For his 2024 Roulette Commission, saxophonist and composer David Leon premieres A Divine Echo, a hybrid work of chamber music and wordless puppet theatre. Engaging with love and compassionate sacrifice, aging, decay, and familial duty, A Divine Echo tells the story of a boy and his grandmother who live together.

The piece is inspired by bunraku puppetry and contemporary musics alike, expanding on Leon’s compositional practice to include a trio of puppeteers alongside a trio of musicians on vibraphone, cello, and clarinet. Together, the disciplines work in measured counterpoint, elucidating the parallels between them while weaving a narrative about the bonds we share with loved ones.

David Leon clarinet & sopranino saxophone
Matt Moran vibraphone & davul
Lester St. Louis cello
Dorothy James puppeteer
Emily Batsford puppeteer
Andy Manjuck puppeteer

Concept, script, and musical score by David Leon
All puppets designed and constructed by Yuliya Tsukerman
Lighting Design by M. Jordan Wiggins
Stage Quilt by Olga Leon

“[David Leon’s] extroversion feels like a natural part of his musical personality, spiking his agile post-bop with nifty conceptual brio that never gets in the way of his desire to communicate.” – Peter Margasak, The Quietus

A livestream will be available free of charge at 8pm on the day of the performance and archived for future viewing. Watch below or on YouTube.

David Leon is a Miami-born saxophonist, woodwinds player, composer, and improviser living in Brooklyn, New York. His work is guided by a persistent search for vitality through autonomy, contradiction, hyperbole, and humor. His work with the saxophone investigates alternate methods for producing a tone, refinement of these techniques, and development of a distinct vocabulary using these sounds; he melds this timbral approach with melodic and rhythmic phrasing from Cuban folkloric traditions, narrative playing, Free Jazz & avant-garde esthetics, and microtonality to reveal a personal conceit.

Yuliya Tsukerman is a Brooklyn-based puppeteer and mask-maker working in theater and film. She writes, directs, and builds cross-disciplinary works, often in collaboration with other artists. Her current project, Transmissions from the Ancient Forest, is a series of video poems and accompanying books in which a community of lesser gods tries to make sense of human suffering.