UIW Faculty Member Showcases Original Musical Film Phoenix Fire

The University of the Incarnate Word’s Department of Music nurtures quality musicianship in all of its students. With a department community composed of music therapists, music educators, composers, performers and more, everyone is “dedicated to supporting students as they strengthen their technique, deepen their talent and expand their musical universe” (uiw.edu). One of the department’s notable faculty members is Dr. Kevin Salfen, Department of Music’s associate dean and professor.

Since joining UIW in 2011, Salfen has been dedicated to uplifting aspiring musicians and has been involved in a number of projects that have both maintained and expanded the opportunities offered by the music department.

Last year, Salfen had the opportunity to host a private screening of his musical film titled Phoenix Fire, which focuses on the failed 1940 and successful 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Phoenix Fire is the film version of a work that Salfen originally intended for the stage. In the original version, he blended Japanese Noh, a traditional theater form with medieval origins, with contemporary concert music. This film adaptation uniquely adds a visual component to the original artistry.

The idea of the piece first began in 2016, when Salfen thought it would be interesting to compose two Nohs that reflected the successes and failures of different iterations of the  Tokyo-hosted Olympics.

“The story ended up being driven by two characters,” explained Salfen. “The first is Kanô Jigorô, the founder of modern judô, who was central to the effort to bring the Olympics to Japan in 1940. That effort failed, of course, because of the military escalation in Japan leading up to World War II. The second character is Ichikawa Kon, one of the major Japanese filmmakers of the twentieth century. Ichikawa made Tokyo Olympiad, the documentary about the 1964 Tokyo Games, the firstever held in an Asian country. Phoenix Fire concludes with a dance (with sung narration) – a sort of ‘highlight reel’ of the 1964 Games – performed by a Universal Athlete beyond gender, nation or ethnicity.”

In the following years, Salfen  continued to compose and develop the piece. Phoenix Fire was intended to be performed in March 2020 by the international performing ensemble Theatre Nohgaku, during its international tour in San Antonio, Tokyo and Kumamoto. The ensemble included eight UIW students, and the tour was to coincide with the University’s first study-abroad program to Japan. Unfortunately, Phoenix Fire’s tour never came to fruition in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Two weeks before we were supposed to fly to Japan, we were told that the tour had to be canceled because of COVID,” recalled Salfen. “Here we were, planning to perform a work partly about the cancellation of the 1940 Olympics due to a catastrophic global event, and we were witnessing an eerie echo of it in 2020. At first, we tried to delay the premiere tour (and linked study-abroad program) by a year, but as the COVID lockdown era stretched on, we finally had to let the idea of a premiere tour go.”

Despite the setback, Salfen’s determination to share the project persisted. During the pandemic, he learned how to video edit and gradually built his skills, eventually feeling confident enough to take on a feature film version of Phoenix Fire. Amidst production, Salfen took on multiple roles, including co-executive producer, editor, writer and composer. However, he recognizes that this project was a labor of love that was contributed by multiple UIW-affiliated community members.

He noted that approximately 77 students were involved in performing the project’s score, from the initial days of its development through the audio recording of the final version. Additionally, many of his colleagues from the Department of Music played crucial roles by conducting UIW student musical groups, offering audio recording and even playing instrumental solos.

“This film is a work of many hands, and many of those hands belonged to UIW students, staff and faculty,” said Salfen. “It’s amazing to think about the sheer number of people involved … I’m so proud of how the Department of Music, students and faculty alike, worked together to do something aspirational, something that stretched us. The film, like the story that inspired it, is about refusing to give up on your dreams, and it exists as a testament to that spirit for others to see.”

The night of Phoenix Fire’s film premiere was a joy to Salfen, as he finally got to showcase all of the UIW community’s efforts on the big screen. Many contributing students and faculty even brought their family and loved ones to share the project with them.

With the project now complete, Salfen has taken further steps to help share Phoenix Fire with a broader audience, beyond the Nest. The film’s album has been shared on UIW’s student-run record label, Broadway Bird Records, for it to be streamed on all major streaming services. The film has also been sent to future film festivals and has already received a number of awards including an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

While Salfen’s hopes for Phoenix Fire remain high, he leaves his community with this message:

“We have such a wonderful community of artists and scholars at UIW, and we support each other in the small things and the big ones. Phoenix Fire was a big one, much bigger than any of us could have anticipated, and yet we did it, and did it well, because we worked together. I look forward to the next project!”