For orchestra
Commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic (Gustavo Dudamel, Music Director)
Featuring an original film by Alejandro González Iñárritu
Based on Judy Baca's mural "The Great Wall of Los Angeles" with support from the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC)
Designed by Judy Baca and painted with the assistance of over 400 community youth and artists, the Great Wall of Los Angeles depicts the history of California through the perspective of indigenous, immigrant, and minority communities who were essential in developing America into the country it is today. While visiting the mural, I was particularly struck by Gary Takamoto’s “Sojourners 1868” panel, which highlights Chinese laborers’ building of the transcontinental railroad. The panel illustrates the brutal physical labor the workers had to endure, often in severely exploitative conditions.
As an Asian American and a descendant of Indian immigrants, I was moved by how hard Asian immigrants worked to build the transcontinental railroad that enabled the country's westward expansion, only for them to soon be discriminated against through the Chinese Exclusion Act. I thought this was a parallel to today's immigrant experience, in which many immigrants struggle to be seen as American after moving to the West.
My piece Westbound is intended to be a "work song" inspired by the construction of the railroad, incorporating industrial "scratch" techniques in the strings, foot stomps, and metallic percussion to emulate construction sounds. The piece also incorporates Carnatic konnakol rhythms and Hindustani melodic figures drawing from my family's immigrant background and illustrating how deeply interwoven immigrant cultural traditions are within the fabric of American folk music. As the piece progresses, it incorporates air sounds and layered harmonies to simulate the sound of a train horn, symbolizing immigrants’ effort to push forward towards a better life.
An woman’s face sits in the middle of the Sojourners panel, and her eyes are longing but knowing, embedded with ancestral memory of the generations before her. The wear in her skin shows that she will do anything to help her family survive, and her gaze pointed forward embodies her hope for the future. Stories like hers are often silenced, and it is important to listen to these stories that are otherwise forgotten.
Many thanks to Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Judy Baca and the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), Mark McNeill, and Gabriela Ortiz for their work on this project and for commissioning this piece.
March 7th, 2026
LA Phil Presents "The Great Wall of Los Angeles"
Performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic (Gustavo Dudamel, conductor)
Featuring an original film by Alejandro González Iñárritu
Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, CA
