Upcoming
Fall 2018
“… he made all the world…a vast grey land where neither night nor day was, peopled by strange men and women whom he could not understand, but with those lives he longed to mingle once before he went.”-Richard Wright, Native Son
The Grey Land is a monoopera that explores universal themes of humanity and identity through the intractable triumvirate of race, class, and power in American society. The Grey Land will integrate a variety of writings, archival and contemporary video footage, dance, set and lighting designs, as well as dramatic elements in order to advance a non-traditional narrative that will embrace the musical and social multitudes and “dichotomies of high and low, inside and outside, tradition and innovation” within black culture, fusing various African-American and other popular music influences within a contemporary post-classical musical language. While I have always been interested in transmuting diverse inspiration into a single voice, this recent personal exploration of black culture and music creates an “impressive stylistic synthesis…a new style...not as an established idiom, but rather as a new approach, a happy merging of apparently disparate traditions.” Working with writer/director Isaac Butler, choreographer Edisa Weeks, electronic musician Michael Hammond, film and video artist Malik Isasis and Xuan Zhang, The Grey Land will ruminate and comment more specifically on the larger longstanding systemic societal, economic and cultural issues the various police shootings and protests since 2014 have brought to a wider public consciousness. The composition is scored for 1 Mezzo Soprano Soloist, 1 Narrator/Speaker and the 26 musicians of Numinous, approximately 65 minutes in length and eventually recorded for New Amsterdam Records after the premiere.
Examples of themes The Grey Land will explore are: a choral lamentation on the concept of the boogeyman and “the fear of the Black male in America”; through the lens of “The Talk”, a meditation on the crisis of opportunity and expectations for minorities and their seemly narrow borders of identity in the broader social construct; a video and audio collage celebrating the resilience of blacks throughout history by, as James Baldwin wrote, “groaning and moaning, watching, calculating, clowning, surviving, and outwitting” with “some tremendous strength...nevertheless being forged, which is part of [black] legacy today”; a humorous fantasy that deconstructs the myth of the “magical negro” in contemporary media. Like Junot Díaz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, The Grey Land will be a compelling and vertiginous vision unifying the vernacular and the learned; it will strive to be a work of art that attracts not only the standard new music enthusiast, but also the communities of color who are so often absent from the stages and audiences of today's concert halls.
The Grey Land is a monoopera that explores universal themes of humanity and identity through the intractable triumvirate of race, class, and power in American society. The Grey Land will integrate a variety of writings, archival and contemporary video footage, dance, set and lighting designs, as well as dramatic elements in order to advance a non-traditional narrative that will embrace the musical and social multitudes and “dichotomies of high and low, inside and outside, tradition and innovation” within black culture, fusing various African-American and other popular music influences within a contemporary post-classical musical language. While I have always been interested in transmuting diverse inspiration into a single voice, this recent personal exploration of black culture and music creates an “impressive stylistic synthesis…a new style...not as an established idiom, but rather as a new approach, a happy merging of apparently disparate traditions.” Working with writer/director Isaac Butler, choreographer Edisa Weeks, electronic musician Michael Hammond, film and video artist Malik Isasis and Xuan Zhang, The Grey Land will ruminate and comment more specifically on the larger longstanding systemic societal, economic and cultural issues the various police shootings and protests since 2014 have brought to a wider public consciousness. The composition is scored for 1 Mezzo Soprano Soloist, 1 Narrator/Speaker and the 26 musicians of Numinous, approximately 65 minutes in length and eventually recorded for New Amsterdam Records after the premiere.
Examples of themes The Grey Land will explore are: a choral lamentation on the concept of the boogeyman and “the fear of the Black male in America”; through the lens of “The Talk”, a meditation on the crisis of opportunity and expectations for minorities and their seemly narrow borders of identity in the broader social construct; a video and audio collage celebrating the resilience of blacks throughout history by, as James Baldwin wrote, “groaning and moaning, watching, calculating, clowning, surviving, and outwitting” with “some tremendous strength...nevertheless being forged, which is part of [black] legacy today”; a humorous fantasy that deconstructs the myth of the “magical negro” in contemporary media. Like Junot Díaz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, The Grey Land will be a compelling and vertiginous vision unifying the vernacular and the learned; it will strive to be a work of art that attracts not only the standard new music enthusiast, but also the communities of color who are so often absent from the stages and audiences of today's concert halls.
Past
May 22, 2017
Premiere of "Climb" for the Fieldston School 7th grade Band
Fieldston School
3901 Fieldston Road
Bronx, NY
7:30 pm
Fieldston School
3901 Fieldston Road
Bronx, NY
7:30 pm
December 2016
October 29, 2016
Pianist Lara Downes premieres "Never Has Been Yet"
Jackson Hall Stage
Mondavi Center
Davis, California
https://www.mondaviarts.org/event/2016-17/lara-downes-piano
Jackson Hall Stage
Mondavi Center
Davis, California
https://www.mondaviarts.org/event/2016-17/lara-downes-piano
Lara premiering "Never Has Been Yet" at Mondavi Center
October 29, 2016
© 2016 Numen Music/BMI All Rights Reserved
October 29, 2016
© 2016 Numen Music/BMI All Rights Reserved
June 30-July 2, 2016
Performance of To Begin The World Over Again
Collaboration with Edisa Weeks and Delirious Dance
Gibney Dance Center
890 Broadway
NYC
Collaboration with Edisa Weeks and Delirious Dance
Gibney Dance Center
890 Broadway
NYC
February 2016
My forthcoming composition The Grey Land — a new music drama that explores themes of acceptance and identity through the intractable issues of race, class, and power in American society — was awarded a NewMusicUSA grant. Premiere will be Fall 2017. https://www.newmusicusa.org/projects/the-grey-land/
December 2015
Changing Same discussed in Diary of a Mad Composer
December 9th, 2015
— George Grella, The Brooklyn Rail
December 9th, 2015
— George Grella, The Brooklyn Rail
Changing Same
Top 30 Favorite Classical/Art Music albums 2015
— George M. Wallace, A Fool in the Forest
Top 30 Favorite Classical/Art Music albums 2015
— George M. Wallace, A Fool in the Forest
November 27-December 13, 2015
The Bellagio Foundation Has Been Known To Make Me Cry
Concrete Temple Theatre Company production
HERE
145 6th Avenue
New York, NY 10013
Concrete Temple Theatre Company production
HERE
145 6th Avenue
New York, NY 10013
November 2015
Changing Same is on David Adler's November 2015 Top 10
October 2015
Changing Same featured in Rhapsody's Classical Diversity: Today's Voices in Composition October playlist
October 16, 2015
Sorce/Lodge Duo
premiering "Scission",
for Guitar and Piano
Greenwich House Music School
46 Barrow Street
NYC
8:00 PM
with Iktus Combo,
featuring music by Christopher Cerrone, Charles Ives,
Elliot Cooper Cole, and Louis Andriessen
premiering "Scission",
for Guitar and Piano
Greenwich House Music School
46 Barrow Street
NYC
8:00 PM
with Iktus Combo,
featuring music by Christopher Cerrone, Charles Ives,
Elliot Cooper Cole, and Louis Andriessen
September 2015
September 21, 2015
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New Amsterdam Presents
Numinous & Will Mason Ensemble Joint CD release performance (Le) Poisson Rouge 158 Bleecker Street New York, NY 10012 Doors open at 6:00 pm 7:00 pm Numinous 8:15 pm Will Mason Ensemble Tickets at: http://lepoissonrouge.com/lpr_events/numinous-and-the-will-mason-ensemble-september-21st-2015/ www.newamrecords.com www.newampresents.org |
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September 11, 2015
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NextNow Fest
Gildenhorn Recital Hall University of Maryland-College Park 8:30 PM FREE Premiere of NextNow commission, Shibboleths Performed by Invoke String Quartet |
August 28, 2015
August 25, 2015
August 23, 2015
Interview with Rachel Martin for NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday. First aired August 23rd.
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July 2015
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Podcast Interview with George Grella from The Brooklyn Rail
https://soundcloud.com/rail-tracks/bk-rail-tracks-2015-078 (interview is at the beginning) |
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June 23, 2015
First track from Changing Same, "19", featured on Bandcamp Weekly podcast show:
https://bandcamp.com/?g=rock&show=132
https://bandcamp.com/?g=rock&show=132
