[speaking in a foreign language]
- James Diaz and Julia Suh
- Department of Music, School of Arts & Sciences
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Student Creative Production Grant
James Diaz and Julia Suh taken by Mariangela Quiroga photography/Michael Yu.
[speaking in a foreign language] is a sonic dialogue of intersectionality between a Colombian composer (James Diaz) and a Korean violinist (Julia Suh) resulting in an hour-long concert for violin and electronics. Diaz and Suh started collaborating in 2017, with Diaz composing a piece for violin and electronics, titled “a song for,” and Suh responding with an oil-on-canvas painting. The goal was to compose a sonic and a visual memoir about the terrorist attacks in 2017 from the view of the “common citizen.” Diaz was born in Colombia in 1990, and grew up constantly watching the news about FARC and Paramilitary Groups’ terrorist attacks. This current collaboration is a much deeper and extended personal exploration of current issues and ideas relevant to the present time, enabling both Diaz and Suh to deepen their artistic and research practices.