stolen rivers
instrumentation | strings in any combination, with small found bell ensemble
date | 2024
duration | c. 6'
premiere | commissioned by Arco Collaborative for The Kennedy Center's 2024 Sounds of US Festival
note | stolen rivers is a work for strings and spatialized bells commissioned by the Kennedy Center’s Sound of US Festival in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States. Conceived as a work to transition between spaces in the Kennedy Center, namely the two-story Gallery and Studio K concert hall, stolen rivers reflects on the complex relationships of Washington, D.C. 's historically poor communities with the Potomac (Patowomeck) River and its surrounding neighborhoods. Growing up in Mt Pleasant, the transport divide (or unequal access to wealthier neighborhoods via public transportation) heavily restricted my ability to participate in social and cultural activities in the richer neighborhoods of D.C., including Georgetown. As I return seven years later for a premiere at the Kennedy Center, I don’t recognize much of my heavily gentrified hometown - even my own neighborhood’s small, local art space BloomBars is at current risk of seizure. Two hundred and fifty years later and local communities are still displaced under the auspices of ‘civilization.’
date | 2024
duration | c. 6'
premiere | commissioned by Arco Collaborative for The Kennedy Center's 2024 Sounds of US Festival
note | stolen rivers is a work for strings and spatialized bells commissioned by the Kennedy Center’s Sound of US Festival in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States. Conceived as a work to transition between spaces in the Kennedy Center, namely the two-story Gallery and Studio K concert hall, stolen rivers reflects on the complex relationships of Washington, D.C. 's historically poor communities with the Potomac (Patowomeck) River and its surrounding neighborhoods. Growing up in Mt Pleasant, the transport divide (or unequal access to wealthier neighborhoods via public transportation) heavily restricted my ability to participate in social and cultural activities in the richer neighborhoods of D.C., including Georgetown. As I return seven years later for a premiere at the Kennedy Center, I don’t recognize much of my heavily gentrified hometown - even my own neighborhood’s small, local art space BloomBars is at current risk of seizure. Two hundred and fifty years later and local communities are still displaced under the auspices of ‘civilization.’