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Darius bluetail4/6/2023 ![]() ![]() Reza Behjat is a lighting designer originally from Iran. Titilayo is also chamber music coach for the New York Youth Symphony, as well as a mentor for the Fortissima Program at the Colburn School. Titilayo thrives in the chamber music setting making appearances at the Classical Music Institute in San Antonio as a mentor, helping to foster the love of collaboration in up and coming musicians hearts. One of the recipients of the 2021 Ann Divine Educator Award from the Fischoff Chamber Music, Titilayo is passionate about equity in education and has crafted education seminars on nonverbal communication, literacy and storytelling. Titilayo currently resides in New York City and is a D.M.A. Holding degrees in performance from University of Cincinnati-CCM and University of Texas at Austin, she has also worked closely with members of the Artemis Quartet at Queen Elisabeth Chapel in Belgium. Lawrence String Quartet, Robert DeMaine, Lawrence Power and many others. Titilayo has worked closely with musicians such as Yo-Yo Ma, Michelle Cann, Anththony R. As a member of the ensembles duo kayo and Thalea String Quartet, Titilayo has been a top prize winner at both the Fischoff and Chamber Music Yellow Spring competitions, held residences at Britten Pears and Avaloch Farm, as well as crafted programs of marginalized music for the Caramoor Center for the Arts, Chamber Music Tulsa, Chamber Music Society of Cincinnati and the Boulanger Initiative. Titilayo Ayangade has spent more than two decades behind the instrument, enjoying performances in orchestras and chamber ensembles, commissioning new music, and more recently beginning to compose to create evocative multimedia performances. Together we hope this piece is a call to resist and heal from violence perpetuated by racist and constricting worldviews. The artists have asked how through the power of their collective art they can invite a global audience to consider the state of affairs, to consider their own breath, and by extension consider the breath of others. All the rituals themselves are editable to become specific to each location the performance travels.Įric Garner’s story is one of a person martyred in a society that has gone deeply awry. Bell and director Niegel Smith led the design of a series of rituals that will be shared with all presenters as part of a social impact toolkit. Their voices add real-life perspectives and provide the context necessary to understand healing practices and rituals. Shamell Bell joined the project as Co-Social Impact Directors. Gwen Carr, Eric Garner’s mother, and activist Dr. To further ground the work, the creative team engaged a group of mothers who have lost their children to state-sanctioned violence. The performance unfolds across seven movements and concludes with a summons for the audience to determine their own path forward in the fight for social justice. Her action captures the profound intimacy of personal loss as well as how communities gather around those affected. An artist and activist, she calls on her community to create and participate in a ritual of healing. Erica, the center of this experience, has lost her father to police violence. ![]() The specific situation of Ritual of Breath becomes a metaphor for anywhere such actions take place as it evokes the reality of “the other” in our world. ![]() The universal international relevance of the work is palpable, as we see the reverberations of similar acts of violence in every country across the globe. Together, their work has resulted in a groundbreaking opera that features Riley’s captivating paintings and drawings of Black life, an evocative soundscape comprising piercing soprano vocals and the music of a chamber ensemble, poetic dance movements and immersive projections by Peter Nigrini. ![]() Jawole Willa Jo Zollar consulted on choreography. Pioneering theater artist Niegel Smith came on to direct and Kamna Gupta to conduct. In 2016 visual artist Enrico Riley and composer Jonathan Berger joined forces as fellow Prix de Rome recipients to create a work that grappled with these issues, inviting poet Vievee Francis to craft the powerful libretto. Having just premiered at Dartmouth’s Hopkins Center for the Arts and Stanford Live, Ritual of Breath leverages the power of music, text, dance and visual art to create a deeply moving meditative experience that aims to evoke empathy and understanding and to spur activism beyond the stage. The Ritual of Breath Is the Rite to Resist is a chamber opera-theater work by Jonathan Berger, Enrico Riley and Vievee Francis that responds to the murder of Eric Garner and the ongoing loss of Black life at the hands of authorities. ![]()
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