voice, body, stories, performance/theater art, improvisation/composition, interdisciplinary art
Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia / © Andrea Avezzù
What formal details do I choose or not choose? What grammar do I create or not create? What traces are left after a performance? What do I listen? What is the possibility of space between languages, and between spoken and unspoken? I pursue sensibility and spirituality as my aesthetics through a focus on the nuanced possibilities of my voice and weaving of multiple. My voice is of and with my body. I am song itself.
I produce a sonic and visual space through my performance of voice and body. I focus on orality—my voice from my moving body. I cross boundaries within and outside of my body, defying traditional power structures that preclude new ways of feelings. And, I listen. I listen to songs in bodies, snow outside the window, memories, recovery, wider space beyond the wall, silence, temporality of insects’ singing, and then the unknown. Based on concept, personal ethnography, and research, and through my time- and site-specific presence, I weave and embody time- and space-transcending stories, transforming myself from a silkworm to an old man, from an infant to water, from a loquat leaf to oneness. Wearable and objects change their shapes and become calligraphy, connector of delicate stories, or architecture for transformation. My voice and body seek a borderless state of being. I am a medium in addition to me being in body, for multiple, and space for feelings and care.
Upon my relocation from Japan (Tokyo) to the U.S. (NYC), both of which are my countries as I was born in Pacific Northwest and grew up initially there and later in Yokohama, my artistic quest shifted as a search for my own language to embrace and express self, which cannot be told simply through one disciplinary or cultural frame. Having experienced gender politics and surgeries, I moved closer to my woman artist identity, acknowledging my transnational complexity and ambiguity. While nurturing my self, my spiritual, artistic and intellectual space, I started to seek a space for multiple and relations in a new art I investigate. In addition to NYC where I learned to generate my art form, I have spent time in Berlin and Venice, where I show my intersectional arts in theater, music and dance, California where I work on collaborative languages, and Tokyo where I study my familial backgrounds and silk.
My recent works include my solo performance of sung and spoken voice and body Under an Unnamed Flower during an invitation to the 50th International Theatre Festival at the Venice Biennale (Jun 26-Jul 3 2022), which focused on war, weaving, silk contextualized through issues of objectification, mourning and mending, gestures and objects connecting the multiple; solo performance project Circle hasu We plant seeds in the spring of mountains, which I presented at Theatertreffen at Berliner Festspiele upon an invitation as a Stückemarkt artist (May 11-15 2022) after its premiere at the Gallatin Galleries (Jul 16-Aug 13 2021), focused on time-transcending healing and nature as I recovered from a surgery and from hatred in the rhythm of season change; solo abstract arts Yami and Iro I premiered at Berlin University of the Arts (March 2 2023) and Kusottare! (December 4 2022) at The LAB, focused on authorship in storytelling of body and sexuality through my performance with paper and poems, which would change their shapes in poetic and unexpected ways; and an outdoor audiovisual performance Cicada premiered at Center for New Music and Technologies (May 7 2023) in collaboration with visual artist Olivia Ting with sound co-development by Luke Dzwonczyk, focused on unfolding of physical experiences and exploration of renewal and acceptance of change through projections on membranes, movement, and spatialized voice.
I have presented my other performance, media and mixed artworks at HfM Hanns Eisler Berlin, Errant Sound in collaboration with Brandon LaBelle, A Concert of Electronic Music in honor of Mario Davidovsky, Dias de Música Electroacústica, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, compositions at New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival performed with cellist Madeleine Shapiro, October New Music Festival in Finland performed with Mikro Ensemblen, Abrons Arts Center with International Contemporary Ensemble, DiMenna Center for Classical Music for Bent Duo at the APNM Concert, and CNMAT for bassist Richard Worn. My other appearances include The Two directed by Dmitry Krymov (New York Theater Workshop project), and OPERA Ensemble at the Watermill Center with Lucie Vítková and the ensemble. I am an awardee of the Venice Biennale 2022 Site-Specific Performance Grant, the Fulbright Fellowship in the arts affiliated with Berlin University of the Arts and Humboldt University of Berlin (2021-2022, Berlin), The Leo Bronstein Homage Award from New York University for my MA Studies (My Art of Voice and Body), and The Honorable Mention Award for the 2020 Pauline Oliveros New Genre Prize. I have given workshops and talks at Berliner Festspiele, University of Pittsburgh, McGill Schulich School of Music, and Humboldt University of Berlin. I am currently generously supported by UC Berkeley as a Doctoral fellow in music composition.
Aine E. Nakamura, with the piece she presented from her transborder project, Under an Unnamed Flower, by virtue of a melodic use of the voice, of an original process of deconstructing and reconstructing language, of freeform figurations and three-dimensional words that without prejudice reach across the boundaries of Theatre, Dance and Music, bouncing us within a poetic vortex of light, that spills forth visions, dreams, memories, colours and feelings, catapults us – while maintaining an uninterrupted relationship with her personal past, her family and one of her countries Japan – into a Present that is highly ambivalent and complex, in which the dramatic events of History, such as wars, the violence of invasions, the uprooting and loss of one’s personal land, intertwine with the breath of her rarefied and enigmatic narrations, implacably becoming entangled in her private life as an exile, as a wanderer who pleas for non-violence and quiet resistance.
Intimately connected to her château intérieur and the surrounding spiritual world, her ashen face appearing historiated by the snow, Aine E. Nakamura, as an unnamed flower that lives at the site in the wind, her legs and arms constantly moving for the accuracy of the Ritual, her nimble eyes scrutinising contemporary society, her ears collecting the stories that spin through the airwaves as an antidote to oblivion, in a symbiotic relationship with Nature (plants, animals, earth) and Humanity in its entirety, absorbing their every mood, listens to their voices which she then relaunches in a peacefully “revolutionary” way, reclaiming the emotional universes that each of us carries within.
As she thus moves away from the routine courses of performance and the conventional modulations of sound in the western tradition, with an enthralling plurilingualism unfettered from the obligations of reality, Aine E. Nakamura morphs into a sort of hypnotic pied piper who, behind her apparent childlike awe, leaves us spellbound – like one of those creatures in a fairy – talking in soft tones of things that she actually steadfastly disapproves of, and refusing, even when the darkness forces its way like a spectral beast into the labyrinth of existence, the unavoidability of compromise and objecting to the oppressive social coercion of the political pigsty.
- Stefano Ricci and Gianni Forte, Venice Biennale 2022 Site-Specific Performance
Its intense vulnerability and the beautiful layering of voices—distant, close, together with [her] movements, flowing was very moving.
- Annea Lockwood
Circle Hasu evokes in me a deep need and desire for a geopoetical sensibility that emphasizes care and repair. Acts of recovery held together by the delicate bonding of voice, body, and memories voiding otherness. - Ogutu Muraya
Circle Hasu We plant seeds in the spring of mountains” she impressively switches between her Japanese and American identity. In fact the cultural split of the two identities is constitutional for her minimalistic, contemplative yet intense performance on stage. It is astonishing how deep the simple lines of her storytelling took us into the alienations of an Asian woman in New York. And the elegance of her choreography up into the tips of her fingers provide a glimpse into the rich traditions of Japanese dance. Along with her short performative interventions, Aine Nakamura transformed the space in front of the Haus der Berliner Festspiele into a sacral landscape in which every detail suddenly became important and a little stone was valued equally to a vulnerable and fragile living existence. - Laudatory speech Stückemarkt by Thomas Frank, Marleen Ilg, Enrico Lübbe (Schauspiel Leipzig)
Ongoing & Future Projects
○The Search for Wonder and the Discovery of Theatre Creative Research in Contemporary Performing Arts, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu upon the occasion of Sibiu International Theatre Festival. June 23-24 2023 Sibiu Romania
○lectures, Tokyo College of Music, Meiji University. July 18 & 21, 2023 Tokyo Japan
○workshop, Meiji University. July 22-23 & 29-30, 2023 Tokyo Japan
○performance at exhibition Me, The Timeless Self - within the Umwelt by visual artist Keiko Miyamori, mhPROJECT ノコギリニ. August 5 & 6 2023 Aichi Japan
○contribution to International Association of Theatre Critics (Hong Kong), Critique in the Front Line, September 2023, Hong Kong
○Silkworm to be premiered at Larnaca Biennale (Oct 11 - Nov 24, 2023), Larnaca, Cyprus.
○collaborative project with Balinese dancer and singer Cok Pring. March 23-31 2024, Bali Indonesia
Selective Performances & Presentations
○Cicada, collaborative show with visual artist Olivia Ting at Center for New Music and Technology / 2023.5.7
○mystery in itself, work for Richard Worn, bass and fixed media, at Center for New Music and Technology / 2023.4.24
○but will always find, its freespace, work for Bent Duo, APNM Concert at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music / 2023.4.17
○"Aine Nakamura & Srayamurtikanti" solo, Oni no namida, and collaborative performance with Sraya MurtiKanti at Center for New Music San Francisco / 2023.3.24
○Yami and Iro 闇と色, performance of voice, body, paper, cloth and visual at Musiktheaterabend at UdK (Berlin University of the Arts) / 2023.3.2
○New Year's renewal performance of voice, body and found objects at Spectrum, Brooklyn / 2023.1.6
○Workshop and panel at The 1st International Symposium on Contemporary Asian Theatre, University of Göttingen / 2022 12.8-9
○Kusottare! performance of voice, body, objects and video at THE LAB, Sound Encounters III, SFCMP & CNMAT San Francisco / 2022.12.4
○Under an Unnamed Flower at La Biennale di Venezia (Venice Biennale) - Biennale Teatro Site-Specific Performance / 2022 6.26-7.3
○Ohajiki and pink shoes, Medientheater at Humboldt University of Berlin & Jacob-und-Wilhelm-Grimm-Zentrum Library / 2022 7.7-12
○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, and producer Junko Arita, 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, self-curated show, 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:
○New York Public Library Short-Term Research Fellowship poetics of peace 2022-2023
○Venice Biennale 2022, Winner, 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, orality in ritualistic songs in Okinawa and Yaeyama 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
○The koma top is not for spinning, fixed media, APNM, Vol. 3, Music from the Association for the Promotion of New Music, New Focus Recordings 2023
○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:
○Review: Les mémoires enfouies dans les pierres de Aine E. Nakamura à la Biennale de Venise by Amélie Blaustein Niddam. Toute La Culture 2022.7
○Review: Milo Rau e Aine E. Nakamura e il loro manifesto per un teatro democratico e di pace by Liliana Tangorra. Pane Acqua Culture.net 2022.7
○Review: Biennale di Venezia, un’idea di Teatro by Maria Dolores Pesce. Rumor(s)cena. 2022.7
○Review: Cronache dalla Biennale Teatro by Alessandro Cammarano. TVIWEB. 2022.7
○Review&News: Un semi di pace on VeNews 2022.6
○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
○Review: New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival 2018: EXCELLENCE by Jean Ballard Terepka 2018.7
○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:
○UC Berkeley, Doctoral fellow in Composition
○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
○special thanks to Yuko Kaseki
For my full C.V., please contact.
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、シアター・アーティスト、コンポーザー。
声と体の可能性を、うた、おどり、即興、作曲、物語、衣から探求する。空間と体を聴き、決まった文法にとらわれない自由なうたとからだの表現を行う。アメリカで生まれ日米に育ったトランスナショナルな背景から、国や文化のボーダーを超え、また、体の内側外側をまたがった、ボーダーレスな芸術を生み出す。記憶、窓の外の音、体の中の詩（うた）をケアし、物語と、声と体の形を編みながらも、まだ見ぬ未知と新言語に向かい、パフォーマンスを変化させていく。蝉になったり、老人になったり、赤ちゃんになったり、水になったり、語り手になったりしながら。声と体という媒体から、複数形の在り方とケアが共存できるパフォーマンスをめざす。
近年のソロ代表作は、2022年ベネチア・ビエンナーレ発表の『Under an Unnamed Flower』、2022年ベルリンTheatertreffen発表の『Circle hasu We plant seeds in the spring of mountains』。米国に拠点を置きながら、ギャラテン・ギャラリー、ベルリン芸術大学、サンフランシスコThe Lab、ニューヨークAbrons Arts Center等、世界各地で作品を発表し、ワークショップも行っている。2021-2022年フルブライト・フェロー（ベルリン）。ニューヨーク大学「Leo Bronstein Homage Award」、ポーリン・オリベロス・ニュージャンル賞特別賞等を受賞。UC Berkeley作曲博士課程にて助成を受けている。
[長いプロフィール]
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に参加しパートリーダー等。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としての活動を始めた。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。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、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、物語りといまを、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。複数の物語をどうだきしめ混在させることができるのか。体を動かすことで、私は、広い空間から体をみて、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。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。また『The Unseen World』を作曲、ICEと共演。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-2022年、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。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。Campo Santo Stefanoの屋外広場にて、反戦、平和、絹、もの化への問いを編み、うたい、おどり、語った。ベルリンのBerliner Festspieleにて『Circle hasu We plant seeds in the spring of mountains』再演。
ニュースクール大学ジャズスクール Jazz & Contemporary Music にて、ヴォイス、作曲および音楽学を、ニューヨーク大学修士課程にて、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。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、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。現在、UC Berkeley作曲博士課程にて助成を受け、国際的に作品を発表している。特に、絹とかいこと八王子、戦争と平和、衣と体、女性の体と、声、に関心を持っている。
Photography by Ayaka Fujii