MOR’s Phoenix confronts real-world oppression
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“MOR is determined to keep alive voices that refuse to be silenced…”
–Seattle Times
Music of Remembrance Conjures Fantastical Legends to Confront Real-World Oppression
World Premiere: Phoenix
An Evocative Musical Testimony of Women’s Rights Struggle in Iran
created by composer Sahba Aminikia and librettist Zara Houshmand
World Premiere: The Golem
New choreography by Donald Byrd, featuring Spectrum Dance
March 10, 2024 • Benaroya Hall, Seattle
SEATTLE, WA – February 7, 2024 – On March 10 at 5:30pm, Music of Remembrance presents Phoenix, an evening of live music and dance at Benaroya Hall. The event conjures mythical creatures – the transformative phoenix rising from its ashes and the proto-Frankenstein golem – to confront real-life terrors that walk among us, including those that have persecuted generations of Iranian women and Black American men. Widely acclaimed for its commissions, MOR aims to present vital testimonies for tomorrow that examine the consequences of intolerance toward the other. Recent premieres have included works addressing the separation of families at the US-Mexico border, the worldwide refugee crisis, and the threat of nuclear war.
“This program’s arc draws on legends from two different generations and cultures – the medieval Yiddish figure of the golem and the Persian myth of the qaqnus – to draw our focus to dangers in our own world and how we can respond to them,” said Music of Remembrance Artistic Director Mina Miller. “These stories remind us of our common humanity and call on us to stand up against injustice wherever we see it.”
This season’s premieres bring the organization’s total commissions to 45 new works, including song cycles, chamber works, operas, film scores, and choreography – all using art to confront compelling issues in today’s world.
Iranian American composer-librettist team Sahba Aminikia and Zara Houshmand
The world-premiere centerpiece and title work of the concert is Phoenix, a powerful musical statement about the current women’s rights struggle in Iran, scored for voices representing three generations of Iranian women. These voices share the challenges that have demanded their courage and the deep cultural history underlying the current uprising. Iranian American composer-librettist team Sahba Aminikia and Zara Houshmand believe that, like the phoenix – or qaqnus, as it is known in Persian mythology – the future for people in Iran will be created via their own transformation and rebirth through fire.
“Many people believe the current struggle in Iran is only for women,” said composer Sahba Aminikia. “But we must not segregate the cry for freedom. In the existing societal structure, men are also pressed into forms and shapes that do not fit them. Oppressed people must shout together, louder and more vividly, so that our shared struggle cannot be ignored. I believe the result will be a more open and accepting society for everyone.”
Choreographer Donald Byrd; photo by Gabriel Bienczycki
Another creature of legend inspires the evening’s second world premiere: a new dance work by Black choreographer Donald Byrd, using music by leading Israeli composer Betty Olivero to tell the story of The Golem. Originally created to accompany a revival of the classic 1920 expressionist silent film by Paul Wegener, the music, like the film, blurs the lines of memory and fantasy. In Jewish legend, a golem was a creature made of clay into which life has been injected by mystical means. It has fascinated many generations as a complex metaphor for the struggle to survive during times of persecution.
“This legend, in all its different versions, was well known to me, and I had always wanted to write music for it,” said composer Betty Olivero. “I was so attracted by Wegener’s silent movie that I decided that this would be the perfect realization of my dream. The body movement of the actors, the exaggerated expressions, the over-acting – all so characteristic of the silent movie acting style – seemed to me like a ballet that needed music.”
“This abstract dance piece draws its inspiration from the music of composer Betty Olivero and the medieval myth of the golem,” said choreographer Donald Byrd. “As always, my choreography seeks to question, to create awareness, and to move audiences.”
Composer Carlos Simon; photo by Kendall Bessent
These new commissions are paired with existing works that address real-life terrors. Carlos Simon, recently announced as Boston Symphony’s inaugural composer chair, contributes Elegy: A Cry from the Grave – a powerful tribute to Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner and Michael Brown, three Black men murdered by the police in today’s America. Lori Laitman’s In Sleep The World Is Yours sets texts by Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger, an 18-year-old poet who perished in a Ukrainian labor camp during the Holocaust. Both artistic testimonies depict youthful promise cut short, illustrating the lasting cultural effects of oppression.
“The concert tells stories that are connected by the power of hope,” said Artistic Director Mina Miller. “From the innocence of idealistic young love to the courageous determination to overcome racism and misogyny, we hear voices that speak out against oppression and offer a vision of how we can dedicate ourselves to overcoming it.”
Phoenix
Sunday, March 10, 2024 @ 5:30 pm
Benaroya Hall (200 University Street)
Seattle, Washington
Tickets $60
musicofremembrance.org/phoenix
Full Program:
Elegy: A Cry from the Grave
Composer: Carlos Simon
Phoenix
World Premiere & MOR commission
Composer: Sahba Aminikia
Librettist: Zara Houshmand
featuring sopranos Vanessa Isiguen and Madeline Ross; mezzo-soprano Rachel Hauge
In Sleep The World Is Yours
New arrangement of MOR commission
Composer: Lori Laitman
featuring soprano Vanessa Isiguen
“Zeks Yiddishe Lider un Tantz” from The Golem
World Premiere of MOR dance commission
Composer: Betty Olivero
Choreographer: Donald Byrd
with Spectrum Dance Theater
Music of Remembrance Ensemble: Laura DeLuca, clarinet; Mikhail Shmidt, violin; Artur Girsky, violin; Susan Gulkis Assadi, viola; Walter Gray, cello; Joseph Kaufman, double bass; Mina Miller, piano
About Music of Remembrance
Established in 1998, Music of Remembrance (MOR) has made a unique impact through works that honor the resilience of all people excluded or persecuted for faith, ethnicity, gender, or sexuality. Its programs pay tribute to historic memory – and directly confront challenges to human rights and dignity today. In addition to its work discovering and performing music from the Holocaust, MOR is admired around the world for its leadership in commissioning and premiering new works by leading composers, including varied chamber ensembles, song cycles, choral works, dance music, film scores, musical dramas, and full-length operas. MOR’s online concerts, nine albums, three documentary films, and many outreach programs have added to the impact experienced by live audiences. MOR’s annual David Tonkonogui Memorial Award welcomes new generations along on this journey, nurturing young musicians who seek to address issues of human rights through their art.
About Sahba Aminikia
Sahba Aminikia is a San Francisco-based composer and educator. Born in post revolutionary Iran, he is committed to a belief that music can be a catalyst for change. Trained classically and influenced globally, Aminikia’s work has been performed around the world. His varied commissions include the Kronos Quartet, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Symphony Parnassus, San Francisco Conservatory of Music New Music Ensemble, Mobius Trio, Delphi Trio and Living Earth Show. Aminikia is the Artistic Director for the Flying Carpet Festival, a mobile music festival which serves children in need in war zones. He also serves as the Musical Director for Sirkhane, a non-profit organization based in Mardin, Southern Turkey that serves around 400,000 children through circus arts and music.
About Zara Houshmand
Zara Houshmand is an Iranian American writer raised in the Philippines and educated in London, whose work bridges cultural divides and includes poetry, theatre, memoir, and literary translation. She was a pioneer in the use of virtual reality as an art form and platform for poetry, and her installation Beyond Manzanar (with Tamiko Thiel) has been exhibited widely around the world. She worked with the Mind & Life Institute for two decades on books representing the Dalai Lama’s dialogues with Western scientists. Her theater work includes award-winning translations of Bijan Mofid’s plays, and her own plays have been produced in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Her poetry has been widely published in anthologies. Her most recent book is Moon and Sun (2020), a bilingual edition of her translations of Rumi’s rubaiyat.
About Donald Byrd
Described by The New York Times as “an unabashed eclectic,” Donald Byrd is the Artistic Director of Spectrum Dance Theater and former Artistic Director of Donald Byrd/The Group, a critically acclaimed international touring contemporary dance company. Mr. Byrd has created over 100 works for companies such as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet, The Philadelphia Dance Company, and Dance Theater of Harlem, as well as working with Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera, The Israeli Opera, and New York City Opera. His choreography – Tony-nominated for The Color Purple and Bessie Award-winning for The Minstrel Show – is meant to question, create awareness, activate, and move audiences and citizens into action. His work often addresses the persistent social issues that plague contemporary American society and the world: racism and white supremacy, climate change and the climate gap, gender equality, gender identity biases, xenophobia, and police brutality.
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Verismo Communications
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