May Spotlight: Teaching Artist Yifan Guo

We were delighted to catch up with our teaching artist Yifan, discussing his past year in quarantine and his thoughts on the future of classical music post-pandemic.

For the month of May, we are thrilled to feature our teaching artist Yifan Guo - an emerging composer, conductor and multimedia artist based in China and the United States. Yifan is on the Circle Circle Arts teaching artist roster, offering online lessons in composition, electronic music, and music theory.

Yifan was born in Guangzhou, China in 1995. He studied in New York at the Mannes School of Music, where he was offered a full scholarship for composition and orchestral conducting. He is currently pursuing a master's degree at the New England Conservatory of Music. His composition mentors include Dr. Huang Ruo, Stratis Minakakis, Kaija Saariaho, Jean-Baptiste Barrière, Tristan Murail, François Paris, Allain Gaussin, and Chaya Czernowin; conducting mentors include Daye Lin and David Hayes.

Yifan has performed and collaborated with JACK Quartet, Arditti Quartet, Quatuor Diotima, Ensemble l'Itinéraire, PinkNoise Ensemble, Alinéa Ensemble, Ensemble Paramaribo, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, International Chamber Orchestra of America, Mannes Chorus, soprano Tony Arnold, violin virtuoso Alexandra Greffin-Klein, and many others. He has given lectures in composition at South China Normal University, the Middle School Affiliated to the Xinghai Conservatory, and the Guangzhou Dao He Institute.

We were delighted to catch up with Yifan, discussing his past year in quarantine and his thoughts on the future of classical music post-pandemic.

Contemporary music requires people to enjoy the changes within the sound and the atmosphere that is created by a live, in-person performance only. Online, it is difficult for people to be attracted to the beauty of contemporary music.

How has the past pandemic year been for you?

I was very busy before the pandemic lockdown, so I had momentary relief when everything shut down. However, my pandemic life quickly came into a similar rhythm as before, since I was continuing with school everyday.

When all of my classes shifted online, the experience became less enriching than in-person classes. The sense of musical experience is very limited online, especially with contemporary classical music. It’s very easy to adapt pop music to the digital sphere - its lyrics, simple gestures, and melody can easily adapt under any circumstance, as they are easy to understand and the sound quality isn’t compromised. However, contemporary music is the complete opposite; it requires people to experience the music within its live sound - to enjoy the changes within the sound and the atmosphere that is created by a live, in-person performance only. Online, it is difficult for people to be attracted to the beauty of contemporary music.

Has the contemporary classical music community been affected negatively since 2020?

I’d say yes, music and arts require people to gather together. Without being able to be around and with people, it is very hard for music making to go on. The fact that there aren’t many people paying attention to or listening to new music sends a lot of negative energy to the community of composers and performers. As I mentioned earlier, music requires an in-person experience; the internal speakers from mobile devices cannot bring out the beauty of contemporary music, and cannot even transfer the correct information from the piece. Although the music is absolutely gorgeous, the mobile device reduces its quality so that the audience can only perceive a very limited amount of information that the composer and performer want to convey. People will, of course, choose to do something else that is more accessible and enjoyable.

Aren’t there many virtual concerts online these days? Aren’t people still performing?

Yes, there are many virtual concerts. But what people don’t realize is that the main problem with virtual concerts is that they are too technically accessible, and that there are too many options for people to choose from - it falls into the “fast food” system. If people are able to watch a football game on TV while working on their computer and listening to music on Spotify, why would they choose to watch a virtual concert? There are too many things going on at the same time. People will of course 

What makes in-person live performances so great are their ability to create a time slot for audiences to do only one thing at a time, and to be able to really listen to what they are hearing. Music naturally makes people want to gather. Isn’t that so great?

I am looking forward to experimenting with new compositional techniques which I have been exploring throughout the pandemic. I am also hoping to write a ballet in the near future.

What are some new things that you have been doing since the pandemic?

I have more time to listen to and experiment with sounds. I can listen to the very sensitive changes in sound in the passages of music I have written, and have the time to understand them from my heart.

I am also able to write music with more complex and experimental aspects, which I didn’t have time for before.

What are some of the compositions you wrote this past year?

Under_ - flute and electronics

Catching the fireworks’ tail - 10 Hulusi and electronic effects 

...as Water - piano and live electronics 

Coincidently, all of these pieces are influenced by nature, the pure sounds of the instruments, and the quality of the sound itself. 

The idea for “…as Water” came to me as I was showering, hearing water dripping onto and from my body. A quote by Bruce Lee was also inspiring: “...be formless, shapeless, like water...it can flow or it can crash”.

The writing process started when I was looking at techniques that I had used in my previous compositions. I was breaking down a short horizontal phrase into various micro-gestures, then combining them vertically or developing them individually into a composite dense gesture. I would then compare the music from before and after, then reanalyze the new gesture to find new potential to develop further.

After processing all the ideas, I came to the conclusion of my new piece “…as water,” as the energy of water stays the same in any form. 

Are there any new extended techniques in this new piece?

Compositionally or perceptually yes - in this composition “...as Water”, I created a new type of listening and performance experience, which includes an AI which I coded myself. Called Artificial Organism, the AI is capable of growing new pitches in a watery sense by learning existing sounds, as well as using its own process to adapt, digest, and produce its own sound. 

“...as Water” is the very first composition which uses such techniques to complement the performer’s playing.

What are you looking forward to achieving in the next few years?

I will be experimenting with the new compositional techniques which I mentioned in other new pieces. I am also hoping to write a ballet, as I have not tried this before.

Learn more about Yifan and sign up for his online lessons in composition, electronic music, and music theory today!