An Upstate New York Community Connects through Myanmar’s Music

 
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An Upstate New York Community Connects through Myanmar’s Music

Andrew Borkowski, Director of Education, Buffalo String Works

12-03-2025

Members of Buffalo String Works pose together at the spring concert. Photo: BSW.

During the 2022-23 academic year, Buffalo String Works began asking the question: “How can we be more intentional about the music we’re asking our students to learn and perform?” Over the course of attempting to answer this question, the BSW Music Library Development Project was born—resulting in the commissioning and composition of a brand-new work for student string orchestra: “Aka” by Wai Hin Ko Ko.

BSW was founded in 2014 as an El Sistema-inspired organization that primarily served the immigrant and refugee population on the west side of Buffalo, NY, the majority of whom had emigrated from Myanmar due to severe political and cultural upheaval across the country. While the community we serve has since diversified, a core contingent of the students at our west side location remain closely tied to their Myanmar roots. Our repertoire library, however, did not reflect those ties; it included very little from Myanmar’s rich tradition of folk and ceremonial music. Many families, when asked about repertoire, expressed an interest in their kids learning more about this music.

In working to commission music that could be taught to and performed by students of all abilities, we found that two elements were especially important to include. One was the involvement of our student’s families, who have a vast musical knowledge from their countries of origin—something students may not necessarily have. We met with them and collected anything they were willing to share: recordings and YouTube links of popular and traditional music that we don’t know about, here in the U.S. We also felt it was important to involve the students in the composition process, increasing their buy-in and empowering them as co-authors of the story they would tell through performance.

Students rehearse together onstage while audience members take their seats for the debut of the new work “Aka.” Photo: BSW.

Through BSW colleagues, I was introduced to Wai Hin Ko Ko, a Burmese composer who was about to begin a PhD program in Composition at UC Berkeley in fall 2023. After meeting him and pitching the scope and dream of the project, as well as securing funding through a HumanitiesNY grant, our work began. During the next two years, Wai came to Buffalo from southern California several times to meet every student at all of our operating sites and hear their ideas—as well as to meet our students’ families, to learn about their histories. These visits also gave Wai a chance to learn about each student’s ability level, making sure everyone would be involved in some capacity. These sessions with Wai were wonderful to watch: the students offered the techniques and sounds they most liked making on their instruments; during potlucks we held for our families, they shared songs and recordings from their country that were meaningful to them. The folk songs Wai shared with the students were received with rapt fascination and curiosity.

As a result, “Aka” was born. Meaning “dance” in Burmese, “Aka” is a composition that weaves together many different traditional folk and ceremonial songs into a 20-minute composition that includes four sets of parts, to accommodate the abilities of each student. To prepare for instruction, we got all of our faculty together to play the parts they would later be teaching. This was a wonderful opportunity to make music with the teachers we work with every day, and it gave us a small window into the learning experience of our students, as we’d all seen the music for the first time earlier that day. Not only did it bring us closer as educators; it also gave us a chance to give Wai feedback before instruction began.

Enjoying a rare chance to make music together as educators certainly brought us closer. And, as the year went on, this became important for our students as well. Since our full teaching artist team played next to students in the final performance of “Aka,” students got to see their teachers—the individuals they’d been working diligently with over the course of the year—as peers in a collective music-making experience. It was thrilling, and magical, to share their joy.

The premiere performance of “Aka” showcases Buffalo String Works’ students playing alongside their teaching artists. Photo: BSW.

BSW’s premiere performance of “Aka” came as the final piece on the program in the last concert of the 2024–25 academic year. As nearly every BSW student sat on stage and our conductor raised his hands, I looked out at the audience to see countless phones in the air, each family hoping to capture the moment in any way possible. In that audience were board members, community members, families, and friends, all rising to their feet to celebrate these young players. Families later said they were humming along to melodies they hadn’t heard in decades, and that watching their students play this music brought back long-gone memories.

Through this project, everyone involved with BSW was welcomed in to celebrate and understand Myanmar’s cultural legacy. As a result, our connections—and our music library—are deeper and more personal. And we learned a lasting lesson: community is our most abundant resource. 

View Buffalo Strings Works students and faculty perform “Aka” on their YouTube channel.

Aka Composition, Andrew Borkowski, Buffalo String Works, Burmese Composer, Ceremonial Music, Collaborative Composition, Collective Performance, Community Celebration, Community Engagement, Cultural Legacy, Cultural Representation, December 2025, El Sistema, Family Involvement, Folk Music, Heritage Preservation, HumanitiesNY Grant, Immigrant Communities, Inclusive Pedagogy, Music Commissioning, Music Education, Music Library Development, Musical Diversity, Myanmar Heritage, Refugee Communities, Student Empowerment, Student Repertoire, Student Voice, Teacher Collaboration, Traditional Songs, UC Berkeley, Wai Hin Ko Ko

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