4Culture is pleased to announce Ishquoh: Where Sounds Meet, a site-responsive musical work by Byron Au Yong happening October 14th, 2006 at 5pm in downtown Issaquah, in a traveling performance along the train tracks from Dogwood and Front Street to the Issaquah Train Depot at 50 Rainier Boulevard North, Issaquah.

Au Yong’s Ishquoh is presented as part of SITE-SPECIFIC/2006 King County Performance Network, a series of site-specific art happenings, taking art out of theaters, museums and galleries, and integrating it into the daily life, work and play of King County residents. Site-specific art happenings--art performances, installations or events created in direct and specific response to their locale--are scheduled to take place in communities in King County from now through December 2006 as part of SITE-SPECIFIC.

Cellist Amos Yang accompanies a chorus of cedar, rock and water sounds in a musical ceremony where singers search for the sound of birds alongside Issaquah's historic railroad tracks. Inspired by the name Ishquoh -- which means the sound of waterfowl taking flight as translated from Lushootseed, a Coast Salish language -- Au Yong creates a 21st century ceremony on coal mining tracks from the 19th century, amidst the timeless natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest. Children from Issaquah will sing and perform with rocks, water, and cedar. Joining them in performance is award-winning cellist Amos Yang. Together, they search for a sound called Ishquoh.

Au Yong explains his work, "I live in a country where people dream of finding a peaceful home. Issaquah has many new houses and residents including my cousins. When I visit them, I wonder, 'Will I hear the sound of Ishquoh?"

Ishquoh is composed and directed by composer/director Byron Au Yong, working in collaboration with music teacher Betsy Baeskins and costume designer Michelle Kumata. Au Yong has had work performed internationally at the Jeonju Sanjo Festival in South Korea, the Fukuoka Gendai Hogaku Festival in Japan, and the Hochschule fur Musik und Theater Hamburg in Germany. Seattle projects include Piao Zhu: Flying Bamboo created for the Seattle Asian Art Museum, Surrender: A T'ai Qi Cantata premiered by The Esoterics, and YIJU: Songs of Dislocation presented at the Jack Straw New Media Gallery. Following Ishquoh, Au Yong travels to Japan to perform at the Tokyo Art Museum designed by architect Tadao Ando. Seattle Symphony cellist Amos Yang has performed as soloist and chamber musician in major concert halls throughout the world, including the Aspen Music Festival, the American Academy in Rome, and Alice Tully Hall. Yang's awards include the Eastman School of Music's highest honor, the Performer's Certificate, and first prizes in both the American String Teacher's Association and Grace Vamos competitions. Yang holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School of Music.

A unique collaboration between 4Culture, King County Local Arts Agencies (LAA’s), and King County performing artists, the King County Performance Network was created in 1997 to link contemporary artists and organizations with suburban arts commissions and councils, their performance venues, and their audiences. For the past eight years, the King County Performance Network has brought contemporary performances to theater venues in suburban communities throughout King County. In 2005, the Network began a two-year focus on site-specific performances, taking contemporary art out of the theater, and integrating it into the daily life, work and play of suburban audiences.

The successful 2005 SITE-SPECIFIC season featured 15 artists commissioned to create site-specific performances for 19 communities—including Printer’s Devil Theatre’s The IKEA Cycle at IKEA in Renton; SuttonBeresCuller’s There Goes the Neighborhood, a mobile living room that traveled to venues throughout King County; and other performances in shopping malls, libraries, coffee shops, parking lots and public parks throughout King County.

The SITE-SPECIFIC/2006 King County Performance Network features artists Byron Au Yong, BQ Dance, Donald Fels in collaboration with Washington Ensemble Theatre, Liz Erber, Megan Murphy, Molten Vocals, Lucia Neare, Subhashini Santhanam, The Sophisticates, Spectrum Dance Theater, SuttonBeresCuller, Teresa Thuman, Amy-Ellen F. Trefsger, Stokley Towles, Kristen Tsiatsios, and Greg Williamson and the Pony Boy Big Band. Happenings will occur in more than a dozen King County communities, including Auburn, Bellevue, Burien, Duvall, Enumclaw, Issaquah, Kent, Redmond, Seattle, Shoreline-Lake Forest Park, Vashon and more.

Ishquoh is presented by Issaquah Arts Commission, as part of 4Culture’s SITE-SPECIFIC/2006 King County Performance Network. SITE-SPECIFIC/2006 King County Performance Network is funded through 4Culture’s King County Lodging Tax Fund, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

More information about SITE-SPECIFIC and 4Culture programs is available online at www.4culture.org, or by calling 206 296.7580.