PhD student Baldwin Giang nominated for 2022 Gaudeamus Award
Sufjan Stevens is known as a multi instrumentalist whose alt-folk music has spanned genres and created a dedicated fanbase. Now, an homage to his work by a UChicago Music PhD student Baldwin Giang has landed Giang a nomination for the coveted Gaudeamus Award.
Baldwin Giang’s songs after sufjan, is one of the five nominees for the 2022 Award. The Gaudeamus has been awarding this prize to new music pioneers every year since 1957, and its goal is to “present, stimulate and support the latest music by young music pioneers.”
Sufjan Stevens performs at Pitchfork Music Festival. Photo by Ben Sass.
Giang says that “songs after sufjan is, in part, an homage to the singer/songwriter/composer Sufjan Stevens. I found myself most intrigued with how Stevens's lyrics, often intensely lyrical, conflicted, and loaded with symbolism, are usually accompanied by music of simplicity and restraint. I wondered how this ambiguous combination of elements would be transformed if fragmented and cast as purely instrumental music. My piece for piano trio makes use of some of the musical material of Stevens's songs, such as translating their carefully orchestrated pop production into dreamy microtonal harmony and extended techniques, as a means to evoke both the intimacy and delicate affect of Stevens's sound worlds. Furthermore the ghosts of Stevens's lyrics, when re-contextualized against my own music, serve as a starting point for the unique emotional arc of my own work."
Listen to songs after sufjan on Youtube.
Read the full announcement from UChicago Music.