Credit: Digitice
Experience the brilliance of soprano Julia Bullock in a work that shines a light on the life and legacy of Joséphine Baker
– artist, activist and icon of resistance who left the racially segregated United States in the 1920s and rose to unprecedented global celebrity in the music halls of Paris and beyond.
Directed by lauded opera director (and former Adelaide Festival Artistic Director) Peter Sellars, this genre-defying performance blends opera, jazz, spirituals and the elegance and raunch of early 20th century French music hall into a powerfully emotional song cycle, with spoken interludes by the poet Claudia Rankine.
Baker’s iconic songs are re-imagined by Tyshawn Sorey, the Pulitzer award-winning composer who fuses improvisational jazz and classical forms to create a work that reaches beyond the commercial limitations of Joséphine’s professional lifetime, inviting her to live again in the full scope of her historical and contemporary meaning, heartbreak and glory.
Julia Bullock’s performance reincarnates Joséphine Baker, inviting this extraordinary Black woman at last to claim and command the full range of her astonishing powers.
PROGRAM
Tyshawn Sorey: Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine (2016)
PERFORMERS
Composer & Piano/Percussion Tyshawn Sorey
Texts Claudia Rankine
Director Peter Sellars
Joséphine Baker Julia Bullock
Violin, International Contemporary Ensemble Jennifer Curtis
Guitar, International Contemporary Ensemble Dan Lippel
Flute, International Contemporary Ensemble Alice Teyssier
Bassoon, International Contemporary Ensemble Rebekah Heller
Saxophone, International Contemporary Ensemble Travis Laplante
Lighting Designer James F. Ingalls
Sound Designer Marc Urselli
Movement Director Michael Schumacher
Costume designer Carlos Soto
Stage Manager Betsy Ayer
Assistant stage manager Pamela Salling
INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ENSEMBLE
Described as “America’s foremost new-music group” (The New Yorker), International Contemporary Ensemble is dedicated to supporting living composers through commissioning, developing, and premiering new works. Now in its third decade, the Ensemble has premiered over 1,000 works and plays a pivotal role in launching and shaping the careers of today’s most influential composers. Through its bold programming and innovative curation, the Ensemble continues to redefine the possibilities of contemporary music.
The Ensemble has brought its vision of a mosaic musical ecosystem to festivals and venues all over the world including Carnegie Hall, Maerzmusik/Berliner Festspiele, Warsaw Autumn, Miller Theatre Composer Portraits, Museum of Modern Art New York, Centre for Contemporary Arts Glasgow, HEAR NOW Los Angeles, Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music, NYU Skirball, Pioneer Works, Oberlin College, House of World Cultures, Ojai Music Festival, Peabody Conservatory, TIME:SPANS Festival, Big Ears Festival, Adelaide Festival, the Dutch National Opera, Cité de la Musique (Paris), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), Walt Disney Concert Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Japan Society.
CREDITS
The International Contemporary Ensemble’s performances and commissioning activities during the 2025-26 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, Fromm Music Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Aaron Copland Fund for Music Inc., Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, The Arlene and Larry Dunn Fund for Afrodiasporic Music, Amphion Foundation, The Cheswatyr Foundation, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Siemens Musikstiftung, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, BMI Foundation, as well as public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, New York State Council for the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and New York State Legislature. Yamaha Artist Services New York is the exclusive piano provider for the International Contemporary Ensemble.