Mentions in the Press, January 2013

I feel a little bit like Mike Wazowski, when he is happy that he is on TV even though his face is covered. This weekend I've got a piece being danced to at the Breaking Ground Dance Festival, and it is mentioned in this article. The piece is called subtidal, and although I'm not mentioned by name (the article probably went to print well before I was brought in on the project) it is still pretty cool to see this kind of press for something I'm associated with! If you're in the Phoenix Area this weekend come on out to the performance!

Another recent mention comes from a great conversation I had with linguist Stephen Self over winter break in Texas. Steven runs thelanguagedocumentationcrowd.org, a crowdfunding site for linguistic projects aimed at preserving dying languages. We had a wonderful discussion and he was very curious about my experiences with the efforts to preserve Karelian culture. In an article discussing which version of a rare language is most 'authentic' he mentions our conversation:

Around New Year's, I had the chance to speak in person with composer Michael Wahlquist who, in February 2013, successfully funded a Kickstarter project to spend two months in May and June of 2013 in the Republic of Karelia in the northwest corner of Russia, next to Finland. There, he recorded the soundscape of the area in the hopes of preserving its unique sonic heritage in high quality digital recordings. When we spoke, Michael talked a lot about how present-day Karelian performers on traditional folk instruments such as the kantele, a traditional plucked string instrument of the dulcimer and zither family native to Finland and Karelia, are different and more virtuoso and professional than traditional players were. He noted the difference, spoke of its relation to traditional Karelian music, but refused to pass judgment on what the new form meant or how it should be valorized, if at all. In other words, he seemed to accept that the environment and climate which were shaping the music had changed and, thus, had produced a new form. At the same time, he was both slightly regretful that the traditional types of performance were no longer current and grateful that the music, in whatever form, was continuing to be played and passed on.

I'm grateful for the interest in my work, I hope as I release a couple albums over the next month to see the press mentions really start rolling in...