Micaela Tobin (WHITE BOY SCREAM) combines experimental voice and contemporary opera into a compelling live set. On her latest release, “BAKUNAWA,” she dissects her voice through the use of electronics as a means of exploring identity and ancestral trauma. “BAKUNAWA” is an homage to the pre-colonial mythology of her motherland, the Philippines. Part sonic ritual, part diasporic storytelling.

Anna Luisa Petrisko performs artistic research into identity, history and culture. In built environments that are as much invested in the sacred as they are interested in technological speculation, the work explores future and ancient ideas coinciding at a non-linear tempo. Anna Luisa will perform a selection of old and new material as well as show some excerpts from the opera VIBRATION GROUP.

Following the performances, the artists will join us for a conversation with Joshua Minsoo Kim, a music writer and critic who writes for The Wire as well as his own Tone Glow newsletter.

Micaela Tobin (White Boy Scream)

Micaela Tobin is a soprano, sound artist, and teacher based in Los Angeles, CA who specializes in experimental voice and contemporary opera, composing under the moniker “White Boy Scream.” Her practice centers the voice as a tool of sonic empowerment through reframing operatic modes of performance practice. Concerning her recent full length album, “BAKUNAWA,” Steve Smith of The New Yorker Magazine warned that “Opera would do well to pay attention.”

Micaela has performed extensively throughout the western United States, most notably as a guest with hip-hop experimentalists clipping. during their 2017 tour in support of The Flaming Lips. Micaela’s other full length release, “Remains” (Crystalline Morphologies) was listed as one of the top 10 Noise/Industrial Albums of 2018 by The Wire Magazine.

Micaela premiered and earned a five-star review for her first original experimental opera, entitled “Unseal Unseam,” at the world’s largest art festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in summer 2016; the work was described as “hypnotic” and “paralyzingly beautiful,” by New Classic LA after its U.S. debut in October 2017.

Micaela Tobin is currently on Faculty as a Voice Instructor at the California Institute for the Arts. She most recently performed a principal role in the critically acclaimed experimental opera, Sweet Land (comp. Raven Chacon & Du Yun), which made it’s U.S. premiere in March 2020.

White Boy Scream is the experimental-classical project from opera singer and composer Micaela Tobin. On her latest release, “BAKUNAWA,” she dissects her voice through the use of electronics as a means of exploring identity and ancestral trauma. “BAKUNAWA” is an homage to the pre-colonial mythology of her motherland, the Philippines. Part sonic ritual, part diasporic storytelling.

Anna Luisa Petrisko (VIBRATION GROUP)

Anna Luisa Petrisko performs artistic research into identity, history and culture. In built environments that are as much invested in the sacred as they are interested in technological speculation, the work explores future and ancient ideas coinciding at a non-linear tempo. Collaborating with many artists, she sees the shared work as a way to navigate relationships and cultural communion. Her mediums include experimental opera, analog video art, immersive theater, design, sound, music, textiles, and sculpture. Her recent project is a new sci-fi opera VIBRATION GROUP, which premiered at LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) in Fall 2019 and has since been presented at LACMA, Glas Animation Festival and Culture Hub. The VIBRATION GROUP original soundtrack is available at annaluisapetrisko.bandcamp.com. Anna Luisa is a current faculty member in the School of Art at California State University San Marcos, where she teaches Video Art and Sound Design.

Website: http://annaluisapetrisko.com