MeMoSa: to name, to breathe, to feel, to live
Student Artist-in-Residence che ali presents: to name, to breathe, to feel, to live
Dates: Thursday, April 23rd
Doors Open 7:00 PM, Showing 7:30 - 8:15 PM, Q&A 8:30 - 9:00 PM
Location: The Movement Lab (Barnard College, Milstein Lower Level LL020)
To name, to breathe, to feel, to live emerges from my ongoing exploration of the violin’s connection to humanness—particularly voice, identity, restraint, and vulnerability. In conceiving this work, I reflected on my evolving identity as a queer person over time. This led me to consider the somatic experiences tied to certain events, actions, emotions, and I became fascinated with the internal and external conflicts they provoke.
Much of the musical material emerged from describing sensations through color, texture, and physical states—words like “rumbling,” “choked,” “tightness in the throat,” or the feeling of "flying and floating.” I was interested in how these sensations could exist together.
I also see parallels between my violin practice and my queer experience. Classical training instilled rigid ideas about how one "should" play the violin, often disregarding the body and personal autonomy. In this work, I asked myself: What feels good to play? What feels cathartic? What makes me feel powerful? I sought to honor and expose the physicality of playing, allowing my body to guide the process. The improvisatory nature of this work helps me tune into that more intentionally. Additionally, using my voice—something I’ve long been reluctant to incorporate—became an integral part of getting close to myself.
Through exposure and vulnerability, this piece becomes an act of healing and empowerment for me.
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To visit, please RSVP at least 24 hours before the event. We will coordinate your entry through the main campus entrance (3009 Broadway).
Visitors with active Barnard/Columbia IDs have automatic campus access.
che ali (a.k.a, Che Buford) is an experimental interdisciplinary artist based in new york city. che primarily performs and creates music as a violinist and composer while also integrating objects, voice, movement, and poetry. their practice often deals with themes around memory, place, the quotidian, humaness through a somatic lens, while in dialogue with poetic possibility and conceptual inquiry. their work is deeply interested in the exposure of timbral details, resonance, introspection, interiority, and starkness, realized through improvisational performance, acoustic and electroacoustic sound worlds.
che has collaborated with artist’s such as Adama Delphine Fawundu, Deborah Jack, Torsten Lang, Dafna Naphtali & James Ilgenfritz. They have received commissions from Midori, The Museum of Modern Art, icarus Quartet, Castle of our Skins, Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy, and others.
che holds a bachelor's degree in violin performance from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. they are currently a DMA candidate at Columbia University in music composition where they've studied with Marcos Balter, George Lewis, Zosha Di Castri, and Georg Friedrich Haas. che enjoys taking long walks, eating and cooking plant based food, thrifting, and traveling.
Photo Credit: Titilayo Ayangade