(sculpture echoing) (mallets tapping) - I just want it to be an experience.

Like if I were in the audience, what I would love to hear and be a part of musically and visually.

(sculptures echoing) (mallets tapping) Hi, I'm Andy Akiho, and I'm a classical composer and steel pannist.

(sculpture echoing) (mallets tapping) This got all these tabs sticking out and the tabs made different pitches.

(ominous music) - A lot of his music has a very visual aspect to it, but not in a gimmicky way.

He brings fun to classical music, he brings excitement, he brings something new.

When you hear Andy's music, you're like, "Oh my God, that was the spectacle of the show."

And people will talk about it, you know, after the show.

That is rare for modern composers.

(sculptures echoing) (mallets tapping) - [Andy] This project's been amazing.

I got to really work with the Omaha Symphony.

The sculptures is really like nine separate pieces in this suite that's honoring Jun Kaneko, the amazing visual artist.

Ree and Jun live in Omaha.

- [Jun] I want my sculpture to shake the air around them.

To stand just like they should be there.

(dramatic music) - I started writing a symphony inspired by these sculptures.

(sculptures echoing) (mallets tapping) And then it developed.

He's starting to tap on them a little bit and then it eventually became like me playing on these things and creating instruments.

(sculptures echoing) (mallets tapping) And Jun Kaneko playing them too.

Got him to hit a couple.

(sculptures echoing) (mallets tapping) (sculptures echoing) (mallets tapping) It's just been inspiring to make music out of these things.

Feels like they were made to sing.

(sculptures echoing) (mallets tapping) It's like they want to speak.

And it was fun bringing that out.

(sculptures echoing) (mallets tapping) (sculptures echoing) (mallets tapping) (light music) (mallets tapping) (light music) (mallets tapping) I kind of just like without a chord too though.

We'll do both.

We'll record both.

When I'm improvising for ideas for a new piece, if it's inspiring enough for me to be excited about, then I'll really push that idea.

Let's, yeah, let's do one.

Just the first chord.

Yeah, let's do that.

Or rework that idea and change it up, dress it up.

It's just three.

So four, the major seven, and then that crunch.

I've probably thrown away 99% of the things I experimented with.

I'm going to try one where I roll the the last roll just to have a different version.

Even if I'm just improvising with the sculptures, I can come up with something, but then to really sculpt it into a thorough composed narrative, I did that over several months.

Emmy, is that cool?

All right.

(dramatic music) When I'm writing, I like to get know the person so I feel the energy.

I can almost picture them performing it.

It's very intuitive.

I'm just trying to tell the story from the experience of working with them.

(dramatic music) (bright music) Some of my favorite places where my compositions been performed is at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center.

- [Narrator] Meet Andy Akiho, one of today's most in-demand composers.

- It was a cool experience to include the different steel bands I started out with, who really inspired me to grow as a musician.

So that was my whole life in New York for several years.

(Andy vocalizing) A lot of it's a mystery to me.

I don't have a specific way I compose every time, and that's good and bad.

I think it can be fun for innovation and creativity, but then it can be a challenge to make sure I'm efficient enough in getting the work done in time.

(laughs) (coffee grinder clanking) (steamer hissing) (mug clinks) I'll work in bars and clubs and coffee shops.

I like the urban lifestyle more.

If I get stuck on something mentally, I like to be in another place where I'm hearing a lot of people.

There's some kind of energy in the room when there's more people around.

I want like cars driving by.

I want the sound of the city.

(cityscape rumbling) It really helps me.

(cars roaring) I'm always working up to the wire, and the deadline is painful sometimes.

- Yeah, I've seen Andy stay up three, four nights in a row.

- If I'm working with the pan and the keyboard, I'll have a pillow there and I'll just work until I can't move anymore and then I might fall asleep for an hour or something.

(bright music) But a lot of times when I'm in the zone, there's no way I can fall asleep.

- Sometimes he'll go a couple days without food.

I have to remind him to drink water and eat.

When he does eat though, he can out eat anyone because he's burning so many calories in his brain when he's composing.

He doesn't compromise based on deadlines, so sometimes he'll be working on something, and I'll just be like, "Man, that sounds pretty good.

Let's just go with that, or," and he'll be like, "No, it's not right, it's not right."

And then he'll spend sometimes an entire night on one or two measures of music.

And then the next night he'll write like 10 pages.

- That's me and my sister.

I got into music from my sister Kay, 'cause she was a rock drummer in high school and she got me into drums when I was about eight or nine years old.

(light music) This, this is me, these three.

And then I got into drum line.

And then I got into steelpan in college.

I was very fortunate to go to Trinidad in 2002 and 2003.

See, this is how important steelpan is for the culture in Trinidad.

It's on the money.

I got to play with the steel orchestras down there, playing with the full steel orchestra.

Sometimes up to 116 members.

It was just an inspiring experience working with the big bands and having the energy doing it all by rote.

There was no sheet music.

Everybody's there until the middle of the night.

A lot of fun.

And that's definitely influenced a lot of my compositions throughout the years.

It's just been a journey.

I just like all kinds of music.

I love it all.

Classic rock and hip hop and rap, jazz and fusion, Caribbean music.

Later in life I got more into classical music and contemporary classical music.

(light music) (mallets tapping) So every time I rearrange 'em it would come out with different material.

So I got to be like decisive, (laughs) and figure out an arrangement.

(light music) (chopsticks tapping) (Andy laughs) I don't know.

(light music) (chopsticks tapping) These are very special chopsticks.

Or I find these a lot in Vietnamese restaurants, but I can't find 'em this heavy anymore.

The weight of these feel good.

They sound great on pan.

(objects echoing) (chopsticks tapping) And that was my manager's idea to have a conversation with Olympic ping pong players and orchestra.

(bright music) (ping pongs thudding) (bright music) (ping pongs thudding) And I thought it was ludicrous at first.

And then I was excited about the challenge of it and trying to make a fun piece.

(intense music) I wanted to make something that made sense musically and not just exploit the novelty of this idea.

I wanted to try to make something that was meaningful and that was fun for the audience and the musicians.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (ping pongs whooshing) - Everyone is just happy.

From kids all the way up to grandparents.

His overall joy and love for what he's doing, that's the most important thing.

And he just wants to share it with people.

I think people can really feel that.

- I'm always grateful for when I can share a new experience with the collaborators and with the audience.

That's something I've always dreamed of, you know?

(no audio) (no audio) (bright music) - [Narrator] Oregon Art Beat shares the stories of Oregon's amazing artists, and member support completes the picture.

Join us as a sustaining member at opb.org/video.

(bright music ends)