Fred Ho: Revolutionary Man

Fred Ho photo: Jack Mitchell

"I make no separation between my social consciousness and heritage with my artistic and political choices and activity," says composer Fred Ho whose Josephine Baker's Angels from the Rainbow, written for the Imani Winds wind quintet, premiered March 18th at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. (The work was commissioned by Meet The Composer's Commissioning Music/USA 2003)

Inspired by American singer/performer Josephine Baker, who left for France in the 1920s to become an international sensation and, later, a political and social activist, composer Fred Ho's Angels takes its title from the adopted family of multi-ethnic children who lived with her in the 1950s at Les Milandes, her French estate in Castelnaud-Fayrac; she often referred to them as "The Rainbow Tribe." As with Mr. Ho, Ms. Baker was no stranger to politics; in addition to fighting for the rights of African-Americans, she was an honorable correspondent for the French Resistance (undercover work included smuggling secret messages written on her music sheets).

Mr. Ho, an Asian-American, is the leader of the Afro-Asian Music Ensemble and the Monkey Orchestra. He has received many awards including the McKnight Foundation Composer Fellowship and Residency Award; three Rockefeller Foundation Multi-Arts Project grants; and two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships. A longtime activist in the Asian American community, Mr. Ho helped to found the East Coast Asian Student Union, the Asian American Resource Workshop, AsianImprov Records, and the Asian American Arts Alliance.

MTC: How did the Josephine Baker project come about?
FH: I have always had it in mind to do a suite about Josephine, not a biographical portrait, but something that captured and conveyed the essence and imagination of who she was: as transgressor, sexual rebel, a performer who truly cared about freedom, democracy and equality and committed herself to these principles even at great risk and sacrifice to her career. Would that today's artists have such daring boldness and convictions!
MTC: Not many know of the activist side of Josephine Baker. Could you explain?
FH: After she left the States for France in the 1920s, she aided the French underground during World War II against Nazi fascism, doing benefit shows and raising troop morale, but more importantly she served as an intelligence courier and international ambassador to mobilize public opinion in support of the French underground resistance led by Charles DeGaulle at a time when many heads of state were reluctant to get involved or to side against Germany. In the 1950s she adopted a dozen orphans of various nationalities and races and lived with them in a chateau in southwestern France. She also became a champion for black civil rights as the first performing artist to insist upon a non-discrimination clause in all of her contracts to challenge segregated theaters and to integrate audiences. She would not perform unless management agreed to allow black patrons to attend her shows. She actively crusaded against racist violence, legal frame-ups against blacks and exclusionary admittance policies in restaurants and theaters. She and singer-actor-activist Paul Robeson were the vanguard in African American activist-artists. And both suffered considerable rebuke and professional sacrifices for their courage and commitment.

"I just happen to be explicitly engaged in trying to create a society free of oppression, exploitation and oligarchic domination"

MTC: What message are you trying to convey with Angels?
FH: I hope to convey and evoke the bold, colorful and passionate spirit of Josephine Baker, and her vision of our global human family, shown by her compassion for the world's children.
MTC: How would you describe yourself as a composer?
FH: Because I am self-taught, I was spared the cultural indoctrination of Eurocentric conservatory training or being instructed to follow in a teacher's footsteps or methods. I am a new music, experimental composer whose roots and cultural-musical sources of inspiration are from the majority of the world; of the Asian and African Diaspora.
MTC: What is Afro-Asian music?
FH: It is music that explores and evokes the connectivity of music from the African and Asian musical traditions; though in my particular case, also seeks to project such exploration and evocation to inspire unity among such oppressed peoples. Few scholars, funders, impresarios, critics and other gate keepers fail to recognize that an Afro-Asian experimental new music activity paralleled and preceded the commonly conceived and promoted new music field.
MTC: Is there a distinction between Fred Ho-composer, and Fred Ho-activist?
FH: I make no separation between my social consciousness and heritage with my artistic and political choices and activity. I DON'T see my music as a function of making a career, of solipsistic self-expression or of hermetic and apolitical aesthetic production.
MTC: As a socially conscious artist, do you see music as a tool for change?
FH: All human beings are social except those who have opted to become hermits or total recluses. Their activity in society both reflects their social positionality as well as, if they don't create in a closet, an impact upon an audience, therefore a social impact. Their training, their influences, their choices, their ability to make money, etc. is all a function of their position and role in society. I just happen to be explicitly engaged in trying to create a society free of oppression, exploitation and oligarchic domination. Music, and this may sound trite and banal, stirs emotions, the intellect and the imagination. And if we as artists can have an impact that increases the possibilities for compassion, resistance to bull****, hype and lies, and an imagination and desire for brother/sisterhood and love for our planet's ecological health, then all power to us! If all we want is to make careers, to get over, to increase our consumerist consumption, to become celebrities, etc., then we are simply mediocre and mainstream by being so typically predictable and banal in the aspirations we place upon our art.