2023 | 2024
Building Temples conceived by Theodosia Roussos featuring works by composers
MUSIC
Sharon Chohi Kim Theodosia Roussos Niloufar Shiri Kathryn Shuman
2023 | 2024
directed by Diana Wyenn
Sunday, February 18, 2024, 2:00 p.m.
Performing Arts Studio
1804 N. Decatur Road Atlanta, GA 30322
Welcome to the Department of Music The Department of Music wishes to gracefully acknowledge the ongoing generous support of the Friends of Music. 404.727.6445 | music.emory.edu | music@emory.edu Cover Design: Lisa Baron | Cover Photo: Mark Teague 2
Program Comfort Blindness (2016)
Kathryn Shuman (b. 1990)
Kathryn Shuman, synthesist, and vocalist Chohi Kim, vocalist Theodosia Roussos, vocalist Niloufar Shiri, kamancheh ~UR (world premiere)
Niloufar Shiri (b. 1992) poet Forough Farokhzad (1934-1967) Niloufar Shiri, kamancheh, and electronics Theodosia Roussos, oboe and voice
Unstuckness Practice (2022)
Sharon Chohi Kim (b. 1987)
Sharon Chohi Kim, choreographer, and vocalist Theodosia Roussos, vocalist Niloufar Shiri, kamancheh Kathryn Shuman, vocalist Instrument by Daniel Paul Schubert Avrio (world premiere)
Theodosia Roussos (b. 1988)
Theodosia Roussos english horn, vocalist, and electronics Diana Wyenn, director Rosanna Tavarez, choreographer and performer Sharon Chohi Kim, vocalist and invented instrument Niloufar Shiri, kamancheh Kathryn Shuman, vocalist and synthesizer AJ Jones, drums Sawyer Gray, guitar Instrument by Daniel Paul Schubert
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Program Notes Building Temples is an interdisciplinary collaboration by an all-woman and non-binary team exploring questions of gender and women’s liberation in the 21st century. Conceived by Emory Arts Fellow Theodosia Roussos and directed by Diana Wyenn, this dynamic program of music, movement, and memory features the work of four contemporary women composer-performers who are each responding to the systemic inequities and violence women-identifying individuals face, and investing in the search for collective healing. Beginning the program with intimacy and immediacy, Kathryn Shuman’s Comfort Blindness draws from the inherent correlation between women and water to explore the parallels between growing concerns about the ownership and distribution of water, an essential element for survival, and human sex trafficking and other forms of modern slavery women are enduring. Niloufar Shiri’s ~UR (“naked, bare” in Farsi), a new work for kamancheh, voice, and oboe, draws inspiration from Forough Farokhzad’s (1934-1967) poem Rebirth and unfolds as a symbolic journey of growth and transformation where each note echoes the profound narrative of becoming. Inspired by textures, interconnectedness and patterns in nature, and drawing from therapeutic somatic gestures, Sharon Chohi Kim’s Unstuckness Practice is a ritualistic cycle of movement and vocalizations that symbolizes the release of “stuckness” in the body. Closing the program is Avrio (“tomorrow” in Greek), a world premiere by Theodosia Roussos composed explicitly to be performed by this collective of composer-performers and dancer-choreographer Rosanna Tavarez under the direction of Diana Wyenn. A powerful new work for 3 treble voices, kamancheh, English horn, synthesizer, invented instrument and reverberant space, Avrio is an abstract meditation in cyclical motion investigating and eventually basking in how women can free themselves as they gather in community and each step into their own wildness. Building Temples is created with support from Emory Arts and the Department of Music.
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Lyrics Comfort Blindness Do you know that place? It was my home
~UR I will plant my hands, I will grow, I know, I know, I know. And a lost birdwill lay lots of eggsin my inky palms… —Forough Farokhzad (1934-1967)
Unstuckness Practice Hi. I’m sorry. It’s okay. Thank you. I love you.
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Lyrics Avrio (Greek translation: tomorrow) I tell myself that I’m not trapped I tried to scream What came out? ‘I’m sorry’ I wasn’t taught how to break, to disobey but I’d like to Tell me how to lose control I’m trained to please To bend my knees Do you the story Of Androniki, I’ll tell you She was a woman that wore Men’s pants to a men’s cafe And she played cards and tavli With a handsome man that she liked And her brother Dragged her out by the hair And he cut and he cut and he cut and he cut Her throat It’s me I’m her It’s me I’m her But I’m afraid to die So I fit myself into tiny spaces And tell myself I tell myself I’m not trapped… steal my voice steal my sight break my door break my heart. Take me back to stardust
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Biographies Theodosia Roussos is an oboist, English horn player, soprano, composer, improvisor, and educator. She recently scored the Emmy-nominated HBO Original Documentary Being Mary Tyler Moore, and Jennifer Esposito’s independent feature Fresh Kills, following her work on Naomi Osaka for Netflix. Theodosia began her scoring career by working with Oscar-nominee Emile Mosseri on The Last Black Man in San Francisco. Theodosia’s opera film Polymnia, commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects and National Sawdust was hailed as “haunting and beautiful” by Opera News. Her fully staged 90-minute chamber opera Polymnia premiered in January 2023 at UCLA’s Little Theater, directed by Diana Wyenn. It was presented by the UCLA Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture and the Consulate General of Greece in Los Angeles, with the support of a generous grant from the National Endowment of the Arts. She has performed with orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Philharmonic, Phoenix Symphony, and studio orchestras in addition to regular performances with experimental groups including The Industry, Wild Up, Four Larks, Jacaranda, and Art of Elan, among others. Theodosia’s passion for contemporary music has led to premiere performances at REDCAT, Ojai Music Festival, Hidden Valley Music Seminars, Louis Moreau Institute, Banff Center for Creativity, Bang on a Can Festival, and SongFest. Theodosia holds degrees from University of Southern California, Oberlin Conservatory, and UCLA. Theodosia is the Emory Arts Fellow in Music for 2023-24 where she is teaching creative film scoring and continuing her creative practice. thetheodosia.com @dodowndosia
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Diana Wyenn is a director, writer, choreographer, and interdisciplinary artist from Los Angeles advocating for equity, environmental and disability justice. She has directed and choreographed theater, opera, and film projects for the LA Phil, LA Opera, Center Theatre Group, LACMA, MOCA, the Roundabout Theatre Company, National Sawdust, Beth Morrison Projects, Detroit Opera, REDCAT, Malmö Opera, CalTech, UCLA, Yale, Grand Performances, the World Health Organization, and more. Wyenn directed and dramaturged the world premiere of Theodosia Roussos’ Polymnia and choreographed the Los Angeles premiere of Andrew Norman’s A Trip to the Moon at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. This April, she will be the revival director for the U.S. premiere of Tom Morris’ production of Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves at Detroit Opera. Her work has received project support from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Arts and Disability Center, Center for Cultural Innovation, and California Arts Council. A co-founder of Plain Wood Productions and co-artistic director of Ammunition Theatre Company, she earned a BFA in Drama from New York University and is a proud member of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LAMDA) and associate member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC). Learn more and experience her work at dianawyenn.com. Sharon Chohi Kim’s work as a voice artist, performer and composer includes immersive experimental opera, performance art, improvisation, sound art and site-specific space activation through movement and voice. By engaging in the act of breathing as a right, she uses the voice and body as a direct channel of protest and resistance. She fills spaces with sonic vibrations, exploring relationships between people and the space in which they occupy, inquiring into healing between humans and the earth. Through improvisation, she explores human and non-human states of being, enthusiastically discovering new ways in which her voice can sound. Chohi has performed with the LA Philharmonic, the Industry Opera Company, Long Beach Opera, MOCA, at Walt Disney Hall, the Broad Museum, the Getty Center and Villa, in caves, tunnels, mountains, gardens, and in water. sharonchohikim.com 8
Kamancheh player and composer Niloufar Shiri began her musical journey at the Tehran Music Conservatory in Iran. She later immigrated to the USA and pursued her studies in composition at the University of California, San Diego, and Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology (ICIT) at the University of California, Irvine. Niloufar’s musical world lies at the intersection of classical Iranian music, contemporary music, and improvisation. Her focus revolves around exploring the concept of displacement in relation to familiar and distant environments. Her music closely examines textural and timbral spaces, drawing inspiration from staggered pitch relations found in the Radif, as well as bird sounds, noise, and feedback. Her unique and radical approach to kamancheh performance significantly expands the sonic capabilities of the instrument and places her at the forefront of its practice. Upcoming projects include a new composition for the Eclipse String Quartet and kamancheh, as well as a primer with the San Diego Symphony. She is currently engaged in a Collective Opera project with the Iranian Female Composers Association (IFCA), sponsored by the MAP fund. She is participating in a collaborative residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity along with Aida Shirazi. Furthermore, both she and Aida Shirazi have been honored as recipients of the Nexus grant for the year 2024. niloufarshiri.com Sawyer Gray is an Atlanta based guitarist currently playing with We Are Damselflys and Atlanta Improvisors Orchestra. Originally from Mississippi, they graduated from Emory in 2022 with a degree in music. They love bird songs, long walks, and playing with their cat. AJ Jones is a touring and freelance musician born and raised in Atlanta, GA. They are a percussionist of 12 years, having studied under UGA faculty and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra members, and a self-taught bassist of 6 years. AJ currently resides in Atlanta, playing in several local bands.
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Kathryn Shuman is a singer/performer/composer. As a singer, she is recognized for her “striking and clear tone, with excellent attention to detail” (composer/performer Meredith Monk). Her unique ability to sing a variety of styles make her a sought after performing and recording artist. Recent film/tv credits include vocals in Strange World (2022), Minions 2: Rise of the Guru (2022), Mulan (2020), SCOOB! (2020), Cate Blanchett’s Mrs. America (2020), appearance and vocals in CBS’s Strange Angels (2019). Additionally, Kathryn is a featured artist on Splice’s new Montage label and creates sound libraries for the company as a recording artist and lead sound editor. Kathryn was a featured soloist in the premiere of Juhi Bansal’s opera, We Look to the Stars, commissioned by LA Opera (February 2020), took on the role of “Coyote” in the premiere of The Industry’s opera, Sweet Land (February 2020), by Raven Chacon and Du Yun, performed her LA Philharmonic solo debut with multiple lead roles in Meredith Monk’s opera “ATLAS” at Walt Disney Concert Hall directed by Yuval Sharon (June 2019). Other recent features include the following: Ojai Musical Festival for a West-Coast premiere of John Luther Adams’ Sila: Breath of Life, soprano soloist in Earl Kim’s Where Grief Slumbers, Steve Reich’s “Music for 18 Musicians” in Monday Evening Concerts series, Philip Glass’s Another Look at Harmony Pt. 4, with Jacaranda, LA Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella Series, Nimbus installation piece, composed by Rand Steiger at Walt Disney Concert Hall, and REDCAT as a part of the “Machines and Strings” and “Hotel Theory” events. She has also performed multiple performances as the soprano soloist for Carmina Burana. Shuman has performed with companies including LA’s leading avantgarde opera company, The Industry, LA Master Chorale, LA Philharmonic, LA Opera, Jacaranda and has had work commissioned by Wild Up and the Floating concert series. Kathryn’s music explores and features physical spaces including basement gallery spaces, concert halls, and outdoor environments (canyons and bus stops, etc.) One of her current composition projects “Music for Landscapes and Musicians” asks vocalists and instrumentalists to collaborate with outdoor environments creating and responding to echoes. A record she released with collaborator and bass player/composer Ben Finley under Kat & Ben, “Cycles on Cycles” (2018) was described as featuring “musical shifts [that] frequently follow a certain kind of dream logic — simultaneously disorienting and familiar, surreal and natural” by NEXTBOP. Shuman is a dedicated music educator and a member of the voice faculty at Pasadena City College and Riverside City College and a SAG-AFTRA and AGMA Union member. kathryn-shuman. com
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Rosanna Tavarez received an MFA in Choreography from Ohio State University as a University Fellow and a Teaching Fellow and a BFA in Choreography from University of Michigan. She has a diverse background as a performer/entertainer and has had the honor of working with Marina Ambramovic, Ryan Heffington, Travis Payne, Tony Michaels and Rosanna Gamson/Worldwide. She also toured with N’SYNC and Jessica Simpson as one-fifth of the girl group Eden’s Crush and covered the Emmys, Grammys and Oscars in addition to hosting her own shows as a television personality for FOX, E!, TVGuide Network, and Telemundo/NBC. Tavarez has been studying Countertechnique since 2011 and in 2016 she was selected to attend the Countertechnique Teacher Training program. She is now one of eleven certified American Countertechnique teachers. In 2023, after co-leading her first One Body One Career Intensive with Founder Anouk Van Dijk at Gibney in New York City, she became a Senior Teacher. Tavarez has had the pleasure of teaching Countertechnique nationally and internationally. Tavarez’s work has been presented at The Broad Museum, ODC Theater, REDCAT, Dance Camera West, The Odyssey, Breaking Ground Dance Festival, LA Department of Cultural Affairs’ LA Dance Platform, Sarasota Contemporary Dance and Highways Performance Space, and has been supported by CalState LA’s Research, Scholarship and Creativity Awards, CalArts, ARC grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation, UCLA Hothouse Residency and Show Box LA. As a dance educator, Tavarez has taught as faculty and guest artist at numerous institutions including USC Kaufman School of Dance, University of Michigan, Loyola Marymount University, Scripps College, CalState Long Beach, Studio School, University of Southern Mississippi, Texas State University and Cal State LA. Currently she serves as the BFA Program Director at CalArts Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance. rosannatavarez.com
Photo credits: Niloufar Shiri, photo by Natalia Nazarova and Diaspora Arts Connection; Kathryn Shuman, photo courtesy of the artist; Sharon Chohi Kim, photo by Ruth Kim; Theodosia Roussos, photo by Jeremy Jackson; Diana Wyenn, photo by Cinthya Silverstein; and Rosanna Tavarez, photo courtesy of the artist.
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Music at Emory Music at Emory brings together students, faculty, and world-class artists to create an exciting and innovative season of performances, lectures, workshops, and master classes. With more than 150 events each year across multiple Emory venues, audiences experience a wide variety of musical offerings. We hope you enjoy sampling an assortment of work from our student ensembles, community youth ensembles, artists in residence, professional faculty, up-and-coming prodigies, and virtuosos from around the world.
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