Corwin Lecture Series presents: "Ghosts, Bells, and the Ongoing Breath" lecture with composer Tonia Ko
February 18, 2025
3:00 pm | Building 387, Room 1015

Tonia Ko introduces recent compositions which feature creative transcriptions of field recordings as well as electronically processed sound. She will discuss the various technologies involved, orchestration tools and techniques, as well as the
continued influence of the long-standing bubble wrap practice Breath, Contained on her creative work.

Biography
Composer Tonia Ko has collaborated with leading musicians across a variety of media—from acoustic concert pieces to improvisatory works with electronics. Born in Hong Kong and raised in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, she has developed an international
profile with pieces performed across the USA, Europe, and in Asia.
Ko’s creative practice follows aural, visual, and tactile instincts in a holistic way, most prominently in “Breath, Contained”, an ongoing project using bubble wrap as a musical instrument. As a free improviser on her unique instrument, she has performed at Cafe OTO, Hundred Years Gallery, and Chicago Ear Taxi Festival. The bubble wrap concerto Breath, Contained III was commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation at the Library of Congress for Contemporaneous, and subsequently
performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and Luxembourg Philharmonic, featuring Ko as soloist.
Ko earned a doctorate from Cornell University, and her artistic development was further enriched by studies at Tanglewood Music Center and Royaumont Académie Voix Nouvelles. She is currently Senior Lecturer in Composition at Royal Holloway,
University of London.