Alamosa News | The vision, the voice, the gift of Lisa Kori

She will perform at Society Hall on 26 June

ALAMOSA – The photo on the “Daughter of the American West” promotional poster captures the expansive spirit of singer-songwriter Lisa Kori’s music in a single image.

Against a rich, deep red background (a significant color in China and Japan), the striking woman of East Asian descent wears the iconic symbols of Western culture and music. Black cowboy hat. Black cowboy boots. A look that speaks of independence and strength. Yet even though she is wearing a Chinese silk dress, she is also surrounded by Chinese porcelain and pieces of Japanese ceramics.

The message is clear. Listen carefully. There is more to discover here.

On Wednesday, June 26, Santa Fe-based musician Kori will take the stage with a full band at Society Hall to present “Daughter of the West – Songs of Chinatowns, Japanese plantation workers and the Old West,” an original project inspired by the history and musical contributions of Asian Americans in the American West.

Anyone who listens to Kori’s music will be captivated. Her songs embody the soulful substance and style of country and folk, but there is something else in the music, another element that is new yet familiar, different yet the same, adding fullness and texture to a familiar sound.

For those who know her story, none of this is a surprise. Even as a little girl, Kori had a unique vision of herself, her life, and ultimately her ancestors.

Kori was born in Hawaii because her parents were windsurfing there at the time. She was the only child of free-spirited parents who were “the black sheep” of the family.

“They lived for skiing and surfing and had a really adventurous attitude where they followed their hearts,” she says. “That wasn’t very common in Asian American culture, and I feel very blessed that I was raised in a way that allowed me to follow my own path that makes me happy. Very blessed.”

When she was young, her small family moved to Ashland, Oregon, a cultural mecca for galleries and the performing arts. Although her parents had no interest in music—in fact, they sold their entire music collection when she was young—Kori began taking piano lessons at age eight and “almost immediately, before I could even read music, I started writing my own songs.”

Growing up, she “didn’t have much access to anything” like movies or more specifically music, which led her to create her own music for the most part. It was a solitary pursuit. At some point during these early years, she also started playing folk guitar.

As Kori’s piano skills grew, her talent became more apparent. When she entered high school, she was mentored by a well-known concert pianist and began entering competitions, as well as playing regularly in orchestras around town.

In high school, Kori decided she wanted to attend the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, one of the most prestigious music schools in the country. However, financially, that wasn’t an option. During her senior year of high school, she spent six months teaching herself how to compose chamber music, missed weekend dates with friends, skipped prom, and was basically a high school kid.

“When I was in high school, it was a big sacrifice, missing parties and proms and all that. But when I have a creative idea of ​​what I want to do, I’m willing to work really hard,” she says.

Kori originally wanted to be a concert pianist, but then switched to composition. Although she was better at it, it still let her down because she knew that what she composed “nobody would hear.”

With a seeker’s heart, Kori changed her major to “New Media” – electronic music, art, and film. This eventually led to her receiving a scholarship that allowed her to study electronic music and sound art in fifteen countries around the world and supported her in documenting the artists she encountered.

When listening to Kori’s story, it’s easy to believe that each step takes her further into an unknown place yet to be discovered. But once you learn how her story ends – at least so far – it becomes even clearer that the further Kori traveled, the closer she became to herself.

As she had done before, when she had literally “worked herself sick,” Kori became chronically ill and, due to a series of circumstances, ended up living away from civilization in New Mexico.

At first there was “so much brown and no green anywhere,” but gradually she began to get a stronger sense of where she was. “There’s still a sense of wilderness there, like it’s on the edge of the known world. It’s the frontier of the American imagination with very old customs and ways of life.”

When you’re surrounded by a sense of history embedded in everything you see, it draws a person’s thoughts to their own history. When Lisa Kori received some photographs of previous generations in her family who “looked just like cowboys with big hats and boots,” she embarked on a different kind of journey: a journey into her past that enriched her present.

She writes: “As a musician of Japanese and Chinese descent with a love of folk music, I have wondered what songs my Chinese ancestors brought with them to the United States when they emigrated during the Gold Rush, and what songs my Japanese ancestors sang when they worked on the sugar plantations of Hawaii. I wonder how hard the Chinese worked building the railroads and wish I could hear their work songs. Why didn’t their music become part of the landscape?”

Kori may not be able to answer the “why” of this question, but with her own creations and compositions she answers other questions that she has asked herself.

“My music imagines what it would sound like if elements of Japanese and Chinese music had become a natural part of American roots music.”

“Daughter of the West” is not a tribute to the past, but in many ways an allusion to the present and the future. “It is a collection of songs about Asian-American hopes and dreams.”

And since Kori can’t take those of us who love her music out into the world, she brings the world to those who are just waiting to discover her music.

On Wednesday, June 26, Kori will perform at Society Hall. This concert was made possible by a grant from Howlin’ Dog Music Group, an Alamosa-based nonprofit whose members believe in the power of collective action to find new and sustainable ways to support the music we love.

Society Hall is located at the corner of 4th Street and Ross Avenue in Alamosa. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the box office or online at www.societyhall.org.