Toronto composer hears music in subway sounds

CBC News
Toronto composer So Jeong Ahn debuts a musical piece at Toronto's Glenn Gould Studio on Friday that incorporates the sounds of the subway.

Ahn, who lives near the Finch subway station in north Toronto, said she finds sounds such as the movement of trains, the wind in the tunnels and the door chimes of Toronto's transit system to be musical.

"Everything was an inspiration to me," she told CBC News.

Her work combines the sound of woodwinds, string instruments and percussion with sounds of the TTC.

"The subway is to me a kind of jewelry box that contains a variety of sounds. It is the music of communications between the Toronto subway and my own musical language," the composer told CBC News.

Sub, her homage to the TTC, is one of five works by little-known composers premiering as part of New Music Concerts series.

The evening will also feature compositions by Chris Paul Harman, Alice Ping Yee Ho, Rodney Sharman and Juan Trigos.

Ahn manipulates the TTC sounds, which she says represent Toronto's changing mosaic.

"It is my own experience and I want to express this and convey my experience to other people and share," she said.

The concert will be broadcast on CBC Radio 2's The Signal next Tuesday.