Group Listening

Group Listening is a way to transform creative prompts into music by designing performative rehearsals.

Group Listening came about as a way for me to consider how group dynamics form and function within collaborative and creative social situations. This is an artistic way to process my experience with assimilation, by playfully performing various types of relationship dynamics among groups of willing players.

All the projects featured on this page have helped develop what Group Listening is and how it is practiced. Participating in Group Listening projects involve experimenting and engaging spontaneously with sensory activities, musical play, creation and interpretation of different types of scores, and various ways of communication to shape the musical play. Through Group Listening, I aim to shift the focal point of my music making process from the objectified product of the composer’s craft and musicians’ practice, to the iterative and collaborative experience of a communal effort to practice music.

Many of my Group Listening projects were developed and performed with Ensemble Consensus from 2017 to 2021. Recent releases featuring Ensemble Consensus can be found in my discography page. Ensemble Consensus and the Group Listening projects we did are the subject of my doctoral dissertation.

Song Cycling
for 5 to 12 players

All Out
for 6 to 12 players

Ear Talk
participatory public art

Resident Alien
for 7 to 10 players and 3-channel electronics

2%
for 3 to 8 players and 4-channel electronics

Respond to Troy
in three variations