Joseph C. Phillips Jr.‘s ensemble Numinous returns to Roulette to present excerpts from his opera So Far Behind Now Because Then and compositions by collaborators George Brandon, Anthony Branker, Bob Goldberg, and Steven Swartz (from Phillip Jr.’s call-for-scores & Numinous Initiative). All four are world premieres, the one by Branker being the premiere in this specific instrumentation.

In the second set, Numinous will perform a few excerpts from the first opera in the 1619 opera cycle, So Far Behind Now Because of Then by Joseph C Phillips Jr.. Reduced from the original 50-person orchestra to a 21-person chamber ensemble, the performance will feature sopranos Rebecca L. Hargrove and Ariadne Greif singing excerpts from their roles in the opera. The opera is centered on a Black family’s experience living in a sundown town outside of Chicago in 1948. This performance will be a first chance to publicly hear selections from the opera and to learn more about the development of the cycle and how “the past is still present.”

Joseph C Phillips Jr. – composer, conductor
Rebecca L Hargrove  – soprano
Ariadne Greif  – soprano
Katie Cox – flute
Christa van Alstine – clarinets
David Smith – trumpet
Deborah Weisz – trombone
Jay Sorce – guitar
Sebastian Noelle – guitar
Yifei Xu – keyboard
Alex Perry – keyboard
Tom Beckham – vibraphone
Liann Cline – harp
Aubrey Johnson – voice
Jasmine Wilson – voice
Noa Fort – voice
Tammy Scheffer – voice
Ana Milosavljevic – violin
Frederika Krier – violin
Laura Sacks – viola
Nick Pauly – viola
George Crotty – cello
Paloma Ferrante – cello
Dan Loomis – basses

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.

Numinous is a flexible and unique large ensemble that was founded in 2000 by composer Joseph C. Phillips Jr. to perform his music. The musicians in Numinous have also performed with: Joyce DiDonato, MET Opera, Bang on A Can All-Stars, Signal, Alarm will Sound, Björk, Sting, Stevie Wonder, International Contemporary Ensemble, Rufus Wainwright, Steve Reich , Newspeak, Laurie Anderson, Hans Zimmer, John Zorn, Victoire, Asphalt Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Houston Symphony, Maria Schneider Orchestra, Henry Threadgill, and many other contemporary ensembles and artists.

Part chamber orchestra, part contemporary alternative group, Numinous deftly and organically transmutes inspiration from contemporary classical, jazz, world, and popular music as well as cinema, literature, and science. Through its numerous performances—such as at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)’s Next Wave Festival, the Ecstatic Music Festival and Merkin Concert Hall, (Le) Poisson Rouge, Roulette—and critically well-received recordings The Music of Joseph C. Phillips Jr. (2003, Numen Records), Vipassana (2009, innova Recordings), Changing Same (2015, New Amsterdam Records), and The Grey Land (2020, New Amsterdam Records), Numinous reflects Phillips’s musical philosophy of mixed music; the term is inspired by mixed race people who have traits and characteristics that come from each individual parent, from the melding of the two, and their own uniqueness. Mixed music is an organic fusing of various artistic and cultural influences into one distinctive and singular vision. Numinous and Phillips’s music generate emotions in the listener that resonate with beauty, mystery, and wonder in order to challenge, enlighten, and refresh.