Works performed by Earplay:

The Headlands Suite

Composer Byron Au Yong creates innovative performances that explore how people gather and connect. This is evident in works like Occupy Orchestra Infinity Garden, a ceremonial work influenced by Chinese gardens, John Cage, and Occupy Wall Street; and Piano Concerto—Houston, a multimedia installation for 11 pianists. His site-responsive projects frequently embrace social issues. For instance, Kidnapping Water: Bottled Operas, based on the I Ching (Book of Changes), premiered with hiking singers and percussionists performing in 64 waterways throughout the Pacific Northwest. Similarly, Turbine, commissioned for the 200th anniversary of the Fairmount Water Works, featured over 80 singers moving along the Schuylkill River.

Au Yong explores social justice themes in his trilogy about liberation from oppression. This includes Stuck Elevator, a hybrid musical theater opera inspired by the true story of a trapped Chinese food delivery man (American Conservatory Theater, Nashville Opera); The Ones, a music theater forum about coming of age in an age of guns (Virginia Tech Center for the Arts, Live Arts Miami); and Activist Songbook, to counteract hate and energize movements (Asian Arts Initiative, International Festival of Arts & Ideas). Au Yong's artistic reach extends internationally, with performances at festivals in Germany, Japan, and Korea. Honors include a Creative Capital Award and a Sundance Institute/Time Warner Foundation Fellowship.