In conjunction with Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine, presented by Harvard University Music Department, is a talk at the Carpenter Center Bookshop on May 2. Curator Naomi Beckwith, vocalist Julia Bullock, director Peter Sellars, and composer Tyshawn Sorey will speak about Perle Noire its unique and poignant take on the iconic Josephine Baker and her brilliance, public courage, and private tragedies.

Conceived by Peter Sellars and Julia Bullock, with original music by Tyshawn Sorey and texts by Claudia Rankine, ​Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine​ is an 85-minute, staged, one-act song-cycle featuring Julia Bullock as vocal soloist and living embodiment of the spirit of Joséphine Baker. Composer Tyshawn Sorey is joined by the International Contemporary Ensemble in an instrumental sextet that weaves composed music and improvisation together to create a seamless interplay between song, spoken word, dance, and contemplative instrumental interludes.

The May 3rd performance of Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine is presented at the Oberon. Tickets are free, but reservations are required. For more information, ​ visit Harvard University Music Department. 

Naomi Beckwith
Naomi Beckwith is the Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, where her exhibition and book projects focus on the impact of identity and multi-disciplinary practices for shaping contemporary art. Prior to the MCA, Beckwith held positions at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Her numerous exhibitions include The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now and 30 Seconds off an Inch, both considering the persistent resonance of black cultural practices across contemporary art internationally. She has been an early champion of such rising artists as Rashid Johnson, Jimmy Robert, Keren Cytter, The Propeller Group, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Beckwith has contributed to numerous publications and served on the jury of the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015. She holds a BA in History from Northwestern University and an MA with Distinction from the Courtauld Institute in London.

Julia Bullock
Soprano Julia Bullock is celebrated as one of today’s most creative voices before the public. Recent opera highlights include The Rake's Progress (Dutch National Opera, Festival d'Aix en Provence), Girls of the Golden West (Dutch National Opera, San Francisco Opera), and Doctor Atomic (Santa Fe Opera). On concert and recital stages, Julia Bullock has appeared throughout the world having performed with the philharmonics of Berlin, Los Angeles, and New York as well as with the symphonies of Boston, London, and Sydney.  Julia Bullock is a founding core member of the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC) and this season is Artist in Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Peter Sellars
Opera, theater and festival director Peter Sellars is known for his groundbreaking and transformative interpretations of classical works, from Sophocles to Mozart, and for collaborative projects with an extraordinary range of creative artists. He has worked extensively in the field of 20th-century and contemporary opera, including works by Messiaen, Ligeti and Saariaho. A long time collaborator of composer John Adams, they have worked together on the operas Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer, El Niño, Doctor Atomic, A Flowering Tree, The Gospel According to the Other Mary, and, most recently, Girls of the Golden West

Tyshawn Sorey
Newark-born multi-instrumentalist and composer Tyshawn Sorey is celebrated for his incomparable virtuosity and an extraordinary ability to blend composition and improvisation in his work. He has performed nationally and internationally with his own ensembles, as well as with numerous luminaries from a wide variety of musical backgrounds. Sorey's latest recording project, Pillars, has been praised by Rolling Stone as "an immersive soundworld… sprawling, mysterious… thrilling" and has been named as one of BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction 2018 albums of the year. Sorey was awarded a MacArthur fellowship in 2017 and holds the position of Assistant Professor of Composition and Creative Music at Wesleyan University

Performances and commissioning activities during the 2019-20 concert season are made possible by the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, A.N. and Pearl G. Barnett Family Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Aaron Copland Fund for Music Inc., Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, Amphion Foundation, Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Pacific Harmony Foundation, Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, mediaThe foundation inc., The Casement Fund, BMI Foundation, as well as public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council for the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and the Illinois Arts Council Agency. The International Contemporary Ensemble is the Ensemble in Residence of the Nokia Bell Labs Experiments in Art and Technology. Yamaha Artist Services New York is the exclusive piano provider for ICE.