Unbound

Program Notes  

Molly Joyce - Form (conform and reform)

for voice, clarinet, percussion and flute ~ 11 mins

Form is a song cycle centering on physical conformation, deformation, reformation, and transformation themes. Much of my artistic work focuses on creating an aesthetic grounded in physical impairment, and I thus believe that these themes are central to the social construction of disability and its surrounding parameters.

Therefore with the songs, I hope to not only counter previously-constructed views and notions regarding disability but also bring into question why and how these impressions are established. As I have a physically-impaired left hand due to a previous car accident, it has become incredibly important to me to engage with the social construction of disability and call into question whether or not this construction can be challenged, if not even transformed, to suggest a physicality beyond ability and beyond comparison.

Form was written in 2017-18 throughout the US and Europe, and was commissioned by the VONK Ensemble with support from the Fonds Podiumkunsten. The cycle is also dedicated to the VONK Ensemble, to whom I am immensely grateful for their dedication and efforts throughout the creative process.

Melanie Eden - No One To Be

Content Warning: please be cautioned that the following program note contains reference to themes of abuse to minors.

No One To Be is a transdisciplinary work combining live performance and film where artist Melanie Eden processes personal and familial trauma through telling her story and song.

With imagery and field footage by video artist Mischa Baka, the piece is a deeply personal exploration of the author’s history of institutional child sex abuse.  Influenced by First Nations culture, the work ruminates on the question “where do I come from?” In creating this work, Melanie investigated her father's history - one of child sex abuse within the Catholic Church and the silencing and enabling of many layers thereafter. From learning her ancestors' story, she has been compelled to grapple with the memory of incest of her own. The artwork’s central creative motivation is to serve as a way of reckoning with historical harms, and what reparative action looks like. 

The music's foundation lies in Buddhist teachings applied to singing. Melanie’s creative practice is guided by Ānāpānasati Sutta, a process that includes contemplating the body and mind, experiencing impermanence, the concept of the non-self and the ultimate goal of letting go. She is exploring how to translate these states—from stillness to rapture—into a musical and visual experience.

The work's soundscape is rooted in improvisation, a form Melanie has cultivated with gratitude for collaborators like Clayton Thomas and Jim Denley. Their spontaneous approach honors the evolving nature of her creative journey, blurring the lines between art, spirituality, and advocacy. No One To Be is a testament to the idea that a work's meaning is found as much in its making as in its final form.

Lyrics

I was trying to cry
But the tears wouldn’t roll down my eyes
but there’s no one to be anymore

I was trying to know
Then I grasped at everything that would go
And I reaped when I could have just sown
but there’s no one to be anymore

There’s no one to be
There’s nowhere to go
There’s nothing to do
There’s no more to know
There’s no one to be anymore…

I was trying to lie
But the words couldn’t get me on by
And the world became false as I tried
But there’s no one to be anymore

There’s no one to be
There’s nowhere to go
There’s nothing to do
There’s no more to know
There’s no one to be anymore…

And we hold on to hope
But sometimes it draws us closer and closer to a rope
And the blues weigh us down as we swim
And I’m trying as hard as I can
But somehow I’d forgotten I can reach out and hold my own hand.

There’s no one to be
There’s nowhere to go
There’s nothing, nothing to do
There’s no more to know
There’s no one to be anymore…

Sonnet Curé - Plastik

~ 15 minutes

"Plastik" is a performance that explores the suffocating veils that exist over ourselves and our abilities. This performance indulges the frustration and hysterics that come from feeling inadequate, in a plastic covered dining room scene. Inspired by Miss Havisham's grotesque and frozen-in-time gothic lifestyle from the renowned novel "Great Expectations", this work is an experimental electronic climax of what isn't proper to express to others and to ourselves.

Oliver House with Zoe Morgan and Alon Ilsar - Charge

Charge features innovative collaborations that bridge the gap between technology and bodily movement. Percussionist and inventor Alon Ilsar shares his AirSticks—wearable devices that transform movement into sound—with Oliver House, a wheelchair dancer. In this new devised work, Oliver will perform a new piece, ‘Charge,’ with dancer Zoe Morgan and Alon on drums.

More Information coming soon!