Kevin Kay

Working at the Universität der Künste Berlin was great. Each week I would attend a seminar with Marc Sabat – a pioneer in just intonation which is the focus of my work – and we scheduled many one-on-one sessions throughout the semester. These sessions were focused on listening, perception, temporality, and the practical concern of notation.

Privat

Left: The poster of Kevin Kay's world premier, Right: Kevin Kay in Strasbourg

For the first time in my academic journey, I was able to discuss just intonation with someone who is a proper expert on the subject. While previous professors knew enough to introduce me to this concept and engage with me to a certain degree, I was mostly self-taught on the matter.

Therefore, I was eager to study with someone who’s expertise was on this topic. Through Marc Sabat, I learned about new concepts under development which proved extremely useful for my own work. The concept that was most useful to me is a set of math equations which orders chords by harmonicity (i.e. how a collection of tones fuse together)

I applied these new techniques to a substantial piece of music I was writing, which then premiered in Salzburg in March near the end of my research stay. For this piece, I did a substantial amount of pre-composition before arriving to Berlin and planned to finish the piece during my studies with Marc Sabat.

I planned the premiere with a conductor colleague of mine, Thibault Back de Surany, who conducts an ensemble based in Salzburg called The Van Swietens, and the concert was organized at the Shakespeare Kunst & Kulinarisches where they had previously performed. This piece of music, titled dualities and symmetries, is my PhD dissertation for my home university, Stony Brook University in New York, which I just successfully defended in May. The premiere of dualities and symmetries can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/ecebDk6c1WI

Privat

There were several sights to marvel at in Berlin

During my time in Berlin, it became apparent that this is where I’d like to continue my practice, as this city has a sense of vibrancy and community in the arts, and accessibility to grants makes it possible to carry out your own projects. I was able to make many friends and collaborators, and I started to build a home for myself. As I write this report, I am in the US, as I needed to return to defend my dissertation and attend graduation ceremonies.

However, I will return to Berlin in mid-June and begin the process of applying for a freelance visa. When I return, I will be focused on organizing a concert for later this Fall with the ensemble I joined called red panel, playing clarinet. We’re only in the beginning stages now and will be applying to grants this summer. One of the highlights of my stay in Germany was playing with red panel in Essen, where one of our members lives.

The origin story is that last summer I met three composer/performers at a music academy in Graz (actually, two of them I met at an academy right before in the south of France), and we all shared certain musical aesthetics. One of them is a founding member of red panel, and he wanted to revitalize the group by including us. The piece I composed for our show in Essen can be heard here; https://soundcloud.com/kmkay/currents-and-wires

I really like Berlin. I like how international it is – New York City, where I previously lived, is also quite international, but is lacking a presence of people from Europe. Making friends here fortunately came quite easy, as the person I mentioned above who founded red panel lives in Berlin, and he introduced me to a whole friend group. Almost everyone in Berlin speaks English, so the motivation to learn German is not very high, but I will continue working on it. Lifestyle wise, I like that I’m walking more and eating healthier.

My radius back In NYC became very small, but here I walk quite a lot as I’m excited to explore my surroundings. I have a suspicion that the quality of food is better here than in the US (perhaps due to regulations that I admittedly haven’t researched and am only hypothesizing on). From hunting for favorite coffee shops in my neighborhood, Friedrichshain, to exploring Berlin’s famous nightlife, this city is full of life and has so much to offer.

I’m excited to continue my journey in Berlin. The experimental classical music scene is just as good as it was in NYC (perhaps even more active), yet the cost of living is halved. When I found out that I was selected for the Respekt & Wertschätzung Scholarship, I knew that I would want to try living in Berlin for a longer period of time, and my hypothesis turned out correct. For now, my plans are to just try and live as an artist, freelancing in various facets of the classical music field to pay the bills, with the main goal of simply composing.