Johnum Palado, Future Video Game Composer, Church Organist

CONSERVATORY

March 4, 2022 Established 1874 Volume 151, Number 13

IN THE PRACTICE ROOM Johnum Palado, Future Video Game Composer and Church Organist

Johnum Palado of Shreveport, LA is a fourth-year Violin Performance major in the Conservatory, minoring in Mathematics in the College. He has served as concertmaster of the Oberlin Orchestra and the Contemporary Music Ensemble, and performed in the Danenberg Honors Recital in 2020. As a winner of this year’s Oberlin Senior Concerto Competition, he will perform Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 as a soloist with the Oberlin Orchestra this coming May.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Walter Thomas-Patterson

Conservatory Editor

Could you talk a little bit about your upbringing and musical experiences before Oberlin influenced your artistic development?

I feel my upbringing was different. I have other violin friends who started in the Suzuki program by age three or four, but I found my way into music in very different circumstances.

Coming from an immigrant family — I was born in the Philippines and my family immigrated to the U.S. when I was three — my family was still trying to become financially comfortable as I started my life in music. My dad was working multiple jobs, and my mom was working at a casino.

My first introduction to music was through a violin after-school program sponsored by the music teacher there, and it was funny because most parents saw it as more of a daycare.

Since my family is Catholic, I also learned how to play in a church setting, performing and improvising on the violin, and playing hymns on piano and organ.

These experiences gave me a better appreciation for music not just as a violinist, not just as a pianist or composer, but as a human. It made me better at learning through transition.

Did you ever have a moment during your upbringing that really solidified you wanted to study music?

I think it’s more a series of smaller moments for me; it’s more about the discovery of little things that keep me invested in a career path for music. When I listened to my hometown orchestra for the first time, I was just blown away by that sound. I wanted to recreate that.

When I started playing piano for church as a substitute, it was also really eye-opening because I found out I really liked to improvise not just from what was available — the hymns or in the sheet music— but also what came in my head. That led to me enjoying composition because it was so gratifying seeing what was in my head visualized in a score.

In high school, I started dabbling in composition inspired by video games. I played pieces from The Legend of Zelda, Super Smash Bros., “Studio Ghibli,” Star Wars, and other fun VHS tapes I could find back home.

Is there any common thread that comes to mind when you think about how you live and work as a multifaceted musician?

Through improvising, composing, and playing for church on the violin, I learned how to understand music outside of what’s on the page. For me, the common thread is seeing music as a living thing that can be morphed into something that resembles you as a person.

People always forget to become themselves through the music. I see music as a tool to help me become a better individual. It can be stressful — partly what I do to combat that is to just listen, because I feel like another part of being in the Conservatory is always being on the grind, always practicing, and rest is so crucial as a musician.

Music is a medium to convey important messages to the audience, but it also needs to fit your needs.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

It’s okay to not be sure where you want to be. When I started violin, I thought that’s what I wanted to do—always explore, always be curious, even if it’s something that you’re not sure about. For me, it was definitely about free improvisation, which I decided to dive into this semester. So far, it’s been really cool. There are certain things that you wouldn’t get to experience just having one linear path. It’s okay to not like music at the end of it.

Right now, what kind of vision do you have for the future?

I’d be really satisfied just having my own studio and making music, either for video games or film. Having that space to cultivate ideas is definitely a future goal for me. There’s no sense of being stationary from 9–5 and then just going back home, doing nothing. You’re always busy exploring and understanding music.

I also see myself playing in church as well; it’s such a sacred place that emotionally speaks to me as a Catholic. Those senses of reverence can only be replicated in a church setting and playing music. It’s such a different experience compared to a concert hall. In a way the music is not the centerpiece of the church service; it’s only part of it. And so even when it’s just music-playing, the music serves a purpose.

Theory Curriculum Reimagined to Recognize Marginalized Music

Music Theory Professor Andrew Pau teaches class in Bibbins.

Sadie Owens

Senior Staff Writer

Photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor

The Conservatory is restructuring the way that music theory is taught as part of its multi-layered and multi-year project to de-emphasize Western music as the sole theoretical canon. Beginning in fall 2021, four required semesters of Music Theory (I-IV) were distilled into two introductory first-year courses (I-II). An array of 200-level elective classes replaced Music Theory III and IV in addition to the 300-level requirements expected of most conservatory music majors.

The Conservatory has previously incorporated non-traditional music in the classroom; however, these changes set Oberlin apart in efforts to reform music theory curricula across the country.

Music Theory course selections now include classes dedicated specifically to topics like music by women composers. The general curriculum also prioritizes topics like rhythm and meter rather than a chordby-chord approach, which makes it easier for students to talk about a wide range of music forms in the classroom.

The modifications to the curriculum help fulfill an expansion toward historically marginalized musical fields, a goal articulated in the Conservatory’s Racial Equity & Diversity Action Plan released in September 2020.

Faculty conversations about changing the curriculum began in 2019, but it wasn’t until fall 2021 that the changes were launched. The restructuring was spearheaded by Associate Professor and Division Director of Music Theory Jan Miyake, OC ’96, along with Associate Professor of Music Theory Megan Long.

Miyake noted that among the host of curricular changes occurring in the Conservatory recently, restructuring the Music Theory curriculum has been the most impactful change for students.

Associate Professor of Music Theory Andrew Pau emphasized that he hopes these changes have helped students of all backgrounds feel more represented in the curriculum

“European art music still maintains a large role in the sense that that’s … what many of the students play, and that’s what they’re hoping to pursue in their career,” Pau said. “I think our point here is to create a context around it — to make people whose activities are not in that repertoire feel less excluded, less like, ‘This has nothing to do with me.’”

Fifth-year double-degree student Melinda Wisdom reflected on the potential impact of these changes on Conservatory students as a whole, and how she wished she had the chance to experience those changes in the classroom to help broaden her artistic palette.

“I did find a lot of the classical era of music exciting to learn about, but I think it would’ve been more exciting to study the curriculum that they’re implementing right now,” Wisdom said. “My hope is that everyone is really excited to learn this curriculum — not just classical folks, but jazz, TIMARA, and [Composition], too.”

With the decentering of the Western canon comes the opportunity for classical students not only to think about their position within the music world, but also to help students outside of the canon feel more at home in the classroom.

“I hope that they will be able to say nuanced and robust things about a wide variety of music,” Miyake said. “That they have a toolset that’s varied enough and effective enough that I could throw them any piece of music and they could tell me something really cool about it.”

Through reassessing and revisiting these changes, Miyake and others hope that the new curriculum will grow with the department for a long time.

“I think that for a conservatory, Oberlin is way ahead of the curve,” Miyake said.