Solo

As a solo performer, Theresa Wong illuminates the vast sonorities of the cello and voice, unearthing raw vibrations in tonal, percussive and textural terrains. Her work draws upon the question: "how can I rediscover the core of the cello as wood and string and hair, or even simply as a tree?" Combining composition and improvisation, her solo performances draw upon song forms, noise, harmony, the primal sentience of the natural world, and sensations of genetic sonic memory, forging a timbral merging of cello and voice into a totally unique synthesis. The cello is centered around a lower A 216 Hz and in scordatura, allowing for harmonic explorations in just intonation, a tuning system based on the natural overtones of resonating frequencies. Through amplification, Wong reveals the microcosms of the cello and voice as expansive fields of possibility. Her solo performances have been included at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, Cafe Oto in London, Fabbrica Europa Festival in Florence, Italy, The Lab in San Francisco, The Stone in New York City, and Fondation Cartier in Paris. In 2022, Wong released Practicing Sands, an album of pieces for solo cello and voice on fo’c’sle. Fluency of Trees, a new work for cello and voice, was premiered at the Other Minds Festival 26 in San Francisco in October 2022. Read reviews of this performance in the San Francisco Classical Voice and The Wire.