| Michiko Saiki will be performiing at Grounds next week. (Photo: J.D. Pooley/Sentinel-Tribune) |
Michiko Saiki really doesn’t want to say too much about "Have You Seen That
Girl?" the performance she will present Thursday at 7 p.m. at Grounds for
Thought in downtown Bowling Green.
It involves a white dress, a white ribbons, color ribbons and Velcro.
Though she is a musician the only sounds will be those that arise naturally as the
performance continues.
Saiki is in the first year of her masters program in piano performance at Bowling
Green State University where she studies with Dr. Laura Melton.
In that context she plays music by the masters, favoring the impressionistic works of
Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.
But the side of her artistic personality on display at the coffee shop more reflects
her interest in the art of philosopher, artist and composer John Cage and
performer Yoko Ono.
"I really like John Cage and Yoko Ono. I always wanted to create some kind of
performance like that," she said.
The performance will involve a change. In a way "the audience will be sneaking
into my life," she said, and taking something away with them.
Saiki grew up in Japan, and started off playing piano, though she said she wasn’t a
very serious student.
When she was in high school, one of the most competitive in Japan, she was in a rock
band playing guitar and singing and writing her own songs.
She was happy she said to be able to write words that spoke to listeners and
questioned society.
She didn’t want to be trapped in any one genre. She wanted to be a rock singer, and
told her parents as much.
They were taken aback.
Despite playing piano, bass, guitar and drums, "I didn’t have any type of
knowledge about music."
Her father suggested maybe she could go to the United States where jazz was taught in
colleges. That was the compromise. She came to America to study jazz voice.
But since she had so little musical grounding, she ended up a the small state school
in Oklahoma, Northeastern State University. But the college didn’t have a jazz
vocal major. Otherwise "the jazz program was great."
She liked the piano teacher so she majored in piano and heard a number of top
performers who visited campus.
Saiki was attracted to BGSU because of is strong connection to new music. Still what
she’s doing with her performance art is "very different."
Each piece she has been performed is strikingly different.
In the first she had another Japanese speaker joined her and repeated phrases about
the weather in their native tongue. Their phrases overlapped and slowly changed.
Another performance involved blowing bubbles and then making sounds when the bubbles
popped.
In both cases "half the people got uncomfortable, and that was good."
"If I only have good comments… then I’m not challenging the audience
enough."
