grumpykittyboy - Network

I’m shedding off my contemporary composer self for a bit. #BandcampFriday passed by, but I feel more of a sharer than a seller right now...

I’m shedding off my contemporary composer self for a bit. #BandcampFriday passed by, but I feel more of a sharer than a seller right now because Grumpy Kitty Boy (my #SynthPop singer-songwriter project) is still a #WorkInProgress for me. I’m slowly working on a second EP that includes this song from five years ago. Here’s an excerpt of what I have for now. 😼 #songwriter

The #tradewar has started. 😖My MacDowell #ArtistResidency starts in April, but I'm very conflicted with crossing the US border....

The #tradewar has started. 😖

My MacDowell #ArtistResidency starts in April, but I'm very conflicted with crossing the US border. It's tempting to diss it and prepare for the upcoming recession instead. But I'm Filipino-turned-Canadian who once exchanged dreams for third-world practicalities. It's a great disservice to myself if I sabotage professional prospects as big as MacDowell. Ugh Grumpy Kitty Boy needs his milk to calm down...c'est tout 100% Canadien. 😹 #contemporaryclassical #composer

I cast my vote today because I'm flying out tomorrow on Election Day! Grumpy Kitty Boy 😼 also voted, so it's an extra...

I cast my vote today because I'm flying out tomorrow on Election Day! Grumpy Kitty Boy 😼 also voted, so it's an extra vote...

...Uhhh whut? You say paw prints 🐾 don't count as valid votes??? 😾 I wanna speak to your manager...🤡

(Kidding aside, go out there, Ontario! Time to shoo the dougie out. 😾)

My latest Musicworks magazine feature for Winter 2025 (# 150) takes a two-page glimpse at what I call the "parallel multiverses"...

My latest Musicworks magazine feature for Winter 2025 (# 150) takes a two-page glimpse at what I call the "parallel multiverses" of Canadian composer Kalaisan Kalaichelvan. Dancing the bharatanatyam, playing classical piano and flute, doing cancer research at a Toronto hospital, and writing scores for numerous films - he has now switched gears into a career as a composer of concert stage music.

Get your copy: https://musicworksmag.myshopify.com/

#ContemporaryClassical #Composer #MagazineFeature #Journalism

In a cozy, little corner--I scoop up squiggles on paperAnd bash them into blue screens,Casting permanent markings...And yet I don't seek...

In a cozy, little corner--
I scoop up squiggles on paper
And bash them into blue screens,
Casting permanent markings...
And yet I don't seek attention;
A quieter year is my resignation.

Trade wars vanish like a gaslit craze;
And yet my poor heart dissolves into rage.

Sunday matcha and mango milk teas repress
The past long decade, I still find utter meaningless
While the world turns around like there's nothing amiss.

#poem #poetry #ContemporaryClassical #composer #melancholia

@dada_avis just learned that it's your birthday yesterday. Alles gute zu deinem Geburtstag! 🎂🎉

@dada_avis just learned that it's your birthday yesterday. Alles gute zu deinem Geburtstag! 🎂🎉

$155B 🇺🇲 goods exported to 🇨🇦, slapped with a 25% tariff starting Tues Feb 4th and rolling out in ~20 days. Canadians booing to...

$155B 🇺🇲 goods exported to 🇨🇦, slapped with a 25% tariff starting Tues Feb 4th and rolling out in ~20 days. Canadians booing to the US anthem in an Ottawa hockey game. PM Trudeau saying non-tariff responses lined up. It's a trade war. Canadians unite as we felt betrayed and hurt by ally.

As a #ContemporaryClassical #composer, I can't fathom how intertwined our careers are with US spaces. I consider this as I'm set for a MacDowell residency in April. What does it mean to go there amid this crisis?

Used Dorico for the first time. Someone sold me a licence in 2022. I upgraded to Dorico 4 and never used it until now. 😹 I saw features...

Used Dorico for the first time. Someone sold me a licence in 2022. I upgraded to Dorico 4 and never used it until now. 😹 I saw features way back that are pertinent to my work, but right now I can't say that it's intuitive to use. I was frustrated with things I wanted. Some unnecessary steps waste time. I checked forums, and early posts suggested that Dorico polices how conventional notation should be. Not cool. But I need to future-proof my work. #ContemporaryClassical #ClassicalMusic #Composer

I logged in my time and wrote some more music this weekend. (I'm working on a piano solo). This is one thing I can do right now,...

I logged in my time and wrote some more music this weekend. (I'm working on a piano solo). This is one thing I can do right now, alongside raging against oligarchies and authoritarians that run amok. Current piece explores temporal expansion, allowing more rhythmic density/volume - similar to the iråma concept of Javanese gamelan. Everything expands into greater movement - completely the opposite of white supremacist suppression. #composer #ClassicalMusic #contemporaryclassical

Within my 12 years in Canada, only one stranger noticed my jacket ever. "Whoa, is that..?" I replied: "Yes, a friend gave it...

Within my 12 years in Canada, only one stranger noticed my jacket ever. "Whoa, is that..?" I replied: "Yes, a friend gave it to me." I'm not a Royal Canadian Army cadet. 😹 With today's global events, some treat histories, institutions, and values as dispensable over worshiping the American golden calf idol. (51st State my ass). Others have long seen Canada as colonial (rightfully so!). They aren't mutually exclusive. We should both uphold sovereignty and grapple with coloniality in these times.

Note to self: I need to slow down this year. Focus on things that really matter, peace of mind included. World is going crazy. The fight...

Note to self: I need to slow down this year. Focus on things that really matter, peace of mind included. World is going crazy. The fight against injustice keeps on. Writing music or sending emails doesn't solve the world's problems, but it keeps me going to contribute something later. It's also okay if I need one #coffee to send just one email.

The music is very much not my style, with its attempts of sound collage with relentless, unabashed quotations of PH kundiman art songs....

The music is very much not my style, with its attempts of sound collage with relentless, unabashed quotations of PH kundiman art songs. It's a Frankenstein monster. It's still experimental, into which I held firmly. An upcoming digital presentation will come later in Spring.

I got commissioned to write a song cycle in 2021. It felt out of place with my style, but I said yes. When Riley Palanca sent their...

I got commissioned to write a song cycle in 2021. It felt out of place with my style, but I said yes. When Riley Palanca sent their libretto, we went, "woah!" With the #philippines "war on drugs" under Duterte, extrajudicial killings, and the Pink Movement resistance, the revolutionary poems felt timely yet anachronistic. But collaborators wrapped up recording of this work last Sat, and today's new world order feels foreboding. #contemporaryclassical #ClassicalMusic #Composer #FilipinoCanadian

What worries me is that while the "American Tiktok-Red Note" episode is finally dismantling their blindspot that is China, people...

What worries me is that while the "American Tiktok-Red Note" episode is finally dismantling their blindspot that is China, people should remember that China is still poised as a bully in the Asia-Pacific region with its long-running territorial claims that violate international law. There are consequences to this neo-colonial undermining of sovereignty among its neighbours. THIS is the real, unspoken issue -- the population has to catch up with world events. Red Note to me is just a distraction.

After being waitlisted, I was offered an #ArtistResidency at #MacDowell this Spring! THE MacDowell! 😳😻 I'm a giddy kid inside with...

After being waitlisted, I was offered an #ArtistResidency at #MacDowell this Spring! THE MacDowell! 😳😻 I'm a giddy kid inside with this news following a very competitive process.

With this, I jumpstart the creation of a new 20min audio essay with live mixed quartet + multichannel fixed media that interrogates passports and the privilege of global mobility. This follows a Musicworks magazine article I published last Summer 2024. #composer #contemporaryclassical #electroacoustic #politicalmusic

Para maiba naman, kelangan magtoot ng #tagalog dito paminsan-minsan. May hashtag nga pero kadalasan e English pa rin ang gamit. 😉 May...

Para maiba naman, kelangan magtoot ng #tagalog dito paminsan-minsan. May hashtag nga pero kadalasan e English pa rin ang gamit. 😉 May lugar din sa Fediverse ang mga #pinoy na nagta-Tagalog. Naisip ko lang naman na mag-ambag sa ganitong paraan. May mga nagta-Tagalog rin po ba rito?

#Filipino #filipinocanadian #pinoyabroad #pinoymusician #pinoymastodon

Writing music on paper without deadlines is a relief. After years of commissioning deadlines, slowing down to relish each stroke feels like...

Writing music on paper without deadlines is a relief. After years of commissioning deadlines, slowing down to relish each stroke feels like touching grass. I remember an artist residency in late 2023 where I wrote in breakneck speed for a November premiere. I missed the deadline by 9 days, the music turned out meh. Today is a time to settle for what matters.

Sorry, 3+1/12 and 5+4/20 tim signatures are real. 🙈 #composer #composerlife #contemporaryclassical #contemporarymusic #filipinocanadian

#introduction post: I'm a #contemporaryclassical #composer, premiering works on concert stages since 16 years ago. I'm a...

#introduction post: I'm a #contemporaryclassical #composer, premiering works on concert stages since 16 years ago. I'm a #musicwriter mostly for Musicworks magazine (Toronto). I also do indie research on contemporary music+postcoloniality with a published journal article and a forthcoming book chapter.

I'm a #ClassicalMusic #pianist who dabbled into bands. I'm also a #SynthPop #singersongwriter as "Grumpy Kitty Boy." I studied Japanese koto eons ago and have my own instrument.

Let's connect!

My salt lamp glows while I shun away the noise that makes today's world unbearable. If I could only skip 2025 like one would skip...

My salt lamp glows while I shun away the noise that makes today's world unbearable. If I could only skip 2025 like one would skip Youtube ads. Writing an uncommissioned piano piece for the heck of it could be a start. (I didn't get commissioned anything last year, which makes it even lonelier).

It turned out that churning even 12 bars is a fight in itself when your mind isn't at peace. #composer #ComposerLife #ContemporaryClassical #ContemporaryMusic #ContemporaryPianoMusic #piano #SheetMusic

First post! I often think about the things we composers do to make a living. I'm no fan of musicals, but someone's gotta eat.When...

First post! I often think about the things we composers do to make a living. I'm no fan of musicals, but someone's gotta eat.

When the drama club I play for did Lion King Jr last year, our rehearsals always had a break in between. With Annie Jr this year, there's so much cast shuffling that I now play for three hours without a break. Hefty musical numbers feel like workouts! 💪🏽 I don't mind though. #rehearsal #piano #musician #TorontoMusic #filipinocanadian #pinoymusician #musicianlife