレクトロアクースティック・ミュージック・フェスティバルにおいて、作曲作品『six stories』をフェスティバルのアーティスト・チェリストのマデレイン・シャピロと演奏。2018年9月、フィンランド・オウルにてmicrotonal musicの作曲をMiKro Ensemblenと演奏。2019年「Exploration in Sound and Body」を開催し、ダンサーMiki Orihara、ピアニストYuko Fujiyamaと共演。また『The Unseen World』を作曲、ICEと共演した。2018年から2021年現在まで、声と体の独自のワンウーマン作品を発表し始め、ソロ作品『Circle hasu』により各賞受賞。2021年7-8月、ニューヨーク・ギャラテンギャラリーにて個展『Circle hasu: We plant seeds in the spring of mountains』を発表。
2021年9月よりフルブライト・フェローシップによりドイツ・ベルリンにて制作・発表を行う。ベルリン芸術大学とフンボルト大学ベルリンにてフェロー。2022年ベルリンのBerliner Festspieleにて『Circle hasu: We plant seeds in the spring of mountains』を再演するほか、ベネチア・ビエンナーレの第50回国際演劇祭にて、新作『Under an Unnamed Flower』を発表する。
ニュースクール大学ジャズスクール Jazz & Contemporary Music にて、Richard Harper、Dave Douglas、Jane Ira Bloom、Diane Moser、Kirk Nurock、Chris Stoverらにヴォイス、作曲および音楽学を学んだ。ニューヨーク大学修士課程にて、Elizabeth Hoffman、Anna Deavere Smith、Nina Katchadourian、Joan La Barbara、Michael D. Dinwiddieらに作曲、芸術およびパフォーマンスを学んだ。また、沖縄・八重山地方の女性と村人による祭祀と歌を研究した。この研究は、うた三線の原型が女性の祈りの声であったであろうことに関心を持ったことで始めたが、譜面や楽器伴奏のない状態での体からの声に着目していった。「沖縄女性学」とジェンダー学にも触れる研究となった。作曲、パフォーマンス、口承学、音楽療法、ジェンダー学を学際的にデザインして、2020年に卒業。この独自の研究は、中村自身のうたうた、体からの声、また体としての声をみつめ、深め、みつけていくものでった。ワンウーマン作曲・パフォーマンス手法を創った。ベネチア・ビエンナーレSite-specific performance grant、Fulbright Fellowship、APNM 2019 Electronic Music Competitionウィナー、The Leo Bronstein Homage Award（ニューヨーク大学）、Honorable Mention Award for the 2020 Pauline Oliveros New Genre Prize受賞。Berliner Festspiele Theatertreffen、フンボルト大学ベルリン、ピッツバーグ大学等にて講演やワークショップを行う。
Photography by Aleks Slota
Photography by Ayaka Fujii