Jen Shyu’s “Solo Rites: Seven Breaths” directed by Garin Nugroho
Wednesday, May 28, 2014 at 8PM
Roulette
(509 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn, 11217)
Tickets: $20(General), $15 (Students/Seniors)
- Jen Shyu: Composition, vocals, dance, Taiwanese moon lute, piano, gayageum, erhu, East Timorese lakadou
- Garin Nugroho: Director
- Danang Pamungkas: Choreographer
- Kristen Robinson: Set & Prop Designer
- Solomon Weisbard: Lighting Designer
- Maria Hooper: Costume Designer
Jen Shyu is a multi-talented performer; she is an East Timorese-Taiwanese, American-born jazz singer who performs Korean vocal and gayageum music in both their traditional forms and in new compositions. Born in Illinois, Shyu is an award-winning experimental jazz vocalist, composer, multi-instrumentalist, dancer, scholar, and educator, having performed and taught internationally as a solo artist, bandleader, and collaborator. She is a Fulbright scholar and has received awards from Asian Cultural Council, Jerome Foundation, and the Bronx Council of the Arts.
This solo opera is a performance of sonic, visual, and visceral rites and reflections upon her pilgrimages throughout various Asian countries. Using multiple tools of expression in multiple languages, this solo performance—that of a woman living simultaneously in multiple cultures and “projecting her ancestry” through contemporary monologue—will reveal a personal journey of loss and redemption made universal, giving voice to the silenced. These losses reflect crises plaguing these lands: the loss of voices found in traditional music and shaman rituals; the loss of habitat and wildlife and thus the linked ancient cosmology. These issues will be explored in a multi-arts performance. For more information, please visit the Roulette website at http://roulette.org/events.