Kitty Xiao on Fluorescent Cities

Words by:
Kitty Xiao, Australian composer, electronic musician, and pianist.

I am thrilled for my work Fluorescent Cities to be part of the 10-year anniversary celebration of the percussion program at ANAM! My interaction with students at ANAM began 8 years ago, when I first decided I was going to be a composer.

In 2015, I was fortunate enough to meet violinist Cameron Jamieson, and convinced him I would bring him sketches of my piano trio ideas; some which were not fully formed, others completely notated. He would work with them, paying special attention to each phrase, each detail, applying his musical sensitivity to each one of our rehearsals. 

Composition was something that came later for me. I was trained as a pianist, and although I was already composing music throughout my teenage years, I was often encouraged to stick to just playing the piano. Composition was something I learned through doing, and without open-minded musicians like Cameron, I would not have been able to learn, improve, or be seen and heard the way I wanted to be.

In 2017, I was involved in a project called 5x5x5 with Arts Centre Melbourne. I was really happy to be given a wonderful opportunity, and once again was able to work with musicians at ANAM, including Alex MacDonald, Liam Meany, Matthew Levy, James Townsend and Cameron Jamieson. This was my first piece writing for percussion, and it was met with great expertise and enthusiasm. The musicians provided me feedback which has proven to be valuable for me to this day.

The idea of community and social connection had started forming for me as an important aspect of my creative work during this time. In the same year, I had the incredible pleasure to work with Laura Barton for The Six Piano Project. I put everything into this project; from collecting old, abandoned pianos, to contacting musicians, venues, sponsors, donors, organising rehearsals, composing, and performing. I wanted to work with a conductor who understood the experience of music and people, as much as the way sound can be represented itself. In a way, I was drawn to the idea of imperfection, and how sometimes these "disposed of" instruments, and their blemishes made up so much of the beauty of the sound. It embodied what I wanted to be seen as, and to me, Laura understood all of that. She was a conductor who was an equally amazing violinist, whom executed each rehearsal with precision, skill and sensitivity. She worked closely with the musicians, several of which included pianists from ANAM, Adam McMilan and Julia Hastings. I was astounded that musicians of such a high calibre wanted to be part of a DIY project - but they were there each and every time with the highest level of professionalism and love for their work.

Following this project, I relocated to the US to pursue further composition studies, and in the midst of the pandemic was lucky enough to be involved in The ANAM Set. I was paired with ANAM cellist Hamish Jamieson, and together, we worked on my new work In flesh. The process was a back and forth; he recorded samples, I manipulated them, he rehearsed, I edited. I was working with a new notational style and becoming much more absorbed in the relationship between acoustic, electronics, and the sounds which interest me now. I was blown away by Hamish’s performances, and I do not think the piece would have developed without the trust and respect that we developed for one another; there were no limitations in our relationship as composer and performer.

The percussion trio which will be performed to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the percussion department at ANAM, Fluorescent Cities, is an evolving portrait of structural experience - an earlier work which explores my ideas of how cities, communities, places, and people transform our own selfhood. The colours in the work interfere - undulating between tone and noise, microscopic, and saturated - ways in which I hope for our social realities to inform each other. The collaborations with students of ANAM throughout the years have been hugely transformative to me as a composer, and memories of which I hold great fondness. I am so excited to see all that the future holds for the students of ANAM, and I could not be more happy to be a part of this incredible milestone!

Hear Kitty's work performed live at:

A DECADE OF RHYTHM! FLUORESCENT CITIES
Friday, 2 July, 7PM
Rosina Auditorium, Abbotsford Convent.

FIND OUT MORE