News
12/19/2023
2023: Schuyler Talks Video Series
Just before Christmas last year, I had a funny sensation throughout my body. As I was talking to my co-worker friend, I told him that I had to sit down because I was getting dizzy. The pain kept escalating, and the only thing I could do was close my eyes and put my head down on the desk. I tried to tell him what was happening to me, but it was no use. I could only speak gibberish. The sensation finally went away, but I had to go to the emergency room to get a scan and tests. The doctors finally told me that I had stage-4 brain cancer. This was the darkest moment in my life, but I tried to be positive. In about a month, I had another set of seizures, this time much more debilitating. I couldn’t even understand my name, and I lost sensation in my arm, leg and face on my right side. I had to fight. I had to relearn Lana’s name most of all. In spite of all of this, our friends, family and coworkers helped us and contributed to our GoFundMe page. Special thanks to our good friend Toya B who started the fundraiser immediately.
The point of conveying this story is not to ask, but to give back to everyone who helped us and to others who might be interested in my series. I love you all, and we couldn’t make it if it wasn’t for you. Schuyler Talks is a video series about topics regarding music composition or improvisation that I’ve always held “close to the chest” as some might say. Check out the playlist here Schuyler Talks on YouTube. New episodes every Saturday.
6/9/2022
2022: Solo Composition Album and A Published Score
These next two releases are related, so I present them together. The first is a solo album of my compositions performed live by Strains New Music Ensemble, members of 113 Composers Collective and Shield Your Eyes. This is a Bandcamp exclusive release entitled Schuyler Tsuda LIVE from 113 Composers Collective and includes performances from their 2017 and 2018 seasons. Along with this recording, 113 has also published the score for Marble, Glass and Vapor for solo alto saxophone this year as part of their Solo Saxophone, Volume 1 score anthology. Check out their website to order your copy, and listen to the virtuosic composition on Bandcamp performed live by the incredible Jeffrey Kyle Hutchins.
2021: Shield Your Eyes Triple Album
I’m a bit late to the website updates again, but a lot has happened in the last year. My noise duo Shield Your Eyes released a triple (!) album entitled Three Masses. This is 3 full-length LPs in 3 volumes. Mike Duffy and I actually recorded these tracks somewhere around 2010 or 2011 just before I left Minneapolis. It took a huge amount of time to sift through the material and complete the mixing and mastering process. I believe it was worth it. Sonically and aesthetically, it feels more developed and mature than Sonic Alchemy/Sonic Anarchy, to me anyway, and if this were our last output, I’d be totally happy. Don’t worry. It won’t be as we have plans for more collaboration in the future!
3/13/2021
2021: Vinyl Master
This is Chord from the Second Delphic Hymn / Emerging like an Infant from the House of Truth by composer Alex Carpenter and his ensemble, Music of Transparent Means. His music begins in the tradition of minimalist composers like La Monte Young and Phil Niblock and expands forward. With electronic and acoustic instruments and specifically arranged setups utilizing room acoustics and projection, their live performances in Adelade incorporated feedback and delay networks, both audio and video.
10/31/2020
2020: First EP Release
I just released my first solo EP! The album is called Decade Counter, and at its core, I consider it a darkwave project that quickly deviates into unexpected territories. These tracks were the result of intense personal creation and experimentation, where no sound device, commercial or hand-made, were off-limits.
A bit more: This album is really 10 years in the making. Ideas were developed, added to and sometimes completely reworked at different points in time. I guess you could say that real life got into the way of actually finishing the album. The title alludes to this, but the concept goes beyond just this working time frame. The overarching themes are the hopes and fears that come with getting older and the profound sense of isolation that comes from turning your back on the world and going your own way in life. These feelings come with time–lots of time. In a sense, this is a story about playing the long game with everything you’ve got and not knowing if you’ll win or lose in the end.
Check out the album via the HyperFollow page here: Decade Counter
10/30/18
2018: Austin, London, Darmstadt and Minneapolis
As usual, this is a bit late for news, but I’ve had some wonderful things happen this year. The first was a workshop I presented at SXSW in Austin in March. It was an audio circuit design workshop in which I taught folks how to design and breadboard a basic kick-snare analog drum machine. I love doing these workshops, and hopefully I have an opportunity at some point to try this out in a seminar format.
Dr. Scott Gleason, a Columbia music theorist presented a paper entitled “Three Analyses after Theory: Listening to Music by Tsuda, Yom, and Onishi” in London this past July. In this paper, he analyzed my May 3, 2016 sound sculpture performance at ShapeShifter Lab from my instrument builder series. This was part of the CityMac 2018 Conference. You can view this paper online here.
Also in June, Kyle Hutchins, director of Strains New Music Ensemble performed my piece “Marble, Glass and Vapor” at the 2018 Darmstadt Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in an event organized by the 113 Composers Collective. My music has finally made it to Darmstadt!
Finally, the world premiere of my commissioned piece for Strains New Music Ensemble entitled “Kigumi” will be performed in the Twin Cities this Friday and Saturday, November 2 and 3. This is a composition based on traditional Japanese wood joining, and it is scored for overtone flute, bass clarinet, xylophone and cello. Please come out and see the performance if you’re in the area, and if not, I’m sure there will be video documentation that I will be able to put up on my website in the next few days. Please see the flyer below for more information.
