unSUNgs first live concert since the pandemic began is also our farewell.  We are privileged to welcome these incredible artists for our series finale:

Selections from Peace, a newly released album

Harriet Fraser, soprano

Selections from 12 Settings of Lorine Niedecker by Harrison Birtwistle

and thaes ofereode, thisses swa maeg by Evan Johnson

Stephanie Aston, soprano

Jennifer Bewerse, cello

Selections from Inner Astronomy, a newly released album

Molly Pease, vocalist

Miller Wrenn, bass

New England Folk Songs by Steve Danyew

Natalie Mann, soprano

Tali Tadmor, piano

Over the past two years, communities have struggled to connect without sharing space. As we come back together, we want to take time to focus on what happens when we all share space together.

Performances of Jackson Mac Low’s Asymmetries (chance poems that can be played as music) are different every time. The poems themselves are nonsensical, and there’s no specific goal or correct outcome from each performance, but because people are gathered, listening, and relating, the sensation of meaning always emerges. As if by magic, meaning arises simply from events sharing time and space.

Community members are invited to participate in the performance, either as readers or observers. No professional experience is necessary; an interest in the work and desire to perform it is enough.

After a long time apart, we look forward to gathering and to creating meaning together. Those interested in participating in the performance can attend one or both of the coaching sessions that the Music Festival musicians will be attending, in preparation for Friday night’s performance. These sessions will be:

MONDAY, JUNE 20 7:30-8:30 pm and WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22 4:00-6:00pm

Both coaching sessions and the Friday night performance will be held at the Harvard Unitarian Universalist Church at 9 Ayer Road in Harvard, MA.

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?

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?

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