Chromic Duo made up of Lucy Yao and Dorothy Chan, performed at the Crystal Ballroom on Friday March 22nd, as a part of the Celebrity Series of Boston’s Stave Sessions and this was not the oft pictured typical classical piano concert! They played on toy pianos, a toy xylophone, a synthesizer, as well as on a stand up piano to breathe fresh air into works, such as Ryuichi Sakamoto’s “Path of the Wind” from My Neighbor Totoro and wrapped up the show with an original piece by Chromic Duo, From Roots We Carry. During From Roots We Carry they encouraged the audience to write in notes through a QR code on their phones that would then be displayed on the screen during the final piece answering questions such as “what are the roots/traditions that have been passed down to you that you want to keep/celebrate?” and “what are the roots/traditions that have been passed down to you that you want to let go of?” This sort of digital “confessional” helped the audience forge connections with the duo and with each other. Making the event something much more than a simple piano concert. Throughout the evening Dorothy and Lucy took turns speaking into the microphones about their connections to the chosen songs and the dialogue was alternatively funny and heartwarming, the perfect accompaniment to the music.
Sampan sat down with Dorothy Chan and Lucy Yao to discuss their show and future plans:
Sampan: How did you meet each other?
Lucy Yao: Yeah, so we met in a hallway, infamously, at the New England Conservatory in 2019. I saw Dorothy in the hallway as she was carrying this huge case of what looked like the Peanuts pianos. And it was like, “what is that?” And from there, we just started to make music with toy pianos. And I didn’t see her until another year later when I was looking for ways to break outside of the classical music traditions that I had been around since I was four.
Sampan: How old were you when you began playing piano and did you enjoy it?
Dorothy Chan: Was like, I think, three and a half, four. And I think, same with Lucy. I actually wanted to, apparently. I don’t know. According to my mom. I think we had some family gathering, and then you know how you have a big gathering and usually when you’re done, people still go outside of the restaurant and just stand around for, like, a second. And then I think we’re all standing around, and we’re right next to a store that sells pianos. And apparently, I was just like all about it, and she’s like, ‘do you want to go see?’ And I’m like ‘yes!’, and then apparently, I wanted to learn it. So, contrary to what a lot of the people are like, maybe when you’re young, maybe your parents wanted you to go do something and force you to do that. It came very naturally for me.
Lucy Yao: I don’t remember, but I think I enjoyed it at that age, and my parents never forced me to do anything, including piano. So I am not at all a child prodigy. I think I did the bare minimum all the way up until college when a teacher noticed that I am pretty musical and that I can express myself with the instruments. She pushed me towards going into the music education route originally in my societies at college, and I was a pretty late bloomer when I realized that music is a way to express myself. But, however, it was not the only way that I could express myself.
Sampan: This show that you’re doing at the Crystal Ballroom on the 22nd, what inspired you to create this piece of work?
Lucy Yao: When we were thinking about returning to Boston, this is the first time that we are returning with all of the tools and the kinds of stories that we want to tell since we first met. And I think what inspires me is being able to create a place for our audiences to reflect within themselves and to ask themselves questions about roots, which is the title of one of the featured works From Roots We Carry. For me, it’s asking the audiences to reflect on these two questions, the first being, ‘what of these roots have you inherited, or these traditions have you inherited that you want to celebrate or keep?’ And then the second question being, ‘what are the roots that you no longer wish to hold, the ones that maybe hold you back or the ones that you just want to leave behind?’ And I think this is a kind of recurring theme in our work as the more and more we create, it’s like, how do we create moments of empathy and reflection? And so our process is inspired by creating maybe moments of familiarity in the programs. And that’s how we, for instance, are sharing pieces that we love from our childhood. And that’s how we’re sharing Studio Ghibli and My Neighbor Totoro paired with more contemporary Ryuichi Sakamoto. And then going into that is inspiring. Also later works that in the pandemic were especially important and then became like a turning point, I think, that helps us define the kinds of things we’re inspired by. And that’s the piece that is our arrangement of Ravel. So in that piece, it’s called Pavane. It’s modeled after our roots of growing. My background being in classical music, Dorothy has a different background to talk about a little bit, maybe later. So it’s integrating the kind of classical style and the roots we came from, and then talking about, ‘why is music important now? What issues are important now?’ The poem that is featured in Pavane is talking about the rise of anti API sentiment and hate crime in 2020 during the wake of all of the spikes of hate crime, especially in New York City, where I am based. And it’s one of the beautiful things, I think, that art can do is paint potential futures and dream of things that could be the potential for that. And so the poem is talking about, what if Asian American histories are taught in schools? What does it look like when you’re represented in the stories that you hear? So that’s what that piece is about. And, yeah, I think we’re just inspired to share the things that we love and the things that we grew up with, the things that we redefine and then invite audiences to reflect together.
Sampan: The program includes a piece of original music by you From Roots We Carry. Will you talk about that a little bit?
Lucy Yao: From Roots We Carry was created with the multidisciplinary artist Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya. In discussion with her, we were trying to figure out what is the heart of this piece. It was through this kind of discovering process that we started to talk to our friends and family about. ‘How does it affect your relationships?’ Basically. And it turns out that the theme that we were talking about really had to do with not only Asian American identity, but also with anyone, because, as Dorothy said, ‘we all come from somewhere’. We all have these kinds of traditions or trauma or celebrating things that we want to honor. What we did is we collected stories, memories, and experiences from our friends and family and then created this 20 minute long piece where you hear narrations and stories throughout. And then after that, after the story made sense, we created music and sound design, and any kinds of field recordings to make it come to life.
Sampan: What are your plans as a duo for the future?
Lucy Yao: After this, we are going to be artists in residence and creative directors with Texas A&M. And we are creating an augmented reality soundwalk that you’re using your phone to discover stories around sustainability, specifically around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal. We’ve chosen to focus on life underwater because of Texas’s proximity to the ocean, specifically with one of the campuses at…
Dorothy Chan: M. They’re next to the ocean there.
Lucy Yao: And what we’re doing with that is, without giving too much away, we’re inviting participants, just like we would in the concerts, to reflect on their experiences and on their current relationships with climate and to think about how to engage with it in a more meaningful way. And so, yeah, we’re collaborating with the extra departments there, the social impact sustainability department, as well as the music composition and theater visualization.
Dorothy Chan: And it would be, like, something that would be through an app. So it’s a free app that anybody can download and experience on their campus.
