Ko was born in 1988 in British Hong Kong and raised in Honolulu,[1] where she was educated at ʻIolani School (graduating in 2006).
[2] She was originally a choir singer, pianist, and violist during her youth, but had decided to go into music composition by the time she was fifteen.
But the title [...] alludes to fireworks and other joyful events, as well as natural ones like erupting volcanoes.
[8] That same year, she was awarded a MacDowell Fellowship, where she composed the string quartet piece Plain, Air;[9] in September of that year, Spektral Quartet performed the premiere of Plain, Air at the Openlands Lakeshore Preserve.
[9][12] The same year, another composition of hers, Her Land, premiered at an American Composers Orchestra concert at Carnegie Hall.