A Life in Musical Experimentation

If you’ve attended any of our Open Studios in the past year, chances are you’ve heard experimental tuba performances by Jonathan Piper, Ph.D., who has been a tenant at Space 4 Art since 2016.

October will be a busy month for Jonathan with four upcoming events:

Note that his Joshua Tree performance is part of the two-day experimental music festival High Desert Soundings, and the Best Practice concert will be the first installment of a new series called Sound Praxis.

Jonathan collaborates with a wide variety of artists. In addition to Codex Confiteor, he partners with Michelle Lou in go by land, Eric Derr in Company Culture, has an ongoing ad-hoc duo with fellow S4A resident musician Nick Lesley, plus an unnamed in-development project with Francis Roberts. He also performs with the Coronado Philharmonia and, every once in a while, even plays with Mara Kaye and the Second Wind Jug Band!

This husband and father of two— who also works as a software-as-a-service solutions architect —took a few moments out of his schedule to talk more about his music.

What is your educational background?

I earned a bachelor’s degree in Music Performance from UCLA. I studied with the legendary Tommy Johnson, who performed on more than 2,000 film soundtracks and taught generations of tubists, many of whom occupy top orchestral positions around the world. I went into UCLA imagining a career as an orchestral musician, but about halfway through started veering into more experimental and academic territory. After graduating, I went to UCSD to work on my master’s and doctoral degrees in Music. These degrees were under the Critical Studies/Experimental Practices (CS/EP) umbrella, which had been designed as an interdisciplinary program bringing together artists and scholars and combining academic areas like musicology, ethnomusicology, critical studies, cognitive science, and more. I zigged and zagged a bit through topics, but brought my scholarship back to the music I love and the ideas that drive me as a musician. The title of my dissertation pretty much sums it up: Locating Experiential Richness in Doom Metal.

How and when did you get started in music?

I grew up hearing music from my grandparents. My maternal grandfather sang music from the Greek Orthodox church, sometimes— especially later in his life —as if by instinct. My paternal grandmother had played piano in dance bands as a teen and shared standards and popular songs with us whenever we’d visit. I started piano lessons when I was four or five. I didn’t get that into it, but at that age it wasn’t exactly a choice! I really wanted to play trumpet in the school band, but my parents had already bought a clarinet for my older sister, so… I played the clarinet. My first chance to play the tuba was in sixth grade. Something about it clicked right away. I liked the way it felt, the way my body had to work to make it play, and the sounds it made. I ditched the clarinet and never looked back; the tuba was it for me.

What are your specialty areas in music?

I suppose my specialties are in the experimental/contemporary/improvisation nebula. I love the sound of the tuba played traditionally, but what motivates me personally is the challenge and fun of trying new things and finding new sounds. I also love exploring the combination of tuba and electronics, typically effects pedals.

What is most rewarding for you about your performances?

The moment of performance is this magical sliver of spacetime. It’s a flow state, a venue for radical transformation, a forum for communication, a safe environment for alternative experiences, and so much more. I feel like I’m able to pause the world around me and share something of myself, something I can’t possibly communicate through language, with a community, however temporary it might be. There’s something profoundly personal and vulnerable about it, which is both incredible and frightening.

What is most tricky for you about your performances?

Everything in performance— good and bad —happens in real time, in the act, in front of others and in a specific spacetime. This is particularly true in improvised music. It’s impossible to separate the actions and decisions of a performance from its setting— the venue, the audience, the lighting, the ambient sound, the smells, and everything else specific to that exact moment. Once the performance is over, it’s over and becomes a product of memory. Sometimes a recording can stand on its own as a thing unto itself worth experiencing, but even in that special case it’s simply not a recreation of the performance. I can revel in the ephemeral nature of performance after most gigs, but there are times when I desperately wish I could somehow go back.

To hear many samples of Jonathan’s music and learn more about his work, check out his website. Stay tuned for announcements about an upcoming project that he’s especially excited about. He’ll be curating and performing in an experimental brass concert for Project [Blank]’s Salty Series in February of 2024!

Space 4 Art