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photo by Leonardo Ramirez
Pauchi Sasaki‘s interdisciplinary approach integrates musical composition with the design of multimedia performances and the application of new technologies. A composer, performer and improviser that collaborates actively with projects linked to film, dance, theater, installation, site specific and interdisciplinary performances; Pauchi has performed internationally in Peru, USA, Japan, Spain, Chile, Colombia and Switzerland. This year she was selected by American composer Philip Glass to become his protégé as part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Initiative for a one-year mentorship.
Her compositions involve acoustic, amplified and electronic instrumentation performed through ensemble formats influenced by improvisational aesthetics and ethnic musical traditions. Her work also focuses on the development of real time interactive music and self-designed instruments using Max Msp and circuit bending. This branch of her work seeks the embodiment of electronic music performance integrating the emission of electronic sounds with corporal expressivity.
An active film scorer, Pauchi’s music is featured in more than 30 feature and short films. Pauchi is the recipient of three “Best Original Score” awards from the 30th edizione del Festival de Cinema Latino Americano di Trieste (Italy); Filmocorto, in the 15th International Latin American Film Festival of Lima (2011); and CONACINE, the National Film Council of Peru (2013). She also received the Paul Merritt Henry Prize for excellence in the musical composition of stringed instruments (2014), and the Ibermúsicas Latin American grant for sound composition with new technologies at CMMAS, México (2015).
Since 2006 she is devoted to the design of immersive multimedia performances and site-specific projects, seeking the interaction between artwork, space and audience. During 7 years she assembled and directed a collective of local artists with the aim to create experimental interventions in unusual venues from Lima city. This process derived in “Muru”, an operatic multimedia performance, which has been premiered in 2012 at the opera house Teatro Municipal de Lima. Directed by Pauchi Sasaki and Colectivo OIE, this performance gathered an international cast and ran for two sold out seasons. Current projects include GAMA, presented at the Tokyo Experimental Festival, The Mario Testino Museum [MATE], New York Cervantes Institute, the Art Basel Miami week, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart among other venues.
Pauchi studied with composers César Bolaños, Maggi Payne, John Bischoff, Fred Frith, Chris Brown, James Fei, Les Stuck, Laetitia Sonami and Pauline Oliveros. Her violin style is the result of the exposure to diverse cultures. Her classical violin studies began at age of 5, she studied Andean music at CEMDUC; Classical Music of North India with maestro Ali Akbar Khan in San Rafael, California; and Klezmer music with Alicia Svigals in NYC. She holds a BA degree in Journalism at PUCP in Lima, and an MFA degree in Recording Media and Experimental Music at Mills College in Oakland, California.
Program Note:
GAMA XVI is a performative electroacoustic composition for Orchestra and Speaker Dress-‐a wearable sound sculpture made out of 100 speakers. Its duration will be of 10 minutes approx. and it will be divided in 3 short movements.
COMPOSITIONAL APPROACH WITH ELECTRONICS:
The medium/machines are tools that are constantly shaping our creative process and imagination. As an electroacoustic composer, I decided to build a critical and personal relationship with technology by designing and building my own instruments.
As performers, we unconsciously develop a body language around our instruments. Our bodies “dance” while playing, searching for pathways to fuse sound’s emission with gesture and physicality. In this sense, I design searching for each interface’s potential to deliver personal gesture.