DESCRIPTION:
Artists: www.jackieleung.com, https://soundcloud.com/dubble8

Performance of "Double Identities" at the Doctoral Lecture Recital of Jacqueline Leung, Canadian pianist.

Performers: Jacqueline Leung (piano, ipad) with DJ Dubble8 (Turntables, electronics)
Venue: State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook.
Date: March 1, 2015
Lecture Recital Advisor: Margaret Schedel

About the work: Double Identities (2014) is a 12-minute piece for piano, turntables, pre-recorded electronics, and ipad in 8 continuous movements with a score set within traditional musical notation that includes some improvised sections. It was written for Jacqueline Ching-Ling Leung and it incorporates samples of her recorded improvisations.

For the production and composition of Double Identities, the process was as follows:
1. Piano samples and other audio were selected from vinyl records. 2. Samples were chopped up in the vintage 1997 MPC 2000XL digital sampler, and then sequenced into a set of beats.
3. Sample-based beats were sent to pianist J.C. Leung with directions to improvise and record them while listening to each of the sequenced beat sections.
4. These improvisations were sampled and then either
a) manipulated through scratching, cutting, and cue point juggling, using a digital turntable-style DJ controller (Traktor Kontrol S4)) and added as further layers in the electronic part, or b) transcribed into the piano part of the score, which were then further developed by Erik Spangler using classic pen and paper notation composition.
5. The composition of the piece is complete upon performance as sections in the score call for the pianist to improvise using a) the piano b) in traktor dj app to manipulate her chosen samples. In addition, the turntablist is pretty much ad libitum to improvise with some instruction.

Composer Erik Spangler describes Double Identities as a hybrid Hip-Hop and classical work, representing his double identity as a Hip-Hop DJ and classically trained composer. Spangler has earned his PhD in composition from Harvard and is currently working as a professor at Maryland Institute College of the Arts. He also composes for various projects, and is a co-host for the Baltimore Boom Bap Society monthly improvised hip-hop show. His influences for Double Identities stem from the work of electronic musicians, producers and DJs from the late 1990s and 2000s and include instrumental Hip-Hop DJs including J-Dilla, Pete Rock, DJ Shadow, Prefuse 73, Blockhead and Birdy Nam Nam.

Canadian pianist Jacqueline Ching-Ling Leung, originally from Rexdale, Ontario, is a candidate in the Doctor of Musical Arts program at SUNY Stony Brook studying with Christina Dahl. For more info visit www.pianistjacquelineleung.com