Tag: Gemma Peacocke

Gemma Peacocke: Erasure

What: New solo and chamber works by New Zealand composer Gemma Peacocke exploring themes of gender, identity and marginalization.
When: Wednesday, June 6, 2018
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $25 Door, $20 Online
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: http://bit.ly/SP180606

Brooklyn, NY – Composed by Gemma Peacocke, directed by Benita de Wit, and featuring string quartet Schiele, saxophonist Shelley Washington and a unique ensemble of performers, Erasure explores the marginalized experiences of women through a new program of solo and chamber works. Gender and identity themes are reflected and refracted across different instruments in a performance that blends live music and electronics, and shimmers with the potential of a new and uncharted cultural landscape.

The evening comprises five works: “Quiver” pierces the undercurrent of rage resulting years of marginalization and abuse; “Mothertongue,” a new work for solo violin and electronics, splinters and reforms under the tension between individual and collective experience; “Erasure” explores how ordinary and extraordinary women have been written out of history; “Skin” looks at the experience of being born a woman into a world where gender, race, size, age and appearance can determine one’s safety; “Aglow” flickers between shadow and light with the hope for change created by the #MeToo movement. These five works make up a tapestry of interconnected themes as we move fluidly through the world of Gemma Peacocke’s compositions.

Program:
Erasure – for amplified string quartet (NYC Premiere)
Quiver – for piano, bass, and percussion (NYC Premiere)
Aglow – for piano, bass, and baritone saxophone
Skin – for saxophone and electronics (NYC Premiere)
Mothertongue – for violin and electronics (World Premiere)

Shelley Washington – baritone and alto saxophone

Schiele String Quartet
Adrianne Munden-Dixon – Violin
Michelle Painter – Violin
Carrie Frey – Viola
Molly Aronson – Cello


[COMMISSION] Gemma Peacocke: Waves + Lines

What: Gemma Peacocke presents a newly commissioned multimedia song cycle adapted from Afghan women’s folk poems.
When: Thursday, June 22, 2017, 8pm
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $25/20 Online $20/15 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: General Admission $20, Members/Students/Seniors $15, $25/20 Tickets at the door

Brooklyn, NY – New Zealand composer Gemma Peacocke presents Waves + Lines, a multimedia song cycle for soprano, electronics and chamber ensemble, adapted from Eliza Griswold‘s book, I Am the Beggar of the World: Landays from Contemporary Afghanistan.

Landays comprise a single rhyming couplet on subjects like love, grief, home, and war. They relay both a collective and a very individual experience so vivid and relatable that it is hard not to be captivated by the passion, desperation, and humor of the authors. Exploring the distance, anonymity and strange intimacy of phone calls, text messages, and radio broadcasts in which the poems are shared, the performances will feature the use of fixed electronics and projections. The ultra-conservative regime of the Taliban has meant that the lives of Afghani women are largely invisible to the outside world. Landays offer a surprising and vivid glimpse into this secret world.

New-York-via-New-Zealand composer Gemma Peacocke writes both acoustic and electronic music and composes music that seamlessly combines electronics with traditional instruments and voices. She often collaborates with filmmakers, choreographers, and theatre practitioners, including with director Benita de Wit and renowned choreographer Sylvain Émard. Peacocke studied with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Julia Wolfe with support from the Arts Council of New Zealand and NYU Steinhardt, and spent fall 2015 studying at the Institute for Music / Acoustic Research and Coordination (IRCAM) in Paris. Her music has been performed in New Zealand, Australia, Austria, Brazil, United States, and Denmark.