Ting Luo Returns to Old First Concerts

An example of Ting Luo’s extended piano performance techniques (from the Old First Concerts Web page for her program)

Last night pianist Ting Luo returned to Old First Presbyterian Church for her second Old First Concerts performance of a New Arts Collaboration (NAC) program. While NAC is “an interdisciplinary art project for sound and multimedia,” last night’s program was, for the most part, concentrated on the piano. However, there were a variety of extended performance techniques and, in some cases, the incorporation of electronic gear.

The program consisted of eight selections, five of which were given world premiere performances. In “order of appearance” these were “Sustain” (Aries Mond, 2022), “Hold Close and Let Go” (Cole Reyes, 2022), “Rhapsody on ‘Rahel Lastimoza’” (Sarah Wald, 2023), “Cosmic Cliffs” (Dylan Findley, 2023), and “Meteor Shuttle” (Xuesi Xu, 2023). There was also a West Coast premiere performance of “reperiō,” composed by Emily Koh in 2022. Ting also performed her improvised “Touch” (first conceived in 2017), playing piano in an “environment” of electronic audio programmed by Joo Won Park.

As was the case with her debut program in November of 2021, the quantity of content was overwhelming. Furthermore, while that earlier program paired the piano with the work of a media artist, last night’s performance was focused almost entirely on the piano. As a result, my most salient memories are based on the interplay of the piano with electronics in the “Touch” improvisation. That said, it would be fair to note that every work on the program deserved a platform for introduction; but, taken as a whole, the evening felt like a party with a large number of guests requiring considerable time for the introductions.