ARTS

ARTS Sapphire Haze creates music for all the senses

by Steve Newton

On the Music on Main website, there’s a quote from one of the members of local duo Sapphire Haze—it doesn’t specify which—that reads: “We want the audience to engage all of their senses as they listen: touch, taste, smell, vision…”

Now, that might seem like a pretty tall order, but Cindy Kao (violin) and Aysha Dulong (electronics) believe it’s possible for music to be far more than just an aural experience.

“Just think about what the sound is doing to you,” Dulong says, calling with Kao from downtown Vancouver. “And for us, a lot of times a sound relates to a colour, but also sometimes the sound would trigger a body part—I feel like tingling in my left pinkie or something. So we want the audience to try and imagine what that is doing to their bodies, but also where they physically feel like they’re being taken to.”

“We want people to engage their full body when they’re listening,” Kao adds, “because a lot of the time we just listen and we don’t really focus on, like, ‘What does this really feel like?’ And I think that’s what we really want people to do. We want you to engage all your senses in a way that you never really thought about doing.”

Kao and Dulong first met at Simon Fraser University, in an electroacoustic class, when Dulong needed a violinist for a composition they were working on.

“I knew Cindy was really good at violin,” says Dulong, who uses the pronouns they/

Kristin Chenoweth set to perform at Mount Baker Theatre’s benefit concert

(This story is sponsored by Mount Baker Theatre.)

While livestreamed concerts have sufficed for the past two years, we’re incredibly eager to attend a show in person—the energy created by the crowd and performer is incomparable. If you’re looking to satiate your craving for live music, Mount Baker Theatre in Bellingham, Washington, boasts an impressive event lineup, which includes its 95th birthday celebration.

At 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 23, Mount Baker Theatre presents Kristin Chenoweth: For the Girls.

The memorable benefit concert provides the ideal excuse to get dressed up and dance the evening away with your friends. The exclusive one-night-only event is titled after Chenoweth’s latest album, which celebrates the iconic female artists who have changed the music industry—think Dolly Parton, Ariana Grande, Barbra Streisand, and Reba McEntire.

Mount Baker Theatre is a nonprofit that’s dedicated to the performing arts. When purchasing tickets, folks are given the option to add a tax-deductible birthday gift that will benefit the venue.

“The multitalented Kristin Chenoweth is the perfect choice to help us celebrate our 95th anniversary,” shares Lelani Thomsen, marketing director at Mount Baker Theatre. “She’s a powerhouse Broadway star! She sings, dances, and is an actress on many popular shows on television. She really represents the versatility of the types of shows we present at our theatre and is truly a class act.”

Chenoweth is a classically trained coloratura soprano, which earned her several feature roles in popular Broadway musicals like Wicked and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Her flourishing career in music, voiceover, and acting has shaped her into a performer with a captivating stage presence. For those unable to attend Mount Baker Theatre’s 95th birthday party, there are plenty of other entertaining events worthy of a spot on your calendar. On April 29, the venue will host the hilarious parody Menopause the Musical, celebrating women and “the change”. Upcoming musical events include Harmony From Discord, Lookout Sessions: Haley Heynderickx, Chris Botti, the Vio lent Femmes, and more. g -

The Kristin Chenoweth: For the Girls benefit at Mount Baker Theatre is named after her album. Cindy Kao (left) and Aysha Dulong met while studying at SFU, and their interest in creating music to be felt by all the senses led to the formation of Sapphire Haze. Photo by Jan Gates.

To purchase your tickets to see Kristin Chenoweth live, visit https://www.mountbakertheatre.com/ online/article/kristinchenoweth them, “and so we got together that way. But then we noticed that when we were improvising and coming up with little parts for the piece we really liked the same things, and the same sounds. And I think that had a lot to do as well with our synesthesia experiences, because I don’t know very many other people that have that same feeling when they hear sounds.” (Note: according to webmd.com, “Synesthesia is a fancy name for when you experience one of your senses through another.”)

Dulong uses her laptop along with software like Ableton Live and Logic Pro to create Sapphire Haze’s sonic soundscapes. They developed their interest in electronic music quite late in life; it wasn’t like they grew up on a steady diet of Kraftwerk and Brian Eno.

“I didn’t really start electronic music till I got into university,” they explain. “Before that I played solo piano and flute in wind ensembles, and once I graduated high school I felt like I was hitting a wall with music—I needed something new. So I thought, ‘Why not try out composition?’ And when I enrolled at SFU, I discovered my love for electronic music—there was so much of that there—and sound designing as well comes with that.

As far as Kao’s connection to her instrument goes, she started playing violin at a young age, but not of her own volition.

“I wasn’t actually interested in it,” she says, “but I was pretty decent at it, so I got pushed. Then I got stressed about it, so I just stopped playing for a while until I went into theatre school to study acting. A few people found out that I have a background in music, so I got to do some sound designs while I acted, and it kinda brought my music-loving self back.”

Dulong earned a bachelor of fine arts in music composition from SFU last year, while Kao got herself a BFA in theatre performance.

“It just made me more open to being spontaneous when creating art,” Kao says of the education. “There’s no one way of doing that, and a lot of times I play music now and I’m finding that I compose and devise my actor body a lot and visualize things a lot more than just sound. And utilizing synesthesia that both Aysha and I have.”

The local buzz on Sapphire Haze got a boost last November when the duo performed their composition “Asphyxiation” at the Roundhouse during Music on Main’s 10th Modulus Festival.

“That piece is mainly about the environment and our relationship to technology,” Kao says, “so we’re kind of juxtaposing my acoustic sounds with Aysha’s more metallic sounds, and how it blends, and if we can find a balance or not/”

Interested Vancouverites will get their own chance to hear—not to mention touch, taste, smell, and see—Sapphire Haze when it plays the Fox Cabaret this Tuesday (April 12). The program includes one composition by Kao, one by Dulong, and three cocreations.

“All the pieces kind of string together in a straight line,” Kao says, “and it’s all based on, like, a dream sequence.”

“I think the idea of dreams fits with us really well,” Dulong adds, “because a lot of the time when you’re dreaming, you can’t really control what happens next, you kind of let yourself go with it, and we want the audience to feel that way when they’re listening. Just let it happen and think into it, whether it feels good or feels bad or feels whatever way it feels. It’s happening.” g