Baldwin Giang is a composer, pianist, and the 2024 Samuel Barber Rome Prize Fellow in musical composition. A PhD candidate in music composition at the University of Chicago, Giang is spending his time in Rome working on the project Transnational Queerness: Three Compositions Reflecting on City Life, Queerness, and Romance: three major works inspired by diasporic as well as local experiences of queerness, and by the city of Rome. One of the commissions is inspired by the multilayered architecture and history of the Basilica San Clemente, and how the church is depicted in the popular novel Call Me by Your Name (by 2018 Resident André Aciman).
Giang has kept a full schedule, both in Rome and in the United States. In January, Giang's work was performed by the Blackbox Ensemble at Shapeshifter Lab in New York. In February, Giang participated in a poetry reading event at the British School at Rome. Later this spring (stay tuned for details!), AAR will partner on additional public events in Rome that will include Giang's work.
AAR spoke to Giang about his Rome Prize Fellowship.
What have you been working on while at AAR? Has your project changed since arriving?
I've been working on three projects related to queerness, hybridity, and the palimpsestic nature of city life in Rome. Each project is a commission from a different ensemble, and each also features different multimedia elements. One project is for the New York–based ensemble Loadbang and features text, another is for Belgium-based Extended Music Collective and features programmed lighting design, and the last is for ensemble and video installation. I came to Rome in the beginning of September totally open to filling in the details of these commissions here, based on contact with new collaborators and my lived experience in Rome. For example, I'm working with Roman video-artists/cinematographers, another Rome Prize Fellow in literature, as well as several Italian musicians in upcoming concerts. The content of each of the projects is certainly only possible through my fellowship here, and I'm also excited to see how my creative process will have changed as a result of this robust year of collaborations and through thinking about these themes.
What’s something that has surprised you about being at the Academy?
I was not aware before I arrived that the Academy is really putting a lot of emphasis on developing a public-facing profile towards the rest of Rome and Italy, and I'm really grateful to be a part of its efforts. The Academy's leadership has been really encouraging about forming partnerships with external organizations here in Rome like concert venues and presenting organizations to showcase the work of Fellows and to foster collaboration with local artists and scholars. I think these efforts point towards a really exciting future for the Academy, one which feels more integrated with the vibrant and diverse community of Rome.
Have you had any great conversations with other Fellows or Residents that changed your perspective?
It feels like every day here is an opportunity for an eye-opening conversation with another fellow, but I want to highlight one ongoing conversation in particular that has been very influential. I'm writing a piece in collaboration with Katie Kitamura (2024 Rome Prize Fellow and acclaimed novelist), in which she wrote the lyrics and I'm writing the music; the work's instrumentation is for baritone voice, three instruments, and electronics. Katie's text is about the body as a site for multiple identities and as the legacy of different generations. Talking with Katie about how she thinks about tautness, rhythm, and shifts in perspective in her writing has been really inspiring to my own creative process. To all the readers: You can listen to the work being premiered in person by Loadbang on May 3, 2024 at Opera America in New York City!
What have you seen in the city of Rome that has made a strong impression on you?
I could easily answer this question by naming some of the amazing masterpieces of architecture or fascinating ruins here in Rome, but I'll leave that to the other Fellows in this series. What's made the strongest impression on me has been how deeply intersected the contemporary art, music, and queer scenes here feel, especially compared to an American city. Queerness feels less accepted here in mainstream contemporary society than in a place like New York or Chicago, and as a result I think finds contemporary art as its partner on the fringes. Many of the queer clubs/parties here, like Merende (Angelo Mai) or Muccassasina, or queer galleries, like Barlina or Balleno International, just to name a few, are great places to meet other artists as well as be a part of the social life LGBT community, in a way that I don't find as true in American cities.