A "pocket" chamber edition of the IONE and Pauline Oliveros "Phantom" opera, featuring a deconstructed/reconstructed score and improvisational performances with electronics and moving images by the collaborative trio of IONE (text, direction, and performance), Monica Duncan (visuals, performance), and Senem Pirler (sound, performance). All combine to create a deep dream exploration of Nubian soul and colonial mind.
The Nubian Word for Flowers: a phantom opera is the final work of iconic American composer Pauline Oliveros. At the time of her death in November 2016, the opera was only 75 percent complete. During the year that followed, Oliveros’s wife, Ione, collaborated with International Contemporary Ensemble (performing ensemble), Monica Duncan (video artist), Senem Pirler (sound artist), and Nick Demaison (conductor) to posthumously complete the work and give a full-scale world premiere at Roulette (Brooklyn, NY) on November 30, 2017, which was lauded as a “warmly felt haunting” by The New York Times.
Pauline Oliveros and Ione’s Nubian Word for Flowers was supported by a Watershed Lab residency at Mount Tremper Arts, with lead support by the National Endowment for the Arts and mediaThe foundation inc. OpenICE is 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, Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, Amphion Foundation, Pacific Harmony Foundation, Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, 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, a state 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.