Photo Credit by Catherine Koch
We’re excited to return to Roulette with a program of works by composer and installation artist Yvette Janine Jackson! The evening will feature the world premiere of T-Minus, commissioned by the Ensemble and funded by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. This radio opera is part of a series themed around the environmental and socioeconomic impact of space tourism on local communities near launch sites. Also on the program is her piece, Swan, a radio opera without words, a musical journey via acousmatic sound. Not to be missed!
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Yvette Janine Jackson’s T-Minus is part of a series of radio operas themed around the environmental and socioeconomic impact of space tourism on local communities near launch sites. The idea was prompted by the livestream of the SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo-2 in May 2020 which took place at a time when people around the world were taking to the streets in protests against police brutality and systemic racism. The juxtaposition of events evoked a 1970’s Gil Scott-Heron poem come to fruition. T-Minus builds on Left Behind, which was premiered by Jackson’s Radio Opera Workshop ensemble at the Venice Music Biennale, and The Coding, a video concréte influenced by Samuel Delany’s Babel-17 novel that examines the power of language.
Radio opera is a term Jackson first used to describe her narrative electroacoustic compositions, such as the Invisible People series, that frequently forefront historical events and social issues. The term continues to take on new meaning for the composer as she expands these ideas to include live performance, visuals, lighting, and interactivity. Influenced by productions from the Golden Age of Radio Drama, Jackson’s radio operas leave room for the listener’s experiences to give meaning to the music.
Also on the program is Jackson’s Swan. Swan is a musical journey that unfolds in three scenes: it opens aboard the tallship Swan transporting Africans along the Middle Passage to the Americas and gradually morphs into a spacecraft headed to freedom. Swan is a radio opera without words; the fixed media performance allows the audience to be at the center of the narrative and experience the journey. The work is composed from original foley, analog synthesis, and recordings from studio sessions by Jackson’s Invisible People Ensemble (Yvette Janine Jackson (piano), Kjell Nordeson (vibraphone), Shayla James (viola), Judith Hamann (cello), Sam Dunscombe (bass clarinet) interpreting her traditionally notated and graphic scores, as well as guided improvisations.
The composition of T-Minus is commissioned by the International Contemporary Ensemble, funded by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.
PROGRAM
Yvette Janine Jackson: Swan
Yvette Janine Jackson: T-Minus (World Premiere)
PERFORMERS
Vimbayi Kaziboni, conductor
Isabel Lepanto Gleicher, flute
Joshua Rubin, bass clarinet
Kristina Teuschler, bass clarinet
Gareth Flowers, trumpet
Sam Jones, trumpet
Michael Lormand, bass trombone
Ben Stapp, tuba
Lester St. Louis, cello
Clare Monfredo, cello
Randy Zigler, bass
Levy Lorenzo, percussion
Nathan Davis, percussion
Ross Karre, electronics
Serena Wong, lighting designer
Caley Monahon-Ward, audio engineer
INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ENSEMBLE
Now in its third decade, the International Contemporary Ensemble is a multidisciplinary collective of musicians, digital media artists, producers, and educators committed to building and innovating collaborative environments in order to inspire audiences to reimagine how they experience contemporary music and sound. The Ensemble creates a mosaic musical ecosystem as “America’s foremost new-music group” (The New Yorker), honoring the diversity of human experience and expression by commissioning, developing, recording, and performing the works of living artists in “a mission worth following” (I Care If You Listen).
CREDITS
The International Contemporary Ensemble’s performances and commissioning activities during the 2023-24 concert season are made possible by the generous support of our board of directors, many individuals, as well as the Mellon Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Aaron Copland Fund for Music Inc., Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, Amphion Foundation, The Cheswatyr Foundation, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Siemens Musikstiftung, New Music USA, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, BMI Foundation, as well as public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, 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 Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, and the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) from the U.S. Small Business Administration. Yamaha Artist Services New York is the exclusive piano provider for the International Contemporary Ensemble.