New Performance Traditions presents:

A chamber opera on the
Japanese American WWII Incarceration

Max Giteck Duykers, composer
Philip Kan Gotanda, librettist
Melissa Weaver, director/designer
Wei Cheng, conductor

Featuring:
Suchan Kim, baritone - “Jinzo Matsumoto”
Zen Wu 吳肇文, soprano - “Catherine Matsumoto”
John Kun Park, tenor - “The Daruma Doll”
Tom Pan & Tyler Hou, tenors; Michal Lan & Jeremy Park,
baritones - “Monks”
The UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus

Joel Davel, Marimba Lumina, sound designer/performer
Eco Ensemble:
Andrew Friedman, clarinets
Hrabba Atladottir, violin
Kate Campbell, piano

UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus: Grace Yum Alexander, Nathaniel Ashley, Rodney Padovani Casanova, Sasha Desberg, Luke Dzwonczyk, Chloe Faison, Winter Felton-Priestner, Elsa Franks, Eli Fulton, Christine Gold, Victor Gold, Kaiya Hoareau, Charles Hong, Emily Jones, Angel Mengying Ju, Imahni King, Owen Klein, Amit Paul Krishnan, Ana Martínez Leboráns, Eva Liang, Alisia Marques, Natasha Moorjani, Rishikesh Nayar, Joshua Nelson, Lara Oge, Sadie Oliver, Claudia Peri, Benjamin Santos, Lauren Tofel, Cincia Tsai, Victoria Tuck, Flavia Valente, Ryan Xu, Amanda Yarnall, Mia Zaragoza

Kwame Braun, video designer
Lydia Tanji, costume designer
Charlie Mejia, lighting designer
Iuhui Chua, movement director
Matt Jones, visual alchemist/technical director
Traci Shiro, graphic design
Madison Miller, wardrobe supervisor
Joan Raymond, costume assistant
Jon Yu, Eco Ensemble manager
Sharon Lee Kim, rehearsal pianist
Diane Emiko Takei, dramaturg
Bella Reaves & Kenzo Jason Fukuda, assistant stage managers,
     social media, lobby display video
Christine Jegan, event manager
Alanna Maharajh Stone & David Hyry, publicity
Apollo Jones & Aria Jones, scenic construction
 

Presenter/Co-producer:

New Performance Traditions is a hub for incubating multi-disciplinary arts projects from conception and production through performance, recording, and broadcast. We are dedicated to the creation of risk-taking and challenging performing artworks and to supporting the artists that conceive them in order to engender a more equitable, inclusive, and creative community.
https://www.dresherensemble.org/community-programs/

Artist Biographies:

Max Giteck Duykers, Composer
Max Giteck Duykers is a composer whose work is dedicated to unusual beauty, unique forms, and collaborative projects.  He frequently incorporates technology in performance in a manner which gives the performers room for individual expression. A veteran of multidisciplinary performance, Duykers is also interested in reworking developmental processes for artists to find their collective "sweet spot" and produce work which is personal, confronting, and starkly beautiful.

An album of his music featuring Ensemble Ipse, was released on New World Records in May 2019, with producer Judith Sherman. Of the album, Kathodik.it writes “[Duykers is] an absolutely original voice within the varied horizon of contemporary music.” Duykers was also recently commissioned by the National Parks Service, New Music USA and the Jerome Foundation to create a chamber opera for tenor, soprano, baritone, electro-acoustic percussionist (performing the Marimba Lumina) and mixed ensemble with the Paul Dresher Ensemble.  Featuring a libretto by acclaimed playwright and filmmaker Philip Kan Gotanda, the piece is a comment on the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII.  The piece has been workshopped across the U.S. over the past several years, and was premiered at San Francisco’s Presidio Theatre in June 2022, and in NY in January 2023 as part of the OPERA America New Works Forum. The piece has also been generously supported by New York State Council on the Arts, The Brooklyn Arts Council, California Humanities, and the JA Community Foundation.

His numerous other commissions and premieres include the Avian Orchestra, The Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra, the Oakland Youth Orchestra, the Seattle Chamber Players, Third Angle New Music, The BEO String Quartet, The Glass Farm Ensemble, PUBLIQuartet, Anti-Social Music, The Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players, violinist Curtis Stewart, and numerous other individual performers.  Duykers' Glass Blue Cleft was recently released by the Escher String Quartet on Bridge Records. Of the piece, Three Village Patch writes "[Glass Blue Cleft] is a piece for lovers of the string quartet, those amazed by how fiery and how dulcet these four-stringed instruments can range in expression."  This and other pieces have been featured at music festivals throughout the U.S. and abroad, including the Seattle Chamber Players’ Icebreaker IV, curated by The New Yorker’s Alex Ross. His new piece Vapor/Blood for seven violas, electronics, and seven dancers, commissioned by the Tiffany Mills Company, premiered at National Sawdust in December 2023.

Duykers is a founder and co-director of Ensemble Ipse, a contemporary music performance group based in NYC. Ipse’s mission is to find common threads in works whose stylistic profiles appear, on the surface, as divergent. We present recent music that transcends aesthetic categorization and strive to create a forum for composers and sound artists on the edges of the mainstream of contemporary music, as well as those who have been traditionally underrepresented, including women, LGBTQIA+, and BIPOC. Since forming in 2016, Ipse has premiered 42 works, 14 of them commissions, performed works from numerous calls for scores for emerging composers from around the world, received grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Brooklyn Arts Council, New Music USA, the Queens Council on the Arts, NET/TEN, and the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, as well as numerous donations from its large donor network.

Duykers has also been commissioned to compose music for over 50 theatrical, dance, film, and multimedia projects in the New York City area.  With the theater group Prototype he was an artist-in-residence at HERE Arts Center in 2002-2004, and in 2000-2001 he worked for Philip Glass’ The Looking Glass Studios and Dunvagen Music Publishers, where he did studio recording, Pro-Tools post-production, music sequencing, music copying and music editing for the Philip Glass Ensemble, film scoring projects, and operatic works.  He received a BM from Oberlin Conservatory where he studied composition with Randy Coleman, and has recently completed his Ph.D. at Stony Brook University where he studied with Sheila Silver.  At Stony Brook he was also honored with the 2012 Ackerman Award for Excellence in Music. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Rebecca and sons Quinlan and Liev.
https://www.jealousgods.com

Philip Kan Gotanda, Librettist
Over the last four decades, librettist Philip Kan Gotanda has specialized in investigating the Japanese American family writing a cycle of works in theater, film, song and opera that chronicle Japanese America from the early 1900s to the present. Mr. Gotanda holds a law degree from UC Law San Francisco and studied pottery in Mashiko, Japan with the late Hiroshi Seto. Mr. Gotanda is a respected independent filmmaker. His 3 films: Life Tastes Good, Drinking Tea, The Kiss, all have been official entries at the Sundance Film Festival. Mr. Gotanda adapted his play, The Wash, into a feature film, directed by Michael Toshiyuki Uno. The Wash is one of the first films about the Asian American family to have a theatrical release. A CD of Mr. Gotanda performing his original songs in a 1980 concert with violinist DH Hwang is now available at Yokohama, Ca. Records. Mr. Gotanda wrote the oratorio for the Kent Nagano piece, Manzanar: An American Story, an orchestral work about the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans.

Mr. Gotanda is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is an inaugural recipient of the Dramatists Guild Foundation’s 2021 Playwrights Legacy Initiative, a two-year award acknowledging Mr. Gotanda’s body of work in American Theater. Mr. Gotanda is a recent inductee into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  Mr. Gotanda is a professor with the Department of Theater Dance and Performance Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. He resides at the Gotanda Art Plant in the Hills with his wife, Alameda Arts Commissioner and novelist, Diane Takei Gotanda and their coton de tulear, Cosimo.
https://www.philipkangotanda.org


Melissa (Missy) Weaver, Director
Director Melissa Weaver has directed the collaborative creation of more than forty original music theater works. As General Director of First Look Sonoma, with partner, tenor John Duykers, Missy is currently developing text for Heart of the Great Divide with composer Philip Aaberg. Weaver was a founding member of Bay Area’s George Coates Performance Works, the Paul Dresher Ensemble and of Main Stage West, where she recently directed Stef Smith’s Swallow and S. Massicotte’s Mary’s Wedding. She directed and designed original operatic works for the Paul Dresher Ensemble, Long Beach Opera, and West Edge Opera. She directed Rinde Eckert’s The Gardening of Thomas D., Virko Baley’s Holodomor. Red Earth Hunger at Kiev Opera and the Gerald Lynch Theater; and directed Kurt Rohde’s Bitter Harvest, a farmer’s oratorio with Kent Nagano and the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra. Weaver collaborated with Amanda Moody on Serial Murderess, on Caliban Dreams, and on D’Arc, woman on fire, with music by Jay Cloidt. With music by Miguel Frasconi, she wrote and directed Trespass Knot and Hand to Mouth, also with Both Eyes Open “visual alchemist” Matthew E. Jones. Weaver was an artist-in-residence at CalArts from 2000-05, directing 5 original pastiche operas.

 
Wei Cheng, Conductor
Dr. Wei Cheng is the Director of the Choral Program and an Associate Professor of Teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, Department of Music. She oversees the UCB Chamber Chorus, University Chorus, Vocal Program, and conducting instruction. For her outstanding contributions, she has been named the Virginia Chan Lew Distinguished Professor in Music for 2023-2028, following her tenure as the Jerry and Evelyn Hemmings Chambers Distinguished Professor in Music from 2020-2023. Originally from Beijing, China, Dr. Cheng earned her Master’s and Doctoral degrees in choral conducting from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati.

Recipient of the Dale Warland Conducting Award from the American Prize, Dr. Cheng is revered as an accomplished performer, educator, clinician, and adjudicator, engaging musicians across the USA and China. Her choirs have embarked on numerous international tours, collaborating with renowned musicians and ensembles such as the Ethel String Quartet, Phillippe Entremont, the Munich Symphony Orchestra, and Essa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra (London). Under her guidance, the UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus won the American Prize in 2022 (college division), attesting to Dr. Cheng's commitment to excellence in choral performance.

Dr. Cheng's primary professional focus lies in China, where she serves as Principal Guest Conductor of the Beijing Harmonia Choir and frequently conducts the Young People’s Chamber Choir at the National Center for Performing Arts in Beijing. She has also led residencies at prestigious institutions such as the China National Opera House and the Lanzhou Performing Arts Group. Additionally, she guest conducted the Stara-Zagora Opera Chorus and Orchestra in Bulgaria and was invited guest teaching by the Portugal Choral Association.

As a clinician, Dr. Cheng has worked with diverse age groups, from children's choirs to conservatory-level ensembles, in both the USA and China. Her expertise includes contemporary choral repertoire, conducting pedagogy, and the advancement of choral music in China. Committed to promoting Western choral traditions in China, she has served as a guest lecturer and conducting master teacher at prestigious conservatories. Additionally, Dr. Cheng has adjudicated numerous contests and presented at conferences at the state, national, and international levels, further solidifying her reputation as a leader and innovator in the choral community. https://music.berkeley.edu/people/wei-cheng

Suchan Kim, Baritone - “Jinzo Matsumoto”
OperaWire last reviewed Suchan Kim in January 2023 for his performance in librettist Philip Kan Gotanda’s and composer Max Giteck Duykers’ powerful chamber opera Both Eyes Open. In that opera, Kim portrayed Jinzo, a Nisei man interred at during World War Two. Jinzo was no Don Giovanni; rather, he was a broken man, so ashamed of his behavior that he commits suicide.

Kim demonstrated his versatility as a singer-actor and created a Don Giovanni that was a bit off-kilter, almost maniacal. At one point, in a scene seemingly ripped from a Tarantino film, he places a gun to Leporello’s head, terrorizing his poor servant. Giovanni laughs the whole thing off and tosses the gun away (which is then stolen by the onstage Actress). It was a bonkers moment that came out of nowhere and put the audience on the edge of their seats. While unexpected, it showed his character as someone who is quick to demonstrate his power to get his way, whether with Leporello or the women. But it also showed Giovanni as a quintessential sociopath. He raped a woman, killed her father, and moved on, with zero empathy for the destruction left in his wake.

During Act two, Kim’s Don Giovanni broods in a chair, his arms across his chest, and with a withering stare. His lack of success with Zerlina turned him into a petulant man-child.

Kim’s lyricism was on display as he took on his lines with clean articulation through the speedier recitatives and fast passages, which aided in bringing out the unstable and violent aspects of the character. His rendition of ‘Fin ch’han dal vin, A.K.A. the Champagne aria” was well sung with buoyancy in his voice.

With Giovanni’s famous serenade, “Deh, vieni alla finestra,” Kim showcased the sense of charm and seduction in his voice, adeptly conveying the character’s intentions. He used and maintained control of dynamics, adding to the seductive quality of the piece.

The final scene, perhaps one of the most dramatically intense scenes in opera, was brilliantly performed by Kim. The brooding Giovanni morphed into pure defiance; in his mind no one is as strong and ‘manly’ as he, not even a statue, come to life. But his mocking insolence turns into terror, requiring a quick switch in tone and delivery.” OperaWire

“Suchan Kim is a compelling baritone with a sophisticated, stentorian voice. Sporadic bright moments show a youthful and somewhat naïve guy with no idea what lies in front of him. The audience witnesses a man’s entire existence destroyed by injustice and cruelty. Kim had to get through the emotional maze in just 80 minutes, not over the course of three or four hours, and he managed the gauntlet wonderfully.” OperaWire

“As Rabbi David, the fully professional if still young baritone Suchan Kim’s terrific singing rather eclipsed the Young Artists’ honest work. Kim showed full command of legato and dynamics and projected a strong, burnished sound with seeming effortlessness.” Classical Voice North America

“Suchan Kim commanded each scene he appeared in with a focused, muscular baritone and brought the house down with a virtuosic portrayal of the increasingly drunken servant, Germano.” The New York Times

“Equally malleable and expressive was the singing of baritone Suchan Kim's meddlesome servant Germano, a sort of Figaro on steroids (and booze), who acted with zeal and athletic skill.” OPERA NEWS

"Baritone Suchan Kim sang Tarquinius with a voice seductive warmth and overpowering strength." OPERA NEWS

“The evening ended, for instance, with a powerhouse vocal display from soprano Marina Boudart Harris and baritone Suchan Kim. In the duet from Act 3 of Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" - the lone non-Italianate ringer - Boudart Harris' flair and well-placed high notes made a fine match with Kim's suave and fluent contribution.” San Francisco Chronicle

"Suchan Kim offered a swaggering, self-assured Giovanni and a warm, richly developed baritone." THE VIRGINIA GAZETTE

“'Kim defined a singing actor. He made the role his. In fact, he was a take home memory, so total was his amusing portrayal. He embraced the fun, while offering a rich, full voice that overflowed with warmth and lots of appeal.” THE VIRGINIA GAZETTE

“Suchan Kim (Tobias Mill) magnetizes the audience to him throughout the evening, with a sumptuous baritone voice and precisely communicative Italian. He is wonderfully funny without ever becoming cartoonish, and sustains a level of energy in both voice and deportment that left me exhausted just watching him.” OPERA TODAY

Suchan Kim (Baritone), a native of Busan, South Korea, recently sang the role of Enrico in Opera in Williamsburg’s production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. He has performed as a resident in San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program as well as with The Metropolitan Opera Education, The Metropolitan Opera Guild, Opera Philadelphia, The Atlanta Opera, Carnegie Hall, Mannes Opera, Dallas Opera’s The Hart Institute for Women Conductors, Opera Grand Rapids, Sarasota Opera, The Phoenicia International Festival of The Voice, Opera in Williamsburg, Tacoma Opera, First Look Sonoma, Paul Dresher Ensemble, Presidio Theater, Bare Opera, Opera Vezimra, New Rochelle Opera, Teatro Grattacielo, New Amsterdam Opera, Decameron Opera Coalition, Light Opera of New Jersey, Loft Opera, Opera Ithaca, Barn Opera, Teatro Lirico D’Europa, The Palmetto Opera, Amore Opera, Sinfonietta of Riverdale, The New York Concert Opera, New York Grand Opera, New York Lyric Opera, Jamestown Concert Association, Fairfield County Chorale, Lyric Chamber Music Society of New York, Sign & Sing, NYU IMPACT Conference, MidAmerica Productions, National Theater of Korea, Seoul Arts Center and several opera companies in South Korea.

His role credits include Don Giovanni and Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Count and Figaro in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Guglielmo in Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte, Papageno in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Hoël in Meyerbeer’s Dinorah, Enrico in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Belcore in Donizetti’s L’Elisir D’amore, Marcello and Schaunard in Puccini’s La Bohéme, Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff, Alfonso in Donizetti’s La Favorita, Silvio in Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci, David in Mascagni’s L’Amico Fritz, Roberto in Verdi’s I vespri siciliani, Marullo in Verdi’s Rigoletto, Giorgio Germont and Barone Douphol in Verdi’s La Traviata, Tarquinius in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, Dandini in Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Germano in Rossini’s La Scala di Seta, Tobia Mill in Rossini’s La cambiale di matrimonio, Yamadori and Bonzo in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Escamillo and Dancaïre in Bizet’s Carmen, Le Marquis de la Force and Jailer in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites, Hermann and Schlemil in Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann, Salieri in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mozart and Salieri, Paquiro in Granados' Goyescas, Fiorello and L’Ufficiale in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Le chat and L’horlage comtoise in Ravel’s L’Enfant et Les Sortilèges, Simeon from Debussy’s L’Enfant Prodigue, Payador from Piazzolla’s María de Buenos Aires, Father in Kamala Sankaram’s Thumbprint, Bass in Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Tibetan Book of the Dead, King Solomon in Dina Pruzhansky's Hebrew opera 'Shulamit’, Jinzo Matsumoto in Max Giteck Duykers and Philip Kan Gotanda’s Both Eyes Open, Lum May in Gregory Youtz and Zhang Er’s Tacoma Method. The Critic in John Gilbert’s multimedia opera ‘Rotation’, Strange Man in Faye Chiao’s ‘Island of the Moon’ and Leonitis in 5th Grader of St. David’s School and Thomas Cabaniss’ ‘A Hero’s Journey’.

He was an Eastern District Winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2011 and he received the Opera Award from Mannes Opera in 2013. Mr. Kim holds a Bachelor of Music from Korea National University of Arts and a Master’s Degree and a Professional Studies Diploma from Mannes College, the New School for Music. He studies with Arthur Levy.
https://www.suchankim.com

 
Zen Wu, Soprano - “Catherine Matsumoto”
Zen Wu is a dramatic coloratura soprano from the East Bay. Trained as a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist in a wide range of genres, she regularly performs and records as a soloist and guest musician with many groups including the New York Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, San Diego Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Beth Morrison Projects, Musica Sacra, Cathedral Choir of St. John the Divine, SEM Ensemble, and Ensemble Ipse.

After having been a chorister in the Bay Area’s own Crystal Children’s Choir since the age of 6, Wu began her formal studies in classical voice at UC San Diego, where she was immersed in experimental performance in addition to training in traditional vocal repertoire and technique. Wu sang two seasons with the San Diego Opera before making her professional mainstage debut and moving to New York, where she is currently based as a freelance classical artist specializing in contemporary and sacred music.
https://www.zenopera.com

John Kun Park, Tenor - “The Daruma Doll”
A Korean-American tenor from Los Angeles, CA, John Kun Park has been described as “a clarion tenor,” “that floats his high notes with ease and emotional fervor.

John will begin the 24/25 season with Opera on the James, debuting as Rodolfo in Puccini's La Boheme. He will then join New Performance Traditions for a new composition production of Both Eyes Open by Max Duykers, and return to West Bay Opera as the titular character of Verdi's Otello.

John started off his 23/24 season with Opera Grand Rapids reviving Ricky Ian Gordon's The Tibetan Book of the Dead, as the Tenor 1 soloist, then immediately head to Lancaster, PA to join Penn Square Opera for their “Opera Couples Therapy” concert, where he will headline signature pieces and duets from Carmen, Cavalleria Rusticana, and Tosca. He made his company and role debut with Opera Modesto as the iconic Mario Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca, and finished the 23/24 season with Mid America Productions at Carnegie Hall as their guest Tenor Soloist for Mozart's Coronation Mass.  John was also a finalist for the Wagner Society of New York's competition and received an encouragement grant.

​After his successful debut as Erik in Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer, with West Bay Opera, John traveled to Berlin and debuted as Bacchus in Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos with Berlin Opera Academy. He had also debuted as Rick in John Adams’ I was looking at the ceiling and then I saw the sky, with InSeries Opera right before, covering the title role Canio, I Pagliacci, with Opera Tampa in March 2023. 

​John began 2022 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic covering the role of Florestan in Beethoven’s Fidelio for their collaboration with Deaf West Theatre. Then John joined the Chautauqua Opera’s summer season where he covered the role of Mario Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca, and sang the role of John Adams in Gertrude Stein & Virgil Thompson’s The Mother of us All.

The 2021 season began digitally for John, with being placed as a semi-finalist for the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. He also participated in the Annapolis Opera Vocal Competition, where he was placed as a finalist and received an Encouragement Award. John's postponed contract with Des Moines Metro Opera was fulfilled and spent the summer performing in their summer season where he covered both Adolfo Pirelli and Beadle Bamford in Sondheim's Sweeney Todd.  In October, John joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic to workshop Beethoven's Fidelio in collaboration with Deaf West Theater, and will be returning to workshop the role of Florestan in March 2022.

​John has performed with various companies and various prestigious young artist programs, debuting

roles such as Don Jose Carmen, Faust Faust, Ismaele Nabucco, Siegmund Die Walküre, and performing as a feature soloist with companies such as the LA Philharmonic, Des Moines Metro Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Sarasota Opera, Central City Opera, Pittsburgh Festival Opera, and West Bay Opera.
https://www.johnkunpark.com/

 
Joel Davel, Marimba Lumina
Joel Davel is a percussionist who combines his classical training with intimate knowledge and use of electronic music resources to help realize his work and the work of other composers. Davel’s diverse career and influences range from traditional acoustic folk and classical music, to jazz, to the highly experimental. He has been a member of Vân-Ánh Võ's Blood Moon Orchestra since 2020. A close collaborator with composer Paul Dresher, Davel is part the of Dresher-Davel Invented Instrument Duo, Double Duo and Electro-Acoustic Band, often creating work for dance and theater productions as well as premiering works of other composers. Davel has composed and performed live for several dNaga dance productions and appeared in theater productions for The California Shakespeare Theater, West Edge Opera, and South Coast Repertory. Other long-time performer-composer collaborators include Vân-Ánh Võ, Amy X Neuburg, Jack West, John and Max Duykers, and Guillermo Galindo. An OperaWire review of the New York premiere of the opera Both Eyes Open writes: "The percussionist/sound alchemist {Joel Davel] used four mallets to activate and control a broad variety of sounds, from symphony instruments to sound effects. It was fascinating to witness Davel perform two tasks simultaneously while displaying virtuosity on his hallmark instrument. He incorporated dozens of sounds into the story and emulated extra instruments to give the ensemble’s line more depth….Visually stunning, the projections—combined with Joel Davel’s wizardry—situated the audience in the story."

As circuit board designer and a mentee of electronic music pioneer Don Buchla for over 20 years, Davel continues the design of electronic music instruments, including continued refinement and production of the Buchla Marimba Lumina — Davel’s signature instrument. The Marimba Lumina gives him expressive control by recognizing each of four mallets independently while tracking the mallets location along each bar. Davel holds a Bachelor of Music from Northern Illinois University and MFA from Mills College.
https://www.absolutedeviation.com/about.html

Andrew Friedman, clarinets
Andrew Friedman is a Berkeley-based clarinetist and educator devoted to performing music new and old, large and small. An in-demand orchestral performer both on stage and below, he has appeared with symphony orchestras and opera companies across the Bay and beyond, including the San Francisco Symphony and Opera orchestras, Opera San Jose, California Symphony, and Livermore Valley Opera. He is a dedicated performer of new music and has premiered new music with the Left Coast Ensemble, Eco Ensemble, and as a founding member of the Stolen Time Collective. Andrew can be heard on solo albums by the composers Taylor Joshua Rankin (Palletes and Sun, Will Grow) and Nicholas Denton Protsack (In the Refuge of a Cave) as well as the NPR programs From the Top and Performance Today and various feature films. 

Friedman currently serves as lecturer of clarinet at San Francisco State University and coach of woodwinds and chamber music at the Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra; he also maintains a small studio of private students. He has given masterclasses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and for the College Band Directors’ Association. As a writer, his work has appeared in the Which Sinfonia criticism journal and at the American Musicological Society annual convention. Friedman is also a composer and arranger with a catalogue of works for solo, chamber, and ensemble forces. 

Friedman graduated with honors from the University of Puget Sound with degrees in Music Performance and English and holds an MM from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music; his teachers included Carey Bell, Dr. Kelly Burke, and Jennifer Nelson. He received additional training as a young artist at the Eastern Music Festival and as a clarinet fellow at the Round Top Institute. 

Hrabba Atladottir, violin
Icelandic violinist Hrabba Atladottir is a graduate of the University of the Arts in Berlin, Germany where she studied under Prof. Tomaszewski and Prof. Gerhardt. In Berlin she worked at the Deutsche Oper and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Bernard Haitink and Christian Thielemann to name a few.

In 2004, Hrabba moved to New York, playing on a regular basis with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Orchestra of St. Luke's and New Jersey Symphony Orchestra among other orchestras. She was also a sought after new music specialist, and worked with ensembles including the Either/Or ensemble and collaborated closely with composers such as Helmut Lachenmann.

Hrabba came to the Bay Area in 2008, and has been performing as a soloist and with a large variety of ensembles, for example the New Century Chamber Orchestra, The Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, The Empyrean Ensemble, the ECO ensemble and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players.

Hrabba performed in a world tour with the Icelandic pop artist Björk, and on a Germany tour with Violinist Nigel Kennedy.

She has been a Violin Lecturer at UC Berkeley since 2009.

 
Kate Campbell, piano
Described as a "brilliant pianist" (Financial Times), Kate Campbell performs frequently as a soloist and chamber musician specializing in contemporary music and interdisciplinary projects. 

Kate is the pianist for the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and Eco Ensemble in Berkeley, CA. Recent honors include a Dresher Ensemble Artist Residency for interdisciplinary projects and a distinguished fellowship at Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts.

In masterclass and festival settings, Kate has worked with emerging composers at Princeton University, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, Mills College, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She is also the owner and director of Soundwise Piano Studio, a thriving, multi-teacher piano studio in Berkeley, CA. 

Kate serves on the collegiate faculty at San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Her recorded work can be heard on New Amsterdam Records, Pinna Records, and New Focus Recordings.

Kwame Braun, video designer
Kwame Braun is a filmmaker, specializing in performance documentary and theatre projections.  His African videos—passing girl; riverside and Stageshakers!—have screened at international ethnographic film festivals, including New York City’s Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival. After an early career as a scenic artist in theatre and television, he attended New York University’s Graduate program of Film and Television, graduating in 1988.  He has taught film and video production at Chicago’s Columbia College, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, and Berkeley.  Representative projects include: Video Portraits of Survival, a series of video portraits of Holocaust refugees and survivors in Santa Barbara, made in collaboration with film scholar Janet Walker and filmmaker Renée Bergen, (2007); 25 short videos to accompany the exhibition Fiat Lux Redux: Ansel Adams and Clark Kerr (2012) selections from the more than 6000 images that Ansel Adams made of the University of California system for its Centennial Celebration in 1968; and extensive projections for Culture Clash’s Chavez Ravine, directed by Sean San Jose in Berkeley’s Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies. He is currently creating projections for Philip Kan Gotanda and Max Duyker’s chamber opera, Both Eyes Open.

Lydia Tanji, costume designer
Lydia Tanji has worked on many Philip Gotanda productions starting from The Avocado Kid at the Asian American Theater Company. Her work in regional theater includes: ACT, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Public Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Geva, Syracuse Stage, Arena, Huntington Theater, Children’s Theater, Guthrie Theater, Dallas Theater Group, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Repertory Theater, Mark Taper, and South Coast Repertory Theater. Film work includes: Life Tastes Good, The Wash, Hot Summer Winds, Dim Sum, The Joy Luck Club, and A Thousand Pieces of Gold. She also co-produced Vanishing Chinatown: The World of the May’s Photo Studio. 

Iuhui Chua, choreographer
Iu-Hui Chua choreographs, performs, directs, and devises physical theater, dance, and video performance. She explores the intersection of somatics, performance, process, and creativity.

She was a member of Anna Halprin's Sea Ranch Collective, an associate teacher for Ms. Halprin, and is on faculty at the Tamalpa Institute. Others she has danced for include Ledoh/Salt Farm, Inkboat, Dandelion Dancetheater, Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Ellen Bromberg, Sherwood Chen, Headmistress, Dohee Lee, and Disneyland.

Iu-Hui has presented her award-winning work at the SF International Arts Festival, Videoholica International Video Art Festival Bulgaria, SomaFest, Athens Digital Arts Festival, ODC Summerfest, and site-specific locations in North America, Asia, and Europe. In 2015, Iu-Hui directed Gruesome Playground Injures, which was nominated for a TBA Outstanding Production of a Play Award.

Support from national grants and awards include the Cass Calder Smith Artful Harvest Circle Fellowship, Puffin Foundation Ltd., CA$H grant, Quick Grant Center for Cultural Innovation, Consortium for Women and Research Grant, and UC Davis Dramatic Arts Fellowship. Artist residencies include CounterPulse and the Djerassi Resident Artists Program.

Iu-Hui has presented at the Northern California Performance Platform at Stanford University, taught as a Lecturer at UC Davis, and been a Guest Lecturer at (SUNY) Purchase College and Sacramento State University. Currently, she teaches dance, choreography, and the Halprin Life/Art process internationally as well as Butoh at the Berkeley Rep School of Theater.

Education: M.F.A. in Dramatic Arts (emphasis in Choreography), University of California, Davis. B.A. Sociology (emphasis in Race & Ethnic Relations), University of California, Santa Cruz. She is also a RSMT (ISMETA) and RSME (ISMETA).

Matt Jones, technical director/visual alchemist
Matthew Eben Jones is a self-prescribed “visual alchemist” and a meta-musician who runs a VJ label/production company called the “Vizwrap Society”. He creates immersive, stereo-scopic, audio-reactive projections for opera companies and for other various events.

Madison Miller, wardrobe supervisor
Madison Miller has been the resident Wardrobe Supervisor for TheatreWorks Silicon Valley (CA) since 2019. With over a decade of experience, she has led wardrobe teams at prestigious theaters nationwide, including Santa Fe Opera (NM), Berkshire Theatre Group (MA), Gulfshore Playhouse (FL), Heritage Theatre Festival (VA), and Santa Cruz Shakespeare (CA). Beyond theatre, Madison is the Wardrobe Supervisor for the Los Angeles-based design house, House of Athena, working on international live events, primarily in Saudi Arabia and South Korea. In Spring 2025, she will join The Public Theatre (NY) as their Wardrobe Supervisor. Madison holds a degree from New Mexico State University. So much love to the 4Ms and Lainie! madisonmillerwardrobe.com

Bella Reeves, assistant stage manager, social media, lobby display video
Bella Reeves is a student filmmaker and production assistant from the Bay Area, studying film and music at UC Berkeley. Growing up in a mixed-race, split-family household, she often felt like she never fully fit in—an experience that deeply informs her creative vision. With a passion for storytelling that bridges identity, belonging, and the intricacies of the Asian diaspora, her work explores the emotional depth of familial ties and human connection.

Reeves has written, directed, and edited several short films, including I Miss You, Pluto, Swim, and is currently working on her latest project, The Last Manicure. She loves watching emotional, human experiences unfold on screen and hopes to grow as a filmmaker with every project. Striving to build a career that inspires others to embrace their differences, she aims to encourage connection and empower others to share their ideas.

Reeves has contributed to Both Eyes Open as an Assistant Stage Manager, Social Media Creator, and Lobby Display Video Producer, bringing her keen eye for detail and organization to both live performance and audience experience. She is deeply grateful to the Both Eyes Open team for the opportunity to learn and grow under the guidance of incredible mentors. As a story that holds profound significance in Asian American history, Reeves encourages audiences to approach the show with an open mind and heart.

Kenzo Jason Fukuda, assistant stage manager, social media, lobby display video
Kenzo Fukuda is a Japanese-Chinese American filmmaker from San Francisco, CA. A recent graduate of UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Film, Fukuda was a student in Philip Gotanda’s alternative screenwriting class. Fukuda is actively pursuing a career in the film and media industry, aiming to create art that resonates with his experiences as an Asian-American. Fukuda’s latest short film, To Makiko, was selected to NAMI Miami’s 2024 ReelMinds Film Festival and BASH’s 2024 Bay Area and Sacramento Short Film Festival. 

Story:

Both Eyes Open explores the scarring that Japanese Americans experienced during World War II and suggests paths toward healing. Set in Stockton, California, the story focuses on a Japanese American landowner named Jinzo Matsumoto, who, with his wife Catherine, are incarcerated in a camp in Rohwer, Arkansas in 1942. Before leaving their farm, they bury a “Daruma Doll” on their land. According to tradition, these papier-mâché idols are given to people when they embark on a challenging endeavor or make a serious promise. Only one eye is painted on the doll's face to symbolize the initial commitment to the challenge. If success comes, the doll receives its second eye and is burned ceremonially to release its spirit.

The war ends, a new Executive Order is issued, and Jinzo is free to return to his former life; he goes home to Stockton to see his old farm.  Jinzo is broken. He finds himself at the railroad tracks and at the precipice of an important decision.

The Daruma Doll and the ghost of Catherine appear to guide him to a place of higher understanding.  Jinzo’s world freezes. 

Silence, emptiness.  Ma. 

We leave reality and enter the meta world of Daruma’s Bigger Mind, able to understand the entire trajectory of Jinzo’s life as a living history.  We see the tumultuous world of today as a continuum of the “rich, rotting soil of fertile injustice.” 

“What will it grow?”

Background:

Bodhidharma was a legendary Buddhist monk often referred to as "The Blue-Eyed Barbarian", who lived during the 5th or 6th century.  He is credited as the transmitter of Buddhism to China, regarded as its first Chinese patriarch. According to legend, he began the physical training of the monks of Shaolin Monastery which led to the creation of Shaolin kung fu. In Japan, he is known as Daruma. His name means “dharma of awakening (bodhi)” in Sansrkit. Little contemporary biographical information on Bodhidharma is extant, and subsequent accounts became layered with legend and unreliable details. According to the principal Chinese sources, Bodhidharma came from Central Asia the Indian subcontinent, and he is described as either a Persian Central Asian or a South Indian, the third son of a great Indian king. Throughout Buddhist art, Bodhidharma is depicted as an ill-tempered, profusely bearded, wide-eyed non-Chinese person.

七転び八起き Nana Korobi Yaoki (Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight) is a Japanese proverb.  Oftentimes, people take failure as an absolute extreme. Failing at something is not necessarily a bad thing.  It forces us to grow and try things we may not have thought of otherwise. The Daruma Doll is made so that it will always upright itself when tipped over.

Executive Order 9066 was issued February 19, 1942, signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.  E.O.9066 mandated the incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast. Military proclamations and resulted in the forced relocation from place of residence to guarded “relocation camps”. This culminated decades of anti-Japanese violence, discrimination, and propaganda, and eliminated the constitutional protections of due process, violating the Bill of Rights. Two-thirds of the 120,000 persons of Japanese descent, incarcerated in American concentration camps, were American citizens, born in the United States.

The ”Loyalty Oath Questionnaire” - Question #27 asked if Nisei men were willing to serve on combat duty if ordered and asked everyone else if they would serve in other ways, such as in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. Question #28 asked if individuals would swear unqualified allegiance to the U.S. and forswear any form of allegiance to the Emperor of Japan. Inmates stewed over the questionnaire with a combination of resentment, confusion and suspicion. The Loyalty Oath caused sharp conflicts and division within each camp, which led to agonizing turmoil within many families. If its purpose was to determine loyalty, why had it not been given earlier in the Army’s temporary concentration camps? Inmates puzzled over the meaning of the wording, wondering if a “yes” to #27 meant that the respondent was volunteering for the military. Were they being asked to fight for freedom and democracy while their families remained imprisoned without cause?  Was #28 a trick question, with a “yes” implying the respondent was, at some time, loyal to the emperor?  Approximately 20,000 individuals used this questionnaire to express their individual frustrations and anger with the U.S. government and refused to answer the questions, or they answered “No. No.” Government propaganda slandered all protest as disloyal and protesters were demonized as pro-Japan fanatics.  This initiated the most wrenching and divisive crisis of the entire incarceration and led to the creation of the largest camp at Tule Lake.

Tule Lake Maximum Security Segregation Center became the crucible for Japanese American resistance to incarceration during World War II, where thousands of Japanese Americans met America's betrayal with anger, defiance and rejection.  With a peak population of 18,700, Tule Lake was the largest of the camps, ruled under martial law and occupied by the Army.  Due to turmoil and strife, it was the last to close, on March 28, 1946. These dissidents there, known as “No-Nos,” carried the stigma of disloyalty for entire lifetimes, hiding their experiences from family and friends, shrouding their Tule Lake past as “dirty linen.” Perversely, many Japanese Americans accepted the racist propaganda as truth, effectively erasing the stories of their leaders who displayed moral courage. Tule Lake’s history of segregation, de-nationalization, and of deportation of protesters, is perhaps the most important civil rights story of the wartime incarceration. Our hope is that their stories won’t be forgotten, and that camp survivors and their families come to see the legacy of protest at Tule Lake, with pride, not shame.

The 442nd Regiment was an infantry regiment of the U.S. Army, known as the most decorated regiment in U. S. military history.  Most Japanese Americans who fought in WWII were Nisei, bornin the U.S. to immigrant parents. Beginning in 1944, the regiment fought primarily in Italy, France and Germany. Many of the soldiers had families in incarceration camps, while they fought abroad. The unit's motto was "Go for Broke". The 442nd Regiment, with an eventual total of about 14,000 men, earned more than 18,000 awards in less than two years, (including 4,000 Purple Hearts and 4,000 Bronze Star Medals. One battalion liberated labor camps at Dachau. Members of the regiment saved survivors of a death march near Waakirchen, and contributed to the liberation of France and the heroic rescue of “The Lost Battalion”.

Alien Land Laws that restricted aliens' rights to agricultural lands, so often associated with anti-Japanese racism, were initially designed to prevent large-scale absentee landlords from buying up land by giving preference instead to resident aliens and citizen farmers. Coded language targeting "aliens ineligible for citizenship" became a legal way that individual states could limit the rights of Asian immigrants without targeting a group racially in the language of the law. In direct response to anti-Japanese hysteria, alien land laws shifted focus to Japanese immigrants when California passed the Alien Land Law of 1913 prohibiting aliens from owning land. Families and communities navigated a way around the law. Some created corporations to purchase land on behalf of Japanese immigrants, others purchased land through white intermediaries, and others purchased land in the names of their U.S.-born citizen children. Anti-Japanese groups made wild claims about the "threat" that the Japanese immigrants represented, in terms of economic competition and their alleged inability to assimilate fully into American society.

For More Information:

-https://www.Densho.org
-NPS 2019 Newsletter: https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1379/upload/JACS2020.pdf
-fodors.com/news/photos/10-former-japanese-detention-camps-you-need-to-visit-Japanese American Farm History: https://www.walkthefarm.org/jafarmhistory-Hayashi, Brian Masaru. Democratizing the Enemy: The Japanese American Internment https://archive.org/details/democratizingene00haya
-Muller, Eric. American Inquisition: The Hunt for Japanese American Disloyalty in World War II https://archive.org/details/americaninquisit00mull_0
-Omori, Emiko. Rabbit in the Moon. Hohokus, N.J.: New Day Films, 1999.
-Weglyn, Michi. Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America's Concentration Camps
https://archive.org/details/yearsofinfamyunt00wegl
-"About the Harada House", http://www.riversideca.gov/museum/harada.asp
-Chuman, Frank F. The Bamboo People: The Law and Japanese Americans
https://archive.org/details/bamboopeoplelawj00chum
-Ichioka, Yuji. The Issei: The World of the First-Generation Japanese Immigrants, 1885-1924.
-Matsumoto, Valerie. Farming the Home Place: A Japanese American Community in California.
https://archive.org/details/farminghomeplace00mats

With generous support from these co-sponsors and donors:
UC Berkeley Japanese American Studies Advisory Committee, a Mellon Project Grant from the Division of Arts & Humanities Dean's Office, Cal Performances, UC Berkeley Department of Music, UC Berkeley Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, Center for Japanese Studies, Townsend Center for the Humanities, the Arts Research Center, the California Civil Liberties Program, and Jerome & Thao Dodson.

For their invaluable support we would like to acknowledge:
New Performance Traditions: Paul Dresher, Dominique Pelletey
Cal Performances: Jeremy Geffen, Matt Norman, Liz Baqir, Liam Blaney
Music Department: Wei Cheng, David Milnes, Tom Pan, Lara Oge
Japanese American Studies Advisory Committee: Lisa S. Hirai Tsuchitani, Michael Omi, Jerrold H Takahashi, Andrew Way Leong, Janice Koyama, Aneesa Conine-Nakano, Susan Kishi, Taylor Tsan, Sarena Kuhn
Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies: SanSan Kwan, Jamila Cobham, Jean-Paul Gressieux, Ben Dillon, Lyazzat Cohen
Center for Japanese Studies: Junko Habu, Kumi Sawada Hadler, Tessa Machida
Division of Arts & Humanities: Rose Hsu, Aimee Chang, Jennifer Monahan, Karen Huang; Eudora & James Ting for support of TDPS capital improvements
Townsend Center for the Humanities: Rebecca Egger, Stephen Michael Best, Diane Sugimoto Soper
Arts Research Center: Beth Piatote, Laurie Macfee

Both Eyes Open Advisory Committee: Dale Minami, Don Tamaki, Lisa S. Hirai Tsuchitani, Takeo Rivera, Michael Omi, Heidi Kim, Andrew Way Leong

Philip Kan Gotanda’s acknowledgments:  
For Diane Always. Diane Emiko Takei, Max Duykers, John Duykers, Missy Weaver, Paul Dresher, Joel Davel, Suchan Kim, Kalean Ung, Zen Wu, John Kun Park, Matt Jones, Iu-Hui Chua, Lydia Tanji,  University of California at Berkeley: Japanese American Studies Advisory Committee, Center for Japanese Studies,  Dept. of Theater Dance and Performance Studies, Dept. of  Music, Prof Lisa Tsuchitani, Maya Goehring Harris, Prof Dana Buntrock, Prof. Catherine Cole, Prof. Michael Omi,  Prof. Lisa Wymore, Prof. Peter Glazer, Prof. SanSan Kwan, Jean-Paul Gressieux, Jamila Cobham, Lyazzat Cohen, Ben Dillon, Aneesa Conine-Nakano, Evan Sakuma, Bella Reese, Kenzo Fukuda, Kumi Sawada Hadler, Junko Habu, Kwame Braun, David Henry Hwang, Todd London,  David Masumoto, Frank Wu, Carol Izumi, Aparna Nambiar, Julian Marenco, Densho, United States Japan Council and Ruth & Jim Reynolds, Jerome & Thao Dodson.

Melissa Weaver’s acknowledgements:
John Duykers, Paul Dresher, Dominique Pelletey, Matthew Craig Norman, Joan Marler, Dan Dimitrov Smith, Pat Weaver,  Mary Alice Fry, Richard Aldag, Virko Baley,  Shira Cion, Mike Beck, Chutima Levine, Jonathan Khuner, Erling Wold,  Robert Reetz, Donald E. Osborne, Kevin Kennedy, Benjy Young, Jen Jones, Robert Martin, Josh Levine, Albert Levine, Calvin Jones.

Max Giteck Duykers’ acknowledgements:
Philip Kan Gotanda, John Duykers, Melissa Weaver, Zen Wu, Kalean Ung, Suchan Kim, John Kun Park, Joel Davel, Wei Cheng, Ben Makino, Paul Dresher, Dominique Pelletey, Christine Jegan, David Milnes, Matt Jones, Matt Norman, Kwame Braun, Iuhui Chua, Lydia Tanji, Charlie Mejia, Jon Yu, Hrabba Atladottir, Andrew Friedman, Kate Campbell, the UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus, Tom Pan, Tyler Hou, Michal Lan, Jeremy Park, Bella Reaves, Kenzo Jason Fukuda, Michael Omi, David Henry Hwang, Diane Emiko Takei, Traci Shiro, Jerome & Thao Dodson, Joan Marler, and Dan Smith.  All my love to my family, Rebecca, Quinlan, and Liev.

 Our thank you to the Berkeley Zen Center; and to Hannah Meara, Carol Paul, Andrea Thach, Geraldine Olivia, and David Rutschman.

Our thank you to Kalean Ung and John Duykers for developing the roles of Catherine Matsumoto and the Daruma Doll; to Shinichi Iova-Koga for original movement direction; and to Maria Christoff for original costume design.