Synchromy presents two operas in one ticket at Boston Court Pasadena.

PROGRAM

Vera Ivanova: The Double

Ian Dicke: Roman

The Double by Vera Ivanova (libretto by Sarah LaBrie) questions how our outward depiction of ourselves impacts our perceptions of reality. The troubled hero of our story believes that his digital social profile, created by him, is acting independently in an attempt to take over his life. Ultimately, the audience is left asking if he really is losing his mind, or if he can see a reality we all have missed. Librettist Sarah LaBrie says of the script, “When Vera Ivanova approached me with this project, my first thought was that this story would offer an incredible opportunity to play with the concept of identity and the way it changes as our lives migrate increasingly online. Now, however, I’ve come to understand that the significance of The Double to our current cultural moment runs much deeper than that. In 2022, many of us are coming to terms with what it means to be a citizen of a country founded on a dream that clashes glaringly with the reality many of us confront.”

Roman, a multimedia opera in two acts by Ian Dicke, questions the morality of designing intelligent machines to exhibit human-like behaviors. Through a fictitious story about an AI assistant committing murder after being fed degenerate training data, this work explores the future legal ramifications of crimes committed by AI, the reach of male toxicity, the plight of virtual echo chambers and polarization, and the paradox of developing human-like computers to work in tandem with increasingly machine-like human workforces. Roman implores us to hold a mirror to our perceived values and calls an essential question: if we train autonomous AI with our concepts of morality, will the machines of the future follow our rules?

In mid-2021, as the pandemic continued into its second year, we decided that we wanted to embark on a fluxus-themed journey with everyone in Southland Ensemble & invite some friends from around the world to participate with us. As a group, we have upheld the tradition of exploring some form of fluxus art annually (save for 2020), so this was an obvious and exciting choice for us.

Orange Event Number 20 (1963-66) by Bengt af Klintberg was one of the pieces we previously explored in our inaugural fluxus concert in 2015 at ArtShare LA.  Klintberg created a number of Orange Events (which in the fluxus tradition are Event Scores), many of which can be found in the Fluxus Workbook. This time around, we thought it would be interesting and fun to invite artists near and far,  as well as some young artists that we have worked with, to interpret the text scores however they like. There were no specific instructions or guidelines given to the participants, except the realization(s) had to be filmed. It is interesting to note that although the full title is From Twenty-Five Orange Events, there are not twenty-five events (as far as our research could tell, including perusing a copy of Klintberg's The Cursive Scandinavian from 1967).

View Orange Events at https://www.southlandensemble.com/orange-events

The LA Phil’s new music marathon with a full day of pop-up performances featuring some of the leading artists and ensembles from Southern California as well as national leaders in contemporary music. Plus, there will be DJs spinning records in the craft beer garden, delicious eats from Chef Ray Garcia’s asterid, and more.

In partnership with KCRW, Netflix presents the world premiere live-to-screen performance of Jonny Greenwood’s Oscar nominated score from Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog with the Wordless Music Orchestra.

The Power of the Dog stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Jesse Plemons. The film received 12 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director (Jane Campion), Best Adapted Screenplay (Jane Campion), Best Actor (Benedict Cumberbatch), Best Supporting Actor (Kodi Smit-McPhee, Jesse Plemons), Best Supporting Actress (Kirsten Dunst), Best Cinematography (Ari Wegner), Best Editing (Peter Sciberras), and Best Original Score (Jonny Greenwood).

Come and join us at our CSUF New Music Festival 2022, Coming Together. Each month we will have special guest composers and artists performing live at the CSUF Clayes Performing Art Center. This video features the performers for the month of February and March. This concert will feature Brightwork Music Ensemble with Stacey Fraser

Weaving the listener on a kaleidoscopic soundscape exploration based on Earth's vibrational frequencies, Resonant Earth is an ambient, meditative and evocative ensemble piece for strings, harp & electronics meant to harmonize and to prepare you for the viewing experience of Welcome to Earth

On Friday, Dec. 3, the Dog Star Orchestra presents an evening of experimental music with Green Hour or Gray Future at the Wende Museum in Culver City, Calif. A program of experimental music from the United States and Eastern Europe will draw a connection between the near-miss nuclear apocalypse of the Cold War era and the present threat of environmental apocalypse. 

The orchestra was founded in 2005 by composer and guitarist, Michael Pisaro-Liu, faculty in The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts. The ensemble’s work Green Hour or Gray Future is presented as part of the Music at the Wende concert series. Described as “messily exceptional” by the Los Angeles Times, the orchestra is known for advocating the local experimental music scene and performing in venues both off the beaten path and in more traditional spaces. In addition to being an ensemble, Dog Star Orchestra also holds an annual Los Angeles-based namesake summer concert series. 

For the first time since the pandemic, and in honor of Veterans Day, Cal State San Bernardino’s Opera Theatre will present a live performance – “Opera in the Trenches!” – on Wednesday, Nov. 10, in the Performing Arts Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m.

The CSUSB Opera Theatre will have special guest artists Kevin Blickfeldt, baritone, who was featured in the boy opera band VOX from the TV show America’s Got Talent!, as well as critically acclaimed cellist and continuo player Jennifer Bewerse.

“Opera in the Trenches!” is a program of excerpts from some of the most famous operas and Broadway musicals that revolve round a theme of war and peace. These selections encompass over three centuries of opera and music theatre. They include scenes from Handel’s “Giulio Cesare in Egitto” set in the style of the famous Hollywood production of “Cleopatra,” as well as the beloved “I’m gonna wash that man right outa my hair” from Rodger and Hammerstein’s “South Pacific,” and fan favorites from Mozart’s “Cosi fan Tutte,” John Adams’ “Doctor Atomic,” Offenbach’s “The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein,” Donizetti’s “La Fille du Régiment” and the iconic “Bui Doi” from “Miss Saigon.”

Tickets for “Opera in the Trenches!” can be purchased at the CSUSB music department website or at the Box Office, Monday through Friday, noon to 3 p.m.

The return of The Tune In Festival will feature more than 30 artists and ensembles over four days, coming together to pay respect to the time-honored tradition of music and poetry as sources of resilience, protest and inspiration. Curated by performance poet J. Ivy and pianist Lisa Kaplan in close collaboration with CAP UCLA Creative Advisor Kristy Edmunds. 

For the festival, Jennifer created a music flm for experimental violin duo The Furies. Confronting humanity's impact on the climate and our place in the universe, The Furies's piece for the Tune In Festival is a meditation on the arc of history, from the primal dawn of civilization to an uncertain future. 

Day 2: Friday, November 5 at 7PM PT

Karim Sulayman

Eighth Blackbird: Singing in the Dead of Night by Julia Wolfe

The Furies: Did He Promise You Tomorrow

Mariee Sioux

Watch for FREE at https://cap.ucla.edu/calendar/details/tifday2

The Residency Project hosts an opening + film screening for their exhibition, Interstice. One of the films to be screened features Southland Ensemble's performance of William Roper's Pigs, Pigs, Oh! Those Tasty Pigs originally created for Music for Your Inbox. Tickets are pay what you can, suggested $15 Get your tickets at https://form.jotform.com/212135572225145 **** Interstice is an evolving and itinerant exhibition exploring the theme of interstices*—interstitial spaces, moments, identities, philosophies, and states of being or perceiving.  *Interstice (noun) \ in-ˈtər-stəs \  1. a space that intervenes between things a: especially one between closely spaced things, ie. interstices of a wall b: a gap or break in something generally continuous, ie. the interstices of society 2. a short space of time between events Interstice began in May 2021 as a short-run exhibition featuring artist books, small sculptures, and sensorial installations. This iterative exhibition, curated by Sarah Umles, has since expanded to include many more artists, presenting work in expanded media including video, performance, net art, and social practice. Interstice has previously activated space at Franconia Sculpture Park (Shafer, MN), Focus Arts (Minneapolis, MN), The Residency Project (Pasadena, CA), and now MOTOR (Los Angeles, CA).  MOTOR is a mobile site that operates within and around the topology of Los Angeles. Taking the sprawl, temporality, and modularity as points of ignition; MOTOR navigates the routes of non-standard methodologies in artistic production & its presentation. MOTOR transports events alongside the narratives/histories of its contingent location and communal engagement to exhibit the underrepresented and the complex.  Exhibiting artists include: Judith Brotman, Nicholas F. Callaway, Leslie Anne Condon, Dasha + Zhanar, Enrico Dedin, JazzyJake Fetterman, Anna Haglin, Jean Hsi, Christina Reenberg Jensen & Karina Søby Madsen, Mariah Anne Johnson, Markéta Kinterová, Spencer Krywy, Darryl Lauster, Sara Lynne Lindsay, Carson Lynn, Madison May, Moshopefoluwa Olagunju, Janelle O'Malley, Jungho Park, Trina Michelle Robinson, Liz Rodda, Jean-Michel Rolland, William Roper, Ruoyi Shi, Sylvain Souklaye, Kate Stone, Cristian Tablazon, Mateo Vargas, Emma Wood, Shan Wu, and Boyang Yu.