DACAMERA and The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University present
Matthew Aucoin and Peter Sellars: Music for New Bodies
World Premiere | Concert Performance
Co-commission of DACAMERA, the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company), Aspen Music Festival and School, and LA Opera
Texts by JORIE GRAHAM
Libretto assembled by MATTHEW AUCOIN and PETER SELLARS
MATTHEW AUCOIN, composer and conductor
PETER SELLARS*, director
KATHRYN LEWEK*, soprano
MERYL DOMINGUEZ*, soprano
RACHAEL WILSON*, mezzo-soprano
BRENTON RYAN*, tenor
CORY MCGEE*, bass-baritone
*denotes guest artist
Instrumental ensemble of Shepherd School of Music students and DACAMERA Young Artists
A major new work and first collaboration between AMOC* member and co-founder composer Matthew Aucoin and director Peter Sellars. A musical premiere is brought to life by five vocal soloists and an 18-instrument ensemble conducted by Matthew Aucoin.
Music for New Bodies is inspired by the visionary poetry of Jorie Graham, addressing some of the most urgent questions of our time: In our quest for immortality, what have human beings done to the planet, and what are we doing to ourselves? What are these post-human, machine-generated intelligences that we so heedlessly continue to create, and which seem almost capable of replacing us? Music for New Bodies is a 360-degree portrait of the moment we are living in, a piece that brings together questions of environmental responsibility, scientific progress and the ethics of humanity’s questionable quest to surpass the human.