BREATH CONTAINED, III | Tonia Ko

About the piece: "Breath, Contained III” is a concerto scored for amplified bubble wrap soloist with chamber orchestra. It features imaginative orchestrations of the unique solo instrument: a ‘keyboard’ of various sizes and shapes of air packaging. Composer/soloist Tonia Ko has been developing the friction-based techniques for the instrument since 2013.

An inexplicable reluctance to pop the bubbles runs in parallel to the emotional qualities of the work: pent-up energy, unreleased emotions… breath, contained.

All packaging material used in the work was scavenged or donated by the community.

Recording from the world premiere performance at National Sawdust (2023); commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation, Library of Congress

Performers: Tonia Ko — amplified bubble-wrap Isabel Lepanto Gleicher — flute Roy Beason — oboe Madison Greenstone — clarinet Daniel Kochersberger — saxophone David Nagy — bassoon Patrick Jankowski — horn Sam Jones — trumpet Daniel Linden — trombone Amy Garapic — percussion Matt Evans — percussion Milena Gligič — piano Josh Henderson — violin Finnegan Shanahan — violin Giancarlo Latta — violin Daniel Constant — violin Sarah Haines — viola Dudley Raine IV — viola Julia Henderson — cello Helen Newby — cello Tristan Kasten-Krause — bass Austin Lewellen — bass David Bloom — conductor