The renowned trumpeter and newly appointed UW professor of music joins with composer/drummer Qasim Naqvi in presenting the world premiere of Talk Show, a renegade experiment in music, theatre, and performance. With theatre direction by Chi-Wang Yang and video design by Jeff Larson—newly appointed faculty at the UW School of Drama.
Program
Talk Show (World Premiere)
Tuesday April 22, 2025 7:30p, Meany Hall
Created by: Steph Richards, Chi-wang Yang, Jeff Larson, Qasim Naqvi
Featuring: Steph Richards (trumpet, flugelhorn, water, resonating percussion), Qasim Naqvi (analog synthesizers, drumset), Cole Mckittrick (sandwich guy), Natalie Song (projectiles)
Directed by: Chi-wang Yang
Video Design: Jeff Larson
Video Programming: Nick O’Leary
Edgy, irreverent, and darkly humorous, Talk Show draws inspiration from the sensationalized and often surreal narratives of '80s daytime television—stories at once grotesque, operatic, and unsettlingly familiar—the piece evokes a hypnotic sense of disquiet. Much like the experience of scrolling through today’s relentlessly absurd and chaotic headlines, Talk Show captures a cultural moment where the lines between reality and spectacle blur, holding our attention even as it disturbs. Through its incisive synthesis of sound, image, and stagecraft, the work offers a striking reflection of the times in which we live.
The composition employs analogue synthesis to process and transform audio material sourced from vintage talk shows. These sonic elements are reflected, refracted, and manipulated to create a disorienting yet richly musical landscape. The trumpet engages in a similar dialogue of transformation, performed into resonant objects such as timpani, snare drums, and vessels of water—each responding sympathetically to the instrument’s vibrations without electronic manipulation. These resonances are then re-amplified, employing processes of reflection, resonance, and refraction to shape the acoustic texture.
A roaming live camera functions as a third member of the ensemble, capturing real-time footage from the stage, audience, and backstage areas. These images are layered with archival graphics and visual motifs drawn from 1980s talk show Sally Jessy Raphael, creating a visually immersive and temporally fractured environment. The stage itself is laid bare—without curtains, masking, or scenic scaffolding—exposing the performers in a state of raw vulnerability and inviting the audience into a space where spectacle and intimacy collide.
Incubated at UW with faculty Steph Richards (School of Music), Chi-wang Yang and Jeff Larson (School of Drama) and musician/composer Qasim Naqvi, this project investigates innovative forms of making through experimentation and creative interdisciplinary faculty, student and alumni collaboration. Traversing boundaries of form and genre, Talk Show is sonically adventurous as it is theatrically provocative.
Acknowledegments
This collaboration could not have happened without the brilliant creative help of Eric Cho, Video Graphics Editor, and Teia O'Malley, Puppet Fabrication and the Meany production team. Additional special thanks to Jennifer Law and Tres Tracy Ballon.
Biographies
Qasim Naqvi is a drummer, composer, producer and one of the founding members of the group Dawn of Midi. The band’s most recent album “Dysnomia,” which has recently been re-released on the UK-based label Erased Tapes, has received worldwide acclaim. “Dysnomia” has been featured in The New Yorker’s year-end list of best albums, NPR’s year end list of best albums, Rolling Stone Magazine, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork Magazine, Radiolab, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Spin Magazine, The Wall Street Journal and other publications.
When he is not touring with DOM, he composes music for film, dance, theater and chamber ensembles both domestically and abroad. Qasim's soundtracks and arrangements for film have appeared on HBO, NBC, PBS, The Sundance Channel, The New York Times, The Tribeca Film Festival, The Academy Awards, The Sundance Film Festival, dOCUMENTA 13 and others. He has written works for the yMusic Ensemble, Now Ensemble, The Loos Ensemble, The New Century Players, The Contemporary Music Ensemble of NYU and Nimbus Dance Works. Future collaborations for 2016 include premieres for Yarn and Wire, The London Contemporary Orchestra, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Tigue and others. He has completed fellowships at Harvest Works, Art Omi, Akademie Schloss Solitude and Steim. Awards include grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts and Chamber Music America. Qasim holds a Bachelors Degree in Performance from Mannes College of Music (1999) and a Masters Degree in Composition and Performance from the California Institute of the Arts (2008). He studied composition with Wolfgang Von Schweinitz, James Tenney, Michael Jon Fink, Anne LeBaron and Marc Sabat. Qasim is also on faculty at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. He currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Steph Richards is a dynamic improvisor and composer renowned for her innovative approach to the trumpet and her interdisciplinary artistic practice. Described by The New York Times as “boldly inventive,” Richards has forged a unique creative path that bridges avant-garde experimentation with broad artistic collaboration.
Her work spans a wide array of disciplines, incorporating film, poetry, electronics, choreography, and more. Her acclaimed 2019 album Supersense—featuring renowned improvisers Jason Moran, Stomu Takeishi, and Kenny Wollesen—includes a collaboration with multimedia artist Sean Raspet, who created abstract scents designed to interact with the music, resulting in a multisensory listening experience. Her recordings have earned critical accolades, including “Record of the Year” honors from both The New York Times and DownBeat.
Richards’ musical language has been shaped through collaborations with visionary artists such as Henry Threadgill, Anthony Braxton, Muhal Richard Abrams, and John Zorn, as well as art-pop luminaries Yoko Ono, St. Vincent, David Byrne, and Laurie Anderson. As an improviser, she has performed alongside leading voices in jazz and experimental music, including Ravi Coltrane, Roscoe Mitchell, Mary Halvorson, and Jeff Parker. Her work as a conductor, inspired by Butch Morris’ concept of “Conduction,” has led her to direct orchestras internationally.
In addition to her solo work, Richards has been an integral part of numerous ensembles, premiering hundreds of new works. She is a founding member of Bang on a Can’s Asphalt Orchestra and a frequent collaborator with groups such as the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Anthony Braxton’s Tricentric Orchestra, and Henry Threadgill’s Kestra. She has also performed with the Kronos Quartet and worked with prominent composers including Nico Muhly, Tyondai Braxton, and John Luther Adams, as well as the late interdisciplinary artist Mike Kelley and choreographers Paul Taylor, Susan Marshall, David Dorfman, and the Merce Cunningham Company.
Richards has served on faculties at the University of California, San Diego, the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music, and the Chosen Vale Trumpet Seminar. She has earned degrees from the Eastman School of Music (BMus, Performers Certificate), McGill University (MMus) and the California Institute of the Arts (MA). She recently joined the faculty at the University of Washington where she continues to champion interdisciplinary and experimental work. Richards is a Yamaha Performing Artist.
Chi-wang Yang is a theater director, interdisciplinary artist, and educator. Whether in the form of plays, operas, concerts or installation; his work is physical, experimental, and collaborative. He is committed to expanding notions of identity and theatrical form and to exploring strange encounters of body, emotion and technology.
He is a founding member and co-artistic director of video performance collective Cloud Eye Control. His work has been presented internationally at theaters, museums, and festivals including REDCAT, SFMoMA, Fusebox Festival, PICA TBA, San Francisco International Film Festival, EXIT Festival (France), Santiago a Mil (Chile), Manipulate (Scotland), Havana Film Festival, and the Edinburgh Fringe. Recent projects include directing the world premiere of Scene with Cranes written by Octavio Solis.
Prior to UW, Yang taught at the California Institute of the Arts, School of Theater where he also served as Associate Artistic Director of the CalArts Center for New Performance. He received his MFA in Theater Directing and Integrated Media at the California Institute of the Arts, and his BA from Brown University. Other training includes the SITI Company (NYC and Skidmore).
He is the recipient of the Princess Grace George C. Wolfe Theater Award for Directing, as well as a recipient of the MAP Fund, New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), National Theater Project Grant, and National Performance Network (NPN), Creation Fund Grant.
JEFF LARSON is a designer, educator and curator of live and mediated performance. A long time collaborator with Big Dance Theater, with whom he won a Bessie Award, Jeff’s design work has been featured have been featured at venues including: the Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York Live Arts, The Kitchen, Jacob’s Pillow, Walker Arts Center, MCA (Chicago), Berkeley Rep and internationally in Berlin and throughout France. He was the co-curator of the Obie-Award winning CATCH! performance series. Jeff has taught at NYU’s Department of Design for Stage and Film, the Theatre Department at Hamilton College before moving to UW