Ensemble Pi: Radical Kinship

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Isabelle Deconinck | Lernerdeconinck.com
646-623-1709 | isadeco@earthlink.net
 

If kinship was our goal, we would no longer be promoting justice. We would be celebrating it. Because here is the truth: No kinship, no justice. No kinship, no equality. – Father Greg Boyle

 

Radical Kinship is Ensemble Pi’s new concert project, inspired by the work of global champion of social justice, Father Greg Boyle, and his belief in the power of radical kinship to heal society’s inequalities. For Boyle (founder of the LA-based Homeboy Industries, one of the most successful rehabilitation and re-entry programs for gang members in the country), the solution to an unfair criminal justice system begins with the recognition that we belong to each other, and the necessity to give voice to marginalized people. In the spirit of Boyle’s radical kinship, Ensemble Pi has commissioned composers Orlando Jacinto García, Gregg Welcher, Ralph Mendoza and rapper AJ Peoples, and vocalist Damian Norfleet and dancer/puppeteer Maura Gahan, to create works addressing systemic poverty and over-criminalization with narratives told by (ex-)incarcerated people and other oppressed populations. 

Radical Kinship also includes Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time (selected movements), Frederic Rzewski's Attica (Part II), and former incarcerated people, Charles Grosso and Alberto Duque, narrating their own stories live with music accompaniment. The concert will cap with a Q&A featuring Father Greg Boyle and the artists.
 
A socially conscious new-music collective, Ensemble Pi has been commissioning living composers to create works addressing the issue of mass incarceration and the emotional toil it takes on inmates and society at large since 2015, and Black Lives Matter and systemic racism since 2016. The 2022 concert is presented by The Center at West Park (NYC), with support from Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice (Hartford, CT) – an organization working on ending mass criminalization, mass incarceration and the war on drugs.
 
Radical Kinship will be presented live and streamed at The Center at West Park on Wednesday, March 2, 2022 at 7 p.m. (with post-performance video available on demand). The Center at West Park is located at 165 W 86th Street, New York NY 10024. Tickets: $20 general/$15 students. A portion of the box office will be given to Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice. Register online at centeratwestpark.org/events/ensemble-pi-radical-kinship.
 
PROGRAM
Orlando Jacinto Garcia: impulso/momentum (2022, Premiere)
Baritone voice, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion, and text by Garcia 
 
Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time (selected movements) (1941)
Clarinet, violin, cello, piano
 
Frederic Rzewski: Attica (Part II) (1972)
Voice, chamber ensemble
 
Gregg Welcher: Set of variations on the prison work song “Early in the Mornin’” (2022, Premiere)
Tape, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion
 
Ralph Mendoza & rapper AJ Peoples: A Different Way (2022, Premiere)
Text from AJ Peoples and Quntos KunQuest’s novel, This Life (2021)
Voice (rapper), cello, violin
 
Maura Gahan & Damian Norfleet: Isolated Triptych (2022, Premiere)
An improvised piece for movement, puppetry, and voice
 
Charles Grosso: Resuscitation & Alberto Duque: I Had No Air
Stories by former incarcerated people, narrated live with music improvisation
 
Performers:
Moran Katz, clarinet; Alexis Gerlach, cello; Airi Yoshioka, violin; Victor Caccese, percussion; Idith Korman, piano; Damian Norfleet, voice; AJ Peoples, voice; Eduardo Leandro, conductor; Maura Gahan, dancer/puppeteer; Charles Grosso, narrator; Alberto Duque, narrator; Angel Tueros, guitar
 
ABOUT THE PROGRAM:
 
Commissioned by Ensemble Pi, Cuban-American composer Orlando Jacinto Garcia’s impulso/momentum is scored for chamber ensemble, with a text in Spanish written by Garcia. Whether whispered, spoken or sung, the text is descriptive of the impacts of social injustices found in the US and abroad, while the title refers to the current social movements attempting to combat these injustices. Playing with counterpoint between register, density, timbre and pacing, the music unfolds slowly, changing the listeners’ perception of time and freezing them in the moment. 
 
Also commissioned by Ensemble Pi, A Different Way is a fusion of classical and rap music with orchestration by Ralph Mendoza, lyrics by rapper AJ Peoples and track production by Nathan Semple. It is partially based on the acclaimed 2021 novel This life written by Louisiana State Penitentiary’s longtime inmate Quntos KunQuest and delving into the meaning of a life spent behind bars, the human bonds formed therein, and the poetry that even those in the direst places can create. AJ combines excerpts from the novel with his own experience to tell about a Black man caught in a system perpetuating poverty and keeping many institutionalized. In his song, the man talks about his matriculation to the prison system “all from one instance, one moment, one mistake, that altered the trajectory of his life, or was that instant a culmination of all the ways society failed him already?”
 
Gregg Welch’s commissioned piece is a set of variations on “Early in the Mornin’”— a prison work song expressing tremendous injustice and hardship and originally sung in Parchman Farm (Mississippi State Penitentiary). In order to let the song speak for itself, Welcher chose not to adapt the music for the instrumental ensemble but to present the original field recording as-is, allowing the voices from Parchman Farm to reach audiences directly. The resulting variations always keep the theme in their core, returning to the original recording at the closing of the piece.
 
Dancer/puppeteer Maura Gahan and vocalist Damian Norfleet’s Isolated Triptych, an improvised piece for movement, puppetry, and voice is inspired by the sociological structures of prisons (routine, personnel, and architecture), and their effects on the agency of both inmates and staff. The piece examines the experience of the individual in small, controlled spaces, and questions the assertion of authority in society at large, and ultimately the effectiveness of the prison system.
 
The concert will also include Part II of Frederic Rzweski’s minimalist masterpiece, Attica (1972), composed in the wake of the 1971 upstate New York prison rebellion and scored for narrator and open ensemble, as well as selected movements from Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time (1941), composed and first performed in the prisoner-of-war camp of Görlitz, Germany. In addition, the concert will feature two former inmates Charles Grosso and Alberto Duque, narrating their stories live with music improvisation.
 
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
 
Ensemble Pi, a socially conscious new-music group founded in 2002, features composers whose work seeks to open a dialogue between ideas and music on some of the world’s current and critical issues. For twenty years, Ensemble Pi has presented an annual Peace Project concert, commissioning new works and collaborating with visual artists, writers, actors and journalists such as William Kentridge, Naomi Wolf and David Riker. The ensemble was in residence for four American music festivals presented by the American Composers Alliance and now collaborates with the APNM. Symphony Space presented Ensemble Pi in birthday celebrations for composers Gunther Schuller and Krzysztof Penderecki. A multi-year collaboration with composer Elias Tanenbaum resulted in a CD of his chamber music, Keep Going, released by Parma Recordings in 2010 and reviewed by Gramophone as “a touching tribute to Elias Tanenbaum that is played with conviction and verve.” It was followed by a second CD of the music Laura Kaminsky, “played with warmth and variety” (American Record Guide). Ensemble Pi is currently working on its third CD. www.ensemble-pi.org
 
Growing up in Jamaica, Queens, AJ was exposed to the East Coast greats and was surrounded by gospel music sung by his family. After years of jokingly freestyling with his father and his friends, AJ stepped into his passion during his high school years. As a vocal major, he began to experience vocal issues that made him self-conscious because he didn’t see himself suitable for what was taught (opera, musical theater, jazz and classical music). It was during this time that AJ decided he would tell stories painting his own perspective though a personal use of lyricism. In NYC, there is a large dichotomy of the have and have nots, and AJ found himself in-between the lines in most situations. Still pursuing his passion for music, he went to college in D.C., where he began to gain the confidence and traction to continue on this journey. He approaches every track from an acute understanding that with every song he wants to make you feel emotions. Delivering his songs through witty metaphors, detailed narration, and memorable melodies, AJ knows he has a message that the People need to hear.
 
Originally from Malvern, Ohio, Maura Gahan is a choreographer, dancer, puppeteer, painter, and theater-maker.  Now residing in northeastern, Vermont, Gahan’s devotion to making art for social change has led to decades of multi-disciplined collaborations in performance, teaching, and research.  Equally at home in gilded opera houses and bucolic fields, Maura has traveled the world performing in dance and music concerts, theater productions, large-scale outdoor puppet pageants, circuses, parades, and street shows.  She has worked and studied with Lisa Nelson, Steve Paxton and Peter Schumann. As a full-time member of the Bread and Puppet Theater, Gahan co-created the Lubberland National Dance Company and shaped it into a touring, on-the-spot, community-based, political dance device. Gahan designed puppets and danced in works by Steve Paxton & Robert Ashley’s Quicksand (The Kitchen, NYC; Festival d’Automne, Paris, France), Blackbird Theater & Dance Heginbotham’s Fantasque (Bard SummerScape, NY; Skirball, NYC), Cathy Weis’ Sundays on Broadway (Weisacres, NYC), and Bread and Puppet Theater (Glover, VT). Currently, Gahan is an MFA Teaching Fellow in Dance at Bennington College. 
 
Through more than 200 works for a wide range of performance genres, Orlando Jacinto Garcia, has developed a distinctive music described as "time suspended—haunting sonic explorations" an aesthetic he developed from his work with Morton Feldman among others. After moving from Cuba at the age of seven in 1961, Garcia was educated in the United States and has taught at FIU for over three decades.  He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards including those from the Rockefeller, Fulbright, Civitella, Knight, MacDowell, Bogliasco, and Cintas Foundations. Most recently he has been the recipient of 5 Latin Grammy nominations in the Best Contemporary Classical Composition Category (2009–11, 15, 21).With performances in most of the major capitols of the world, his works are recorded on New Albion, O.O. Discs, CRI /New World, Albany, North/South, CRS, Rugginenti, VDM, Capstone, Innova, CNMAS, Opus One, Telos, Toccata Classics, and Metier/Divine Arts. Garcia is the founder of the NODUS Ensemble, the Miami Chapter of the ISCM, the New Music Miami Festival, and is a resident composer for the Miami Symphony. A dedicated educator, he is a Distinguished University Professor, and Composer in Residence for the School of Music at Florida International University.
 
Born and raised in Woodside, Queens, Ralph Mendoza is a New York composer, multi-instrumentalist and conductor. Ralph often uses visual media as his source of inspiration for many of his compositions and frequently records and manipulates audio tailored to each unique project. This compositional style has enabled Ralph to create new instruments, sounds and textures that blend in with his gentle but melodious orchestral writing. In 2021, his work for Aiden Kaye’s film Giles won the Berlin Short Film Festival and was a semifinalist for the Dumbo Film Festival. The film was also officially selected for several short film festivals including the Strasburg, List-Off Global Network and New York Shorts International Film Festival. Similarly visually driven, Ralph has also collaborated with several dancers such as Sylvia Berman’s 2021 Stillness piece and Samantha Scully’s 2021 Delirium and is now currently working on a composition for Lucy Tozzi’s upcoming dance piece. 
 
Damian Norfleet is an interdisciplinary performing artist, creator, and collaborator. He played the role of Smith in the 2012 Drama Desk Award-nominated production of The Threepenny Opera.  In 2014, Norfleet performed at the Guggenheim Museum as part of the Works & Process performing arts series. Soon thereafter, he portrayed Terrence Roberts in the world premiere of the play Little Rock, which earned him and the cast a Barrymore Award for Best Ensemble. Norfleet performed with Andre Braugher in the feature film Emily & Tim, starring Olympia Dukakis, and was the featured performer at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Beacon of Liberty Award honoring Terrence McNally. He regularly collaborates with two socially conscious, activist orchestras: The Dream Unfinished and Ensemble Pi. He co-curated Love in Times of Alienation(2017) and Young, Gifted, and Black (2020) with the Concerts in the Heights ensemble, both presented at New York’s Lehman Art Gallery.  In 2020, Norfleet was commissioned to write Kendi’s Secret (a piece for solo voice) in response to Dr. Ibram Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist for Ensemble Pi's Reparations Now! concert. www.damiannorfleet.com
 
Gregg Welcher is a Central New York-born composer, pianist, and educator. He has a Master’s degree in composition from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, where he studied with Scott Ordway and Steven Kemper, and an undergraduate degree in composition and piano at the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College, where he studied under Laura Kaminsky, Huang Ruo and Paul Ostrovsky. An avid collaborator in both composition and performance, he has been twice involved with the Seal Bay Festival, the first-ever Mostly Modern Festival, the soundSCAPE Festival, as well as the Brevard Music Festival, and will work with the Oregon Bach Festival’s Composer Symposium in the coming season. He has been also awarded top prizes in numerous piano competitions. As a composer, Gregg is driven to connect the techniques and language of modern art music with the urge for direct emotional expression and communication. As a pianist, he particularly enjoys programming new and contemporary works, as well as more neglected works of past composers, alongside the standard repertoire. Gregg is a representative for the Society for New Music, a member of the American’s Composer’s Forum, and is affiliated with BMI. www.greggwelcher.com
 
The Center at West Park is a not-for-profit community performing arts center based in the historic West Park Presbyterian Church, a New York City landmark. CWP is building a more inclusive community in the Upper West Side neighborhood and all of New York City by presenting diverse, engaging, and boundary-pushing artistic and cultural programming; providing affordable performance, rehearsal, and event space to local artists and community members; and preserving the West Park Presbyterian Church’s historic edifice. Led by Artistic Director Zachary Tomlinson and Managing Director Natasha Katerinopoulos, CWP is a vibrant cultural hub, a forum for conversations and connections that transcend barriers to address the important issues facing our society today. www.centeratwestpark.org. 
 
Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice works to strengthen the people, policies, institutions, and movements that advance equity, health, and justice for everyone. It is focused on ending mass criminalization, mass incarceration, and the war on drugs by passing legislation and fostering the leadership development of local community members. Currently, the Katal Center is working on a parole reform campaign called #LessIsMoreNY. This bill passed the New York State Assembly and once signed into law would bolster due process, provide speedy trials, and create a time-earned credit system for people on parole. You can learn more about the provisions of the bill with the #LessIsMoreNY Fact Sheet, here. www.katalcenter.org