Performance: Mary Prescott's Lucent Ground

Lucent Ground, performance by Mary Prescott with Kengchakaj, conjures a folkloric sound experience unfolding from ancient Asian mythologies, and wonders of the natural and supernatural worlds. For voice, piano, percussion, electronics and video.

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Mary Prescott (creator, voice, piano, percussion, found sounds, video)

Mary Prescott is a Thai-American interdisciplinary artist, composer, and pianist who explores the foundations and facets of identity and social conditions through experiential performance. Her output includes several large-scale interdisciplinary works, improvised music, opera, sound journaling, film music, solo and chamber concert works. Featured in “21 for ‘21: Composers and Performers Who Sound Like Tomorrow,” The Washington Post describes Mary’s work as “a bright light cast forward... uncompromising,” and “masterfully envisioned.” Mary is an awardee of the McKnight Composer Fellowship, the Princess Grace Award, NPN Creation and Development Fund, a New Music USA Grant, and many more. Her recent residencies include Camargo, VCCA and Lanesboro Arts. Mary holds piano performance degrees from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, and Manhattan School of Music; and is a Steinway Artist.

Kengchakaj (collaborator, electronic processing, Thai-tuned Moog synthesizer)

Kengchakaj is a Bangkok-born, New York-based award-winning pianist, improviser, and electronics experimentalist. Kengchakaj’s practice engages with improvising sounds that draw inspiration from ancestral soundscapes, knowledge, and modes of collaboration and expression rooted in Southeast Asian tradition and lineage. He is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, a Fulbright Scholarship recipient, and a Gold Award Lumen Prize winner with Nitcha Tothong. Kengchakaj was a 2023-2024 CultureHub artist in residence, New Museum’s Y10 NEW INC member, Eyebeam Democracy Machine Fellow, Babycastles artist in residence, and participated in Nusasonic’s Common Tonalities project. His projects have received development funds from Queens Council on the Arts, City Artist Corps, Rhizome micro-grant, and Processing Foundation.