Since 2013, I have been using air packaging as my creative playground for both sonic and visual realms. This overall ongoing project is entitled Breath, Contained as I attempt to release the ‘voice’ of this mundane object without popping (well, only on rare occasions…) My output using bubble wrap ranges from composed works to free improvisation to sound installations; please scroll down for more information.

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Breath, Contained

Breath Contained I, II, and III are works created for increasingly large forces.

Breath, Contained III

Concerto for bubble wrap and chamber orchestra (2023)

Commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation for Contemporaneous, featuring me as the soloist

Breath, Contained II

Quintet for five players and live electronics (2015)

Breath, Contained I

Solo with live electronics (2013/16)

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Improvisation

I perform as a free improviser on air packaging with or without other musicians.

Venues where I have played include:

Café OTO (London)

Hundred Years Gallery (London)

Guarneri Hall (Chicago)

Stony Island Arts Bank (Chicago)

Bar Argos (Ithaca)

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Up High

A collaboration with Zachary Good

Commissioned by Ear Taxi Festival 2021

Up High is an installation and concert-length work created and performed by clarinetist/ composer Zachary Good and bubble wrapper/composer Tonia Ko. Developed over a two-year long-distance collaboration, Tonia and Zach confront their mutual fear of heights by staging a physical and sonic cliff. The premiere takes place on the ninth floor penthouse of the Logan Center for the Arts, a somewhat monolithic tower in Hyde Park. The two perform on top of large isolated pedestals wearing bubble wrap jackets custom-made by Lia Kohl, juxtaposing the insecurity of height with the “protection” of air packaging.

With sound, Tonia and Zach construct a steep terrain of extreme lows and highs — from the lowest note on the contrabass clarinet (a pedal B-flat) to the white noise of rubbed bubble wrap and whistle tones of a sopranino recorder. Instruments are close-mic’d and amplified against a scaffolding of heavy electronics and shifting light to create an immersive experience, assisted by lighting/sound engineer Zach Moore. Small objects gradually begin to fall, traversing this emotional and literal space. Accumulating drops become a brilliant and percussive downpour. What emerges is a meditation on the dichotomies of fear and acceptance, distance and closeness, dyads and unisons.

 Up High is a visceral dreamscape.

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Visual / Sound Art