Alice Chung is a mezzo-soprano and co-founder of Wear Yellow Proudly, an initiative started in 2020 in response to increasing xenophobia and violence against Asians during the COVID-19 pandemic. WYP spreads awareness about Asian culture through art, music, and education. Alice speaks about her Korean-American upbringing, how she started singing, and why she chose not to sing when the pandemic first hit.
Visit wearyellowproudly.org for more information.
First verse of "The Swing":
The new light blue ramie skirt
The gold-pressed hair ribbon
As I swing up to the sky,
Flutter in the cloud.
The swallow also, surprised,
Stopped flying mid-air and watched.
Music:
"The Swing (그네)" performed by Alice Chung, mezzo-soprano
"Longing for GeumGang Mountain (그리운 금강산)" performed by Alice Chung, mezzo-soprano, and Ting Ting Wong, pianist, recorded February 2021 - this is the piano heard after the end of the Swing underneath the spoken intro.
"Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix" from Samson et Dalila by Saint-Saëns, performed by Alice Chung, mezzo-soprano, and Ed Bak, pianist, recorded May 2021 at the Cooper-Bing Competition
Alice Chung is a mezzo-soprano and co-founder of Wear Yellow Proudly, an initiative started in 2020 in response to increasing xenophobia and violence against Asians during the COVID-19 pandemic. WYP spreads awareness about Asian culture through art, music, and education. Alice speaks about her Korean-American upbringing, how she started singing, and why she chose not to sing when the pandemic first hit.
Visit wearyellowproudly.org for more information.
First verse of "The Swing":
The new light blue ramie skirt
The gold-pressed hair ribbon
As I swing up to the sky,
Flutter in the cloud.
The swallow also, surprised,
Stopped flying mid-air and watched.
Music:
"The Swing (그네)" performed by Alice Chung, mezzo-soprano
"Longing for GeumGang Mountain (그리운 금강산)" performed by Alice Chung, mezzo-soprano, and Ting Ting Wong, pianist, recorded February 2021 - this is the piano heard after the end of the Swing underneath the spoken intro.
"Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix" from Samson et Dalila by Saint-Saëns, performed by Alice Chung, mezzo-soprano, and Ed Bak, pianist, recorded May 2021 at the Cooper-Bing Competition
Suzanne Lis 0:54
Welcome to This Embodied Voice. My name is Suzanne, and this episode's guest is Alice Chung, mezzo-soprano and co-founder of Wear Yellow Proudly. Wear Yellow Proudly was started in 2020 as a response to the increase in xenophobia and violence against Asians around the world during the pandemic. The initiative aims to bring awareness to Asian culture through music, art and education, as well as providing a space for Asian artists. Alice took me through her upbringing as a Korean-American, how she started singing and why she chose not to sing when the pandemic hit last year. And we jumped right in by talking about the Korean song you just heard called "The Swing."
Suzanne Lis 1:32
So Alice Chung, welcome to the podcast.
Alice Chung 1:35
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Suzanne Lis 1:37
My pleasure. So the people listening are going to hear at the beginning of the episode, using one of your favorite Korean art songs, "The Swing," and I was wondering if you could tell us about the text, the meaning of the text and also what the song means to you.
Alice Chung 1:54
The text is - I actually only did the first verse because I only ever learned the first verse And now I'll be learning [the remainder] for something else. But the first verse is:
Alice Chung 2:07
The new light blue ramie skirt (ramie, which is a type of light, summery fabric, so which is not silk,)
Alice Chung 2:15
the gold-pressed hair ribbon
Alice Chung 2:16
as I swing up to the sky,
Alice Chung 2:18
flutter in the clouds,
Alice Chung 2:20
the swallow, also surprised ,stopped flying mid-air and watched.
Alice Chung 2:26
And the second verse is actually just a continuation. And at the very last part, it says, All of my worries, the wind carries away. So it's a very beautiful text-painting song, which is why I always loved it.
Suzanne Lis 2:46
I love how in the last line, when the swallow stops flying, there's a little break in the line. And then it goes on.
Alice Chung 2:53
Yeah, yeah. And it's so operatic!
Suzanne Lis 2:57
It DOES feel very operatic, it sort of starts low and then has this gorgeous soaring height. And also beautifully sung, I have to say. So how did you first learn the song or hear of the song?
Alice Chung 3:12
I heard my mom sing it a few times. Growing up, I was obsessed with karaoke. And so after, like during college years, like when I was away from home, I would come back during break and like, one night we would always just kind of have like a karaoke night. After dinner, I would always say, "oh, we're gonna do karaoke. And then we're going to work our meal off." And then so my mom would join in later, and sometimes my dad as well. And we would sing just like all of these, like pop songs, popular songs back in her day. So I know a lot of Korean oldies songs. And this was one of the songs that she would sing sometimes. And I thought it was always so beautiful, how the melody soars and it just like, not that I ever, - like the way that they swing on a swing, sometimes it's like, not just sitting, but also they've planted their feet, on the actual part where you sit. So they're actually standing and swinging, but I've never done that, but I always loved swinging, you know, on the place that when I was a kid, and it just reminds me of my childhood, and how carefree it was.
Suzanne Lis 4:34
Were your parents also musicians, or were they sort of amateur...?
Alice Chung 4:40
They're not musicians. They do love music, though. And my mom's sang in like, you know, children's chorus and things like that when she was younger, but they're not trained musicians.
Suzanne Lis 4:56
Yeah. And when did they come to the US?
Alice Chung 4:59
I think they came sometime in the 70s. My mom came in through Alaska, and eventually made her down to California. I think my dad made his way through Hawaii and then ended up in California. And then they met there. With my mom's side grandfather introducing them both.
Suzanne Lis 5:23
Oh, that's adorable. I actually had something similar happened with my husband, where the stepdad was introduced by the grandmother, which I think is so - it almost feels kind of old school, doesn't it?
Alice Chung 5:35
It is. And, you know, it's so funny. Um, there are times when I just like, I feel like it would just be easier for someone who knows me to just introduce me to someone, then I don't have to deal with, you know, playing the dating app game or all of those things.
Suzanne Lis 5:54
And you've been vetted, you know?!
Alice Chung 5:56
Exactly, exactly. So I now see the merits of their ways.
Suzanne Lis 6:09
And you said, you know, a lot of Korean oldies, what would you say - what would you call this song? Art song, or like a pop song or a folk song? I don't know how to classify it and I had a hard time finding information about it.
Alice Chung 6:22
Yeah, actually, it's the same for me. I also had trouble finding classifications. This one I would consider both like a folk song and also a classical song. And for me, probably what defines those two is like, #1 what is it about number? In what era are they speaking through? And like, you know, the way they're talking about traditional garb, and they're, they have little ornament-like moments that are more reminiscent of certain styles of singing. And so that would help me define what might be more like a Western classical art song versus a folk song. And also, due to, I mean, because of like, a lot of like history that's gone on, there, I think, was a dry period, where Korean creativity was silenced and stifled. And so coming out of that, though, because of Westernization, there was a bit more and there was a lot more Korean classical literature.
Suzanne Lis 7:47
What are some other ones that are like - well, is "The Swing" like better known, or what are some...
Alice Chung 7:52
"The Swing" is probably, it is known. It is known, but probably not as much as done as 그리운 금강산, which translates to "Longing for GeumGang Mountain." And I actually did this piece for the Lunar New Year festival that I did through my initiative, Wear Yellow Proudly, and the text of it longs for - It's a South Korean piece that is about these mountains that have like more than 12,000 peaks, located in actually North Korea. And so there are parts of it, that you can tell that it's longing for family who have been split apart, because of the borders. So the longing for reunification and but also, I think, a homeland that it's you know, it was once one homeland, but now it's been separated apart.
Suzanne Lis 9:03
Do your parents still have family back in Korea, either South or North?
Alice Chung 9:08
We do have family and actually my mother's uncle, so her father's older brother was actually - he ended up being taken away into North Korea so and they never heard from him again and presumed dead. But I also know people who have escaped from North Korea or like whose family has come out and like has settled down in America and there are so many more things that I've learned about since my childhood because all I've grown up knowing is what my parents told me. And of course, that's not enough because they also grew up just learning about stories from people they haven't experienced for themselves. And nowadays, there's even in popular culture and Korean dramas, like, there's more talks of like longing for reunification. And a Netflix drama - well, I think it was a drama there, and then it's just now on Netflix, but called Crash Landing On You. And it's a very beautiful story. And I don't want to give away too much, but there's like a musical element as well, that makes it, you know, just even a little bit more beautiful. And I think people everyone should watch it. It's one of those stories that is helpful and like, it's helpful to know like, how do people live? How do people live beyond the borders?
Suzanne Lis 10:57
So what was your upbringing like as a Korean-American? You said your parents met in California. Did you speak Korean at home? Did you go to like - for example, my parents are Polish so there was a Polish Saturday school - was there an equivalent for you?
Alice Chung 11:15
Yes. For the first five years of my life, I lived in Los Angeles and mainly in Koreatown and on Saturdays or Sundays, I don't remember which, but it was definitely the weekend though - we would also go to church and I would learn Korean there, among other things like ballet. And I also learned like Korean traditional dancing, which sometimes involves like, fans sometimes and like knives or swords. It was all very fun.
Alice Chung 11:50
But then once we moved out of the Los Angeles area, I didn't really have those resources. But we always spoke Korean at home mainly. And it's funny, because nowadays, when I go back home, and I'm there for like a little bit, and I'm meeting up with friends who are not Korean, I'll accidentally speak in Korean to them. And then like, I have to like, correct myself. I'm like, Oh, I'm sorry. I should be speaking in English. And so I don't actually know which one I spoke first, Korean or English. But I have a theory that if you react to - if you instinctually react to like pain, for instance. So if I'm touching something hot, accidentally, then no matter how long the phrase or the word is, I react in Korean. Yeah. And that makes me think maybe Korean was my first language? Yeah, yeah, it's difficult for bilingual speakers.
Suzanne Lis 13:01
It is weird.
Alice Chung 13:02
But reading and singing in Korean is actually fine. I have always had a knack in pronouncing things. So actually, funny enough, knowing Korean helped me in terms of IPA because I hadn't learned IPA at the time. And when I was encountering my first Italian art song, for instance, or first Italian aria, I should say, knowing Korean helped me speak Italian better, or sing Italian better, because there are a lot of pure vowels. It's mostly pure vowels. And then a few little, like combination types, but the consonants actually helped me because Korean consonants are very much in between plosive and non plosive and dental so it did actually help me. And it also helped me with Russian.
Suzanne Lis 14:13
I was going to say, when you listen to that, there are those sort of strange - to me they sound like in-between vowels. But yeah, I totally know what you mean.
Alice Chung 14:22
Yeah, so that really helped me. Um, and, and then once I learned IPA, of course, like that also really helped me. But to start off, like, with Korean, I feel like it helped me. It helped my ears because I just had like an entire other language of sound, and different types of sounds and possibilities.
Suzanne Lis 14:50
So how did you start singing? What's your musical background?
Alice Chung 14:57
I always loved singing. But in terms of my parents, my proper Asian parents, of course, made me take piano. So I have like over a decade of piano lessons in my belt. And like for a very brief moment, just enough to get my calluses formed, and then to peel off, I played guitar. But my mom always had the intention of me playing piano because she's like, well, if you ever live alone, like, you know, you can rely on music to, you know, to emotionally support you. And you'll never, like, be bored.
Suzanne Lis 15:36
Aww.
Alice Chung 15:36
Yeah, I thought that was very sweet. Um, and I was interested in playing other instruments, like, I wanted to play a violin, or viola, at one point. When I was a child, I wanted to play the clarinet. But like, you know, they, they couldn't afford one. So my mom gave me a toy one, like, you know, pretend to play on a toy one, but, um, eventually in middle school, I joined choir, a show choir, which my mom attributes to, like, you know, me coming off the academic path. Because they always wanted me to be a doctor. Um, but, you know, I think once I had that, and especially the show choir aspect, that kind of, like, you know, got me on the hook, and I was instantly obsessed. An entire, like, world was introduced to me, you know, musical theater and other things. It was so eye opening, and inspiring. And then so I also did that in high school. And I got into college, I got into college, and I was like, Okay, let's put my foot down, no more music. I have to focus on my studies. Like, that's what my mom told me. And I was like, that's what I'm doing. And then I was like, well, it can't hurt to join, like a women's choir, a women's chorus. It's only like, two, three hours in a week, they only meet once, like, it can't hurt. Of course, it distracted me. Because then I found out that I could get voice lessons through a graduate TA. And I would just sign up just in my curriculum and stuff for college credit. And I was like, well, my parents couldn't pay for it before because I was both too busy, and they didn't have the money. So now I'm going to do this, I'm going to get classical like voice training, because I always wanted to know. And turns out, I really loved it. And I will always remember the the piece that really sold me was Brahms' "Feldeinsamkeit" and the German Romanticism of the text and the music, just really resonated with my soul.
Suzanne Lis 18:08
Did you hear a recording?
Alice Chung 18:10
It was assigned to me. And I'm very thankful. And I just realized, like, you know, this, this art form, it's just so beautiful, and like, the poetry is incomparable. And there are centuries worth of this. And then eventually, you know, getting into more like scenes and arias. And then finally, like, standing on a stage. And doing you know, I think my first thing was zarzuela and I started feeling really, really at home on stage, when, you know, it's like, not even a recital at that point, I was just like, the bright lights of being on that stage. And that washed out all of the audience. It helped me and it was my time away from being me and then time to like, embody this character. Whether it was larger than life, or like, you know, a very much normal character. It was, it was like, it was there for me. And so that's when I knew I was like, Okay, this is what I want to do.
Alice Chung 19:34
It took convincing and my parents weren't completely supportive of it because they were worried about me, they were worried about my well-being and my future being the whole "starving artist," which of course, the pandemic kind of shed the light on that for a while, and it still is, even though we're slowly coming back and they have - Eventually, like, they were convinced and you know, saw that, like I was succeeding, and saw all of these other people who believed in me. So that's, that's how I got here. And I'm very thankful to all of the people who encouraged me even when I didn't know anything, and I didn't know if it would work out. And yeah, I'm very glad to the people who have championed me.
Suzanne Lis 20:32
So what's something that you are like working on vocally at the moment?
Alice Chung 20:39
I'm going to Music Academy of the West this summer. So they are planning this 21st century Liederabend with all female composers. And I'm working on this piece, I think Missy Mazzoli's actually very first piece, "Song from the Uproar." And that's another one of those pieces that just like, the colors, and the text, like just resonated within me as a person. And so I'm really excited about that.
Alice Chung 21:13
And I'm also working on the Wesendonck Lieder for the song competition that they have. And these other pieces, one called Diamond Impressions, specifically, from this body of work called Sentiments. And it's by Chihchun Chi-Sun Lee, who is a Taiwanese composer who is currently living in Korea actually. And her music embodies so much of what I love about American culture, like the the jazziness, the cabaret style, and but of course, like her identity of being an Asian woman, and so like, that's also something how I feel like, you know, I am American. And I don't think anything could like, deny me that because I have American values, American ideals, and if I were to, you know, pop on over to Korea, it would most likely be different. And there's no judgment or no shame on any of that. It's just that I am different. And that's what makes me a Korean American. Not necessarily Korean, not necessarily American. So I'm delving into more Korean art songs. And the two that I mentioned, "The Swing", and "Longing for GeumGang Mountain," are also programmed on it.
Alice Chung 22:56
And I hope to be learning more. My friend and colleague and I are working on this Asian art song database, so that we could kind of have a collection out there for people to whoever wants to dip their toes into that realm, it's easy for them to find them, to access them and like, hopefully get a good transliteration going.
Suzanne Lis 23:25
So last year, you and Helen Huang - who I actually know from Tanglewood, from eons ago! So you and Helen started Wearing Yellow Proudly, and I'd love if you told us about the name, the organization, what kind of work you guys do.
Alice Chung 23:44
Yes, so actually, Helen, she approached me already with the name as well. It wasn't 100% solidified, but it was a great name. And she talked about, I feel like there is a gap that needs filling. And people aren't talking about the things that are happening, number one, which were all, you know, with the onset of the pandemic, all of the racial tensions that were already there, and even more was causing, like a lot of violent behavior and a higher amount of xenophobia against Asian people. And a lot of it, most of it, were going unreported. And, and even I, I did not know, Helen had to tell me, and she told me that like, you know, some of her colleagues were receiving comments as things like you know, if they you know, talked about it, if they had put it on social media, people are telling them, it's not your time. You know, this is the time for Black Lives Matter, which it has always been the time for Black Lives Matter, you know, but it was mainly these things that infuriated us because, you know, you people should be able to hold on to and support several different social issues, you know, if we're only going one at a time, it we're going to fail, where the LGBTQ movement, you know, failed. And it should always be a multi pronged approach. And of course, it's much easier said than done. And also, to combat all of these racial tensions, we wanted to share through how we do best, you know, one being music. And with music, we would also share, you know, Asian songs, get people more aware of all of these different cultures, rather than being in the umbrella term of like Asian, or people of color, or diversity, you know, and also share different parts of our cultures, because people are scared of things that they don't know about. Um, and if we're able to share that we are also human, you know, if everything is based on humanity, like if, you know, we can show that Asians are human, and we have, we have different cultures, and we have different traditions, yes, but it's all based on humanity. And we should all celebrate the differences of our cultures, then what's to be afraid of. And as classical musicians, we can do the same by embodying these roles, whether they're Asian or not, but we're ultimately telling a human experience. And so if we're able to do that, then people who are not of Asian descent, or heritage, can also sing Asian music and embody Asian cultures and values. You know, there are so many, we had so many missions.
Alice Chung 27:21
But ultimately, it was an initiative to combat all of the stuff that was happening during the pandemic, and still today, and also to share our culture and spread joy, especially because during the pandemic, it was so saturated with whether it was music, or people literally just scream writing on their Facebook pages about what is going on, how they were feeling, and we knew that joy was needed. Right? So it wasn't just the music, it wasn't just our Shades of Yellow posts where, you know, we could feature Asian artists and uplift Asian voices, or our web talks where we did the Asian and Black Solidarity discussion, or the generational differences. It was also things like, the secret prank video of like, you know, Chinese with friends, or like, guests between Spanish and Tagalog. And, you know, those things I felt we didn't have. There was no content, specifically like that, that was geared towards awareness, but also, you know, we would have a serious note and we would have a lighter note.
Alice Chung 28:52
And especially for our most recent one, like the #stopasianhate benefit concert, which was created in response to the Atlanta shootings. And, you know, Helen and I were like, we wanted to get something out there. We wanted to, you know, provide a place of solace, a moment of solace and, but also spread the awareness, while it's still fresh in people's minds, but it's combined all the things that we are, who we are as Asians and Asian Americans or Asian Canadian, and in response to all of those and the things that we've been feeling this entire time into one concert, which is still available for viewing on YouTube.
Suzanne Lis 29:53
And it's really good.
Alice Chung 29:54
Thank you.
Suzanne Lis 29:55
I was wondering how you think about your identity as a Korean American, and if that's changed at all over the course of your life.
Alice Chung 30:05
It's funny because I think growing up, my parents always told me, "you know, you're probably not going to get this one thing, for example, because you're Asian. People discriminate against you." And there's a part of me, that's always, you know, that was always very naive and gullible and a huge believer of the American dream, and that America was, you know, it believes in equality. And of course, the shades get drawn. And especially with these crises, you see how far away from, whether we have made progress or not, how far we are away from the perfect "American dream," and how I can - not am - but can be treated as a second class citizen, because I will never be able to shed my own skin, I will never be able to hide in the midst of whatever culture I'm in. I am, who I am. And for it to have taken, you know, 28 years for the shades to be fully drawn, and possibly not even completely drawn yet! But it was very eye-opening.
Alice Chung 31:36
And that's kind of where the name comes from. And that's kind of what we wanted to show is that we are unapologetically Asian, because we can't apologize for how we look and our cultures and our food and all of that stuff. But Helen actually came up with this name because she was inspired by the film Crazy Rich Asians. Which, you know, it was such a cool film and beautiful, but specifically, and I'll share with you the quote. So the director, John Chu, wanted to use the Coldplay song "Yellow" for his film, and he was originally denied to get the rights for it. So he wrote a letter to Coldplay to persuade them. And this is what he said:
Alice Chung 32:47
"My whole life, I've had a complicated relationship with the color yellow, from being called the word in a derogatory way throughout grade school, to watching movies, where they call the cowardly people yellow. It's always been a negative connotation in my life. That is until I heard your song. For the first time in my life, it described the color in the most beautiful, magical ways I had ever heard. The color of the stars, her skin, the love. It was an incredible image of attraction and aspiration that made me rethink my own self image. We could reclaim the color for ourselves, and it has stuck with me for the majority of my life."
Alice Chung 33:31
And Helen read that and she thought of the title for the name of our organization. And that it, it just all made sense. His letter made sense to us. And because we all had those shared experiences, no matter what Asian culture or heritage you're from, whether you're Japanese or Filipino, like, it was most likely as an Asian American or any Asian living away from Asia, where you don't blend in. It was an experience that we all shared.
Suzanne Lis 34:16
Yeah, I was really struck by what you said about how this is the identity you have, this is the experience you have and that can be an experience of joy and connection, but also - Yeah, it can be very hard with things like the Atlanta shootings, and you wanted to talk about how you deal with your emotional reactions when something like that happens.
Alice Chung 34:41
Yes. So, in general, whether there is a crisis or not, I always tell my friends or what I would at least recommend is if you need a moment away from this art form, whether it's an hour, or a week or a month, or possibly even forever, we should be reevaluating, based on our mental state, because this art form, it asks for a lot, it asks for all of you, and then more. And people are demanding something from us constantly and without, you know, checking in on ourselves, without worrying about what our mental state might be. And this is crazy, but for someone who - I feel like this is crazy for someone to say, who has never actually had the privilege of going to a therapy session, but at leastI feel like - you know, we should be allowed, yes, hundreds and thousands of dollars have gone into what we do and our careers and our studies, but as humans, we are fully allowed, we have to give ourselves the permission to walk away for however long you need.
Alice Chung 36:16
And that was the pandemic for me. You know, it was a devastating loss for an entire industry. And there was so much sound on social media and for me, and, again, this is not a judgement, because I don't know how people did it, but I simply could not sing. I felt every part of my being told me that this is the time to be silent, let the people feel the loss. It was just something that I was not mentally prepared for, to be doing something while the pandemic was happening. The Black Lives Matter movement came up in a really big way. And so many of my community, whether I was aware of it at the time or not, were being harassed, or attacked. And then especially with these Atlanta shootings, it didn't surprise us. We were not shocked. It had been an almost an entire year of these attacks. But what I was afraid of was that this would inspire more violence. I feel like because of social media, because of cancel culture, we're so afraid to be honest. And that's not just me being included. That's also like any organizations, any companies, like people are so afraid of being canceled that one wrong word and like, no one will ever discuss you anymore. I'm not a fan of cancel culture, I don't think it should exist, because communication is the only way that we will ever think that was just something that I realized that I couldn't. I chose not to sing. And I chose to speak. I chose to write, I chose to create in many different ways that I didn't even realize that I could, because of the pandemic, because of these multiple crises that happened. And it's kind of nice. It's kind of nice to know that you have other possibilities. You have other avenues. I know people who have said, "this is the only thing I can do. I'm not talented in other regards. I wouldn't be able to do anything else." And I think they can.
Alice Chung 39:09
What has it been like getting back into singing? Because I saw that you won a competition. So it seems like it's slowly...glacially...picking up again.
Alice Chung 39:20
Yes, slowly, but surely. Um, you know, I'm very fortunate. When school started, of course, I got back to singing, because I had to continue to work on ourselves, time still flows no matter what. So this need to catch up, so to speak, has always been a part of me, especially because I don't have a degree in music. So I was very frantic when I was like younger going into grad school. Worried that I didn't know things, but I calmed down because I realized, "Oh, I'm actually okay."
Alice Chung 40:12
With the Cooper-Bing competition, they place a lot of importance on having an even playing field, and they knew the importance of singing in a theater, they knew the importance of not singing into directly into a condenser mic and in comparison to other competitions - I know people did what they could do - hopefully! It was amazing. They understood the point of this art form. The living human voice. So to be able to sing on stage, you know, with a live pianist. It was...I mean, it was bliss, it was everything. I forgot that, you know, it was still being pre-recorded and it was being filmed and it wasn't actually LIVE live. I forgot about it actually. And so a few bars into "Mon coeur," it just dawned upon me. I was like, "Oh wait, I only get one take. I should probably not make any 'mistakes.' protocol. So it was such a great experience and I'm eternally grateful for them and for the supporters and the donors. And I'm very well aware of the privilege that I have in comparison to most of my colleagues at the competition.
Suzanne Lis 41:57
What did you sing at the competition?
Alice Chung 42:01
I sang "Mon coeur" from Samson and Delilah and "Acerba volutta" for the second piece from Adriana Lecouvreur. And that particular day was special because I was the first one to record at 11am and my one rehearsal was at 10:30am for 15 minutes, and then I got a 15 minute break and then we recorded. And I remember being so concerned about having to wake up, or having my body be awake, you know, because it is, you know, we use our entire body to sing, and I woke up at 5am. Like, that was the plan. I woke up at 5am. In case of any allergies or anything like that I took some behind-the-counter Sudafed, which probably also helped me wake up. And, you know, did a little bit of stretching and yoga, after I'd done my hair, because I feel like that always takes the longest, the longest time, and..
Suzanne Lis 43:15
Your hair did look good!
Alice Chung 43:16
I had no idea what I was doing it was like, well, it's gonna go somewhere. And [the singing] got done and I was like, wow, I, this went better than I expected. Because I think because I gave myself enough time for my body to be awake. And I flew in a few days earlier, to make sure that I, no matter where I was, I could at least be somewhat acclimated to allergy season in that area, or anything like that.
Suzanne Lis 44:01
It's so nice when, like, your experience of singing aligns with the result you get. Where you think it goes well, and they also think you sang well.
Alice Chung 43:55
I know.
Suzanne Lis 44:01
Cause sometimes the two don't always match up.
Alice Chung 44:12
No, no, no, absolutely not, there are times when you feel like you sang terribly. But there are still people who loved it and who thought it was amazing, and like - And, you know, of course the opposite happens, which isn't as nice. But it is, it is nice for those things to line up and know that you're not crazy. We're not having like a moment. Yeah, for sure.
Suzanne Lis 44:40
Well thank you so much for taking the time to talk.
Alice Chung 44:45
Thank you for having me. This was so fun. I had a wonderful time talking about it.
Suzanne Lis 44:51
To learn more about Alice and Helen's initiative, you can visit wearyellowproudly.org - and Alice can be found on Instagram @chungyac. We'll close out the episode with "Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix" from Samson and Delilah by Saint-Saëns, which is one of the arias that Alice won the Cooper-Bing competition with. Thanks for listening, and until next time, take care of your voice, take care of your body, and be well.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai