WU TSANG
'MOBY DICK; or The Whale'
Score by Caroline Shaw, Andrew Yee
and Asma Maroof | ECHOI, performers
PERFORMANCES:
TICKETS:
ALL PERFORMANCES TAKE PLACE AT 8PM. TICKETS ARE $15 EACH.
ALL TICKET PROCEEDS WILL BE DONATED TO HAUSER & WIRTH LOS ANGELES' 2023
CHARITABLE PARTNER OF THE YEAR, THE HOUSE OF AWT PROJECT.
TO INQUIRE ABOUT ACCESSIBLE PRICING OPTIONS, EMAIL info@hauserwirth.com.
LOCATION:
HAUSER & WIRTH, LOS ANGELES (ARTS DISTRICT)
901 E 3rd ST, LOS ANGELES, CA 90013
ALL PERFORMANCES TAKE PLACE AT 8PM. TICKETS ARE $15 EACH.
ALL TICKET PROCEEDS WILL BE DONATED TO HAUSER & WIRTH LOS ANGELES' 2023
CHARITABLE PARTNER OF THE YEAR, THE HOUSE OF AWT PROJECT.
TO INQUIRE ABOUT ACCESSIBLE PRICING OPTIONS, EMAIL info@hauserwirth.com.
LOCATION:
HAUSER & WIRTH, LOS ANGELES (ARTS DISTRICT)
901 E 3rd ST, LOS ANGELES, CA 90013
PROGRAM:
WU TSANG - 'MOBY DICK' (2022) [75']
with a SCORE BY CAROLINE SHAW and ANDREW YEE with ASMA MAROOF
WU TSANG - 'MOBY DICK' (2022) [75']
with a SCORE BY CAROLINE SHAW and ANDREW YEE with ASMA MAROOF
PERFORMED BY:
ECHOI ENSEMBLE
JONATHAN HEPFER, CONDUCTOR
ECHOI ENSEMBLE
JONATHAN HEPFER, CONDUCTOR
Andrew McIntosh, violin
Mona Tian, violin Michelle Sheehy, violin Adrianne Pope, violin Xenia Deviatkina-Loh, violin |
Myra Hinrichs, violin
Wendy Richman, viola Linnea Powell, viola Diana Wade, viola Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick, cello |
Derek Stein, cello
Jennifer Bewerse, cello Niall Taro Ferguson, cello Kathryn Schulmeister, bass Matt Kline, bass |
DESCRIPTION:
In ‘MOBY DICK; or, The Whale’, award-winning filmmaker and visual artist Wu Tsang and the collective Moved by the Motion embark upon a feature-length, silent-film telling of Herman Melville’s great American novel. Presented in its Los Angeles premiere for The Performance Project at Hauser & Wirth Downtown Los Angeles, the film includes original music composed by Caroline Shaw and Andrew Yee with Asma Maroof, performed live by Monday Evening Concerts' ensemble in residence, ECHOI, conducted by Jonathan Hepfer.
This adaptation, written by Sophia Al-Maria and directed by Tsang, follows the white whale above and below the surface of the water, developing a visual cosmology that resists the exploration and exploitation of the earth under imperial colonialism. The narrative is interwoven with extracts by the Sub-Sub-Librarian, a character played by Fred Moten, and tackles the novel’s subterranean currents, encountering the resistance of the ship’s hydrarchy, or organizational structure, and collectives of ‘mariners, renegades and castaways,’ as described by historian C.L.R. James. The staging of this adaptation by Moved by the Motion pairs the classic story of the whaler’s ‘floating factory‘ with the beginnings of the film industry in silent film. The film was shot entirely on a soundstage combining silent-era filmmaking techniques with a virtual reality game engine projecting surreal ocean environments. ‘MOBY DICK; or, The Whale’ is produced by the Schauspielhaus Zürich and co-commissioned by LUMA Foundation, Superblue, TBA21—Academy, HARTWIG ART FOUNDATION, The Shed, DE SINGEL and the Whitney Museum of American Art. |
BIOGRAPHIES:
WU TSANG
Wu Tsang is an award-winning filmmaker and visual artist. Tsang’s work crosses genres and disciplines, from narrative and documentary films to live performance and video installations. Tsang is a MacArthur 'Genius' Fellow, and her projects have been presented at museums, biennials, and film festivals internationally. Awards include 2016 Guggenheim Fellow (Film/Video), Creative Capital, Rockefeller Foundation and Warhol Foundation. She has collaborated with brands including Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Marni, Saint Heron x Woolmark and Swarovski. Tsang received her BFA (2004) from the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and an MFA (2010) from University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Currently Tsang works in residence at Schauspielhaus Zurich, as a director of theater with the collective Moved by the Motion.
CAROLINE SHAW
Caroline Shaw is a musician who moves among roles, genres, and mediums, trying to imagine a world of sound that has never been heard before but has always existed. She works often in collaboration with others, as producer, composer, violinist, and vocalist. Caroline is the recipient of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music, several Grammy awards, an honorary doctorate from Yale, and a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. This year’s projects include the score to “Fleishman is in Trouble” (FX/Hulu), vocal work with Rosalía (MOTOMAMI), the score to Josephine Decker’s “The Sky Is Everywhere” (A24/Apple), music for the National Theatre’s production of “The Crucible” (dir. Lyndsey Turner), Justin Peck’s “Partita” with NY City Ballet, a new stage work “LIFE” (Gandini Juggling/Merce Cunningham Trust), the premiere of “Microfictions Vol. 3” for NY Philharmonic and Roomful of Teeth, a live orchestral score for Wu Tsang’s silent film “Moby Dick” co-composed with Andrew Yee, two albums on Nonesuch (“Evergreen” and “The Blue Hour”), the score for Helen Simoneau’s dance work “Delicate Power”, tours of Graveyards & Gardens (co-created immersive theatrical work with Vanessa Goodman), and tours with So Percussion featuring songs from “Let The Soil Play Its Simple Part” (Nonesuch), amid occasional chamber music appearances as violist (Chamber Music Society of Minnesota, La Jolla Music Society). Caroline has written over 100 works in the last decade, for Anne Sofie von Otter, Davóne Tines, Yo Yo Ma, Renée Fleming, Dawn Upshaw, LA Phil, Philharmonia Baroque, Seattle Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Aizuri Quartet, The Crossing, Dover Quartet, Calidore Quartet, Brooklyn Rider, Miro Quartet, I Giardini, Ars Nova Copenhagen, Ariadne Greif, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Britt Festival, and the Vail Dance Festival. She has contributed production to albums by Rosalía, Woodkid, and Nas. Her work as vocalist or composer has appeared in several films, tv series, and podcasts including The Humans, Bombshell, Yellowjackets, Maid, Dark, Beyonce’s Homecoming, Tár, Dolly Parton’s America, and More Perfect. Her favorite color is yellow, and her favorite smell is rosemary.
ANDREW YEE
GRAMMY Award winning cellist Andrew Yee has been praised by Michael Kennedy of the London Telegraph as “spellbindingly virtuosic”. Trained at the Juilliard School, they are a founding member of the internationally acclaimed Attacca Quartet who have released several albums to Critical acclaim including Andrew’s arrangement of Haydn’s “Seven Last Words” which Thewholenote.com praised as “ . . .easily the most satisfying string version of the work that I’ve heard.” They were the quartet-in-residence at the Met Museum in 2014, and have won the Osaka and Coleman international string quartet competitions. Their newest recording of the string quartets of Caroline Shaw won a GRAMMY for best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble performance.As a soloist last season Andrew performed John Taverner’s The Protecting Veil and Strauss Don Quixote. In 2019 they won the first prize at Oklahoma University’s National Arts Incubation Lab for their pitch of a wearable garment that translates sound into vibrations for the hard of hearing. They like to make stop-motion videos of food, draw apples, cook like an Italian Grandma and have developed coffee and cocktail programs for award-winning restaurants (Lilia, Risbobk, Atla) in New York City.
Their solo project “Halfie” draws on their experience as a bi-racial and non-binary person in having access to multiple communities at once, while not feeling at home in any of them. The works commissioned and on the concerts will feature a wide range of composers all for solo cello.
They play on an 1884 Eugenio Degani cello on loan from the Five Partners Foundation.
Their solo project “Halfie” draws on their experience as a bi-racial and non-binary person in having access to multiple communities at once, while not feeling at home in any of them. The works commissioned and on the concerts will feature a wide range of composers all for solo cello.
They play on an 1884 Eugenio Degani cello on loan from the Five Partners Foundation.
ASMA MAROOF
Multi Faceted Electronic musician Asma Maroof is driven by experimentation and sonic dualities creating new pathways.
Working across various forms of sound in the club, art, theater, film, and fashion realms; she wears many hats.
Her origins starting 2008 are in the underground club scene and touring with M.I.A in 2010 when they collaborated on her acclaimed Vicki Leekx Mixtape. She continued touring and releasing music with her partner Daniel Pineda under Nguzunguzu. In 2015 she released with group Future Brown and started her on going collaboration with the artist Kelela.
Now immersed in composing for film and theater she resides in Zurich, working at the Schauspielhaus Zurich since 2019 with Moved by the Motion artists Wu Tsang , Tosh Basco, and Josh Johnson. In 2023, she released an experimental jazz record on PAN called The Sport of Love with artists Patrick Belaga and Tapiwa Svosve.
Still inspired by her constant dj practice, sampling live acoustic instrumentation and manipulating it through tape and layering in electronics helps creates new sonic atmospheres for her many collaborations. Mesmerized by the connections sound makes internally, externally, and socially, she continues to explore its powerful storytelling capabilities, both behind the decks and on screen.
Working across various forms of sound in the club, art, theater, film, and fashion realms; she wears many hats.
Her origins starting 2008 are in the underground club scene and touring with M.I.A in 2010 when they collaborated on her acclaimed Vicki Leekx Mixtape. She continued touring and releasing music with her partner Daniel Pineda under Nguzunguzu. In 2015 she released with group Future Brown and started her on going collaboration with the artist Kelela.
Now immersed in composing for film and theater she resides in Zurich, working at the Schauspielhaus Zurich since 2019 with Moved by the Motion artists Wu Tsang , Tosh Basco, and Josh Johnson. In 2023, she released an experimental jazz record on PAN called The Sport of Love with artists Patrick Belaga and Tapiwa Svosve.
Still inspired by her constant dj practice, sampling live acoustic instrumentation and manipulating it through tape and layering in electronics helps creates new sonic atmospheres for her many collaborations. Mesmerized by the connections sound makes internally, externally, and socially, she continues to explore its powerful storytelling capabilities, both behind the decks and on screen.
ECHOI
ECHOI is a flexible chamber ensemble that serves as the ensemble-in-residence of Monday Evening Concerts. It was originally founded by Jonathan Hepfer and Alice Teyssier in Oberlin in 2006 as an autonomous group in the tradition of eighth blackbird and the International Contemporary Ensemble. For about a decade, the group's existence was nomadic, giving concerts at SUNY Buffalo, UC-San Diego, the MehrKlang Festival (Freiburg, Germany), Musica Sacra (Maastricht, Netherlands), and the Universities of Huddersfield, Minnesota and Leeds.
Since 2015, the ensemble has been based in Los Angeles, where it has grown roots, performing at venues such as Hauser & Wirth, the Getty Museum, LAXART and Zipper Hall. Recent projects have included Julius Eastman's Femenine, Holy Presence of Joan d'Arc, Gay Guerrilla and Crazy N, Steve Reich's Drumming and Music for 18 Musicians, Sarah Hennies' Contralto, Pierre Boulez's sur Incises, Yves Klein's Monotone Symphony, John Cage's Speech, Salvatore Sciarrino's Aspern Suite, and Gérard Grisey's Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil.
Since 2015, the ensemble has been based in Los Angeles, where it has grown roots, performing at venues such as Hauser & Wirth, the Getty Museum, LAXART and Zipper Hall. Recent projects have included Julius Eastman's Femenine, Holy Presence of Joan d'Arc, Gay Guerrilla and Crazy N, Steve Reich's Drumming and Music for 18 Musicians, Sarah Hennies' Contralto, Pierre Boulez's sur Incises, Yves Klein's Monotone Symphony, John Cage's Speech, Salvatore Sciarrino's Aspern Suite, and Gérard Grisey's Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil.