Ekmeles: The Great Wall

  • November 2, 2024 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM

  • The DiMenna Center

    450 West 37th Street
    New York, New York 10018
Ticket Price $16.88-$22.13 This event is now over
Description

Saturday, November 2 2024 at 7:30PM at the DiMenna Center's Cary Hall, Ekmeles performs The Great Wall, a program about language, distance, and love.

The program is anchored by Nigerian Swiss composer Charles Uzor's monumental new work The Great Wall. A Labyrinth, which sets excerpts from Franz Kafka's The Great Wall, and poems by Lu Xun. The texts are heard in the original German and Mandarin, as well as in translation, both from the singers and from an elaborate prerecorded part. The work is commissioned by Ekmeles funded by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation and the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.

Bethany Younge's Bright Void, commissioned by the Fromm Foundation, pairs the singers with innovative custom electronics. In addition to a synthesized part to be performed live by the composer, there is also a 3D printed siren which blends with the rough textures of the microtonal chest voice harmonies of the work.

Petros Leivadas's Cuál es su Ardor, heard here in its US premiere, sets texts by Cavafy and St. Augustine, and makes use of fragments of Guillaume de Machaut’s 14th century masterpiece Messe de Nostre Dame. Cavafy's poems, translated into Spanish and German, both have to do with the ancient past, describing loving inscriptions on tombstones. Augustine's Confessions contrasts with a section lamenting the author's arrival too late at his love for God. 

Date & Time

Sat, Nov 2, 2024 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM

Venue Details

The DiMenna Center

450 West 37th Street
New York, New York 10018 The DiMenna Center
Ekmeles, Inc.

Ekmeles is a vocal ensemble dedicated to the performance of new and rarely-heard works, and gems of the historical avant garde. They have a special focus on microtonal works, and have been praised for their “extraordinary sense of pitch” by the New York Times. They are the recipients of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation’s 2023 Ensemble Prize, the first American group to receive the honor.


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