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March 2 — UCSB Arts & Lectures presents a FREE Virtual Thematic Learning Initiative event: Meet-the-Artists Talk with Jennifer Koh, Davóne Tines, and their Creative Team titled Why Everything Rises

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  • UCSB Arts & Lectures presents a free virtual Thematic Learning Initiative event: Meet-the-Artists Talk with Jennifer Koh, Davóne Tines, and their Creative Team titled Why Everything Rises

  • World-renowned violinist Jennifer Koh is a forward-thinking artist dedicated to exploring a broad and eclectic repertoire

  • Bass-baritone Davóne Tines blends opera, spirituals, gospel and songs of protest to tell a deeply personal story of perseverance that connects to all of humanity

  • Panelists: Jennifer Koh, Violin and Co-Creator; Davóne Tines, Bass-Baritone and Co-Creator; Ken Ueno, Composer; Kee-Yoon Nahm, Narrative Structure and Dramaturgy

  • Moderated by Lisa Sun-Hee Park, Chair and Professor, Asian American Studies, UC Santa Barbara

 

“Everything Rises gives voice to experiences that have too often been silenced in American culture.” Santa Barbara Independent

Santa Barbara — UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L) presents the free virtual Thematic Learning Initiative event: Meet-the-Artists Talk with Jennifer Koh, Davóne Tines, and their creative team titled Why Everything Rises Wednesday, March 2 at 7:30 p.m. Pacific. The meet-the-artist talk will be moderated by Lisa Sun-Hee Park, Department Chair and Professor of Asian American Studies at UC Santa Barbara. Panelists will include Jennifer Koh, Violin and Co-Creator; Davóne Tines, Bass-Baritone and Co-Creator; Ken Ueno, Composer; Kee-Yoon Nahm, Narrative Structure and Dramaturgy. Register for the free webinar at https://bit.ly/rises-ucsb-2022.

 

World-renowned violinist Jennifer Koh is a forward-thinking artist dedicated to exploring a broad and eclectic repertoire. Bass-baritone Davóne Tines, “one of the most powerful voices of our time” (Los Angeles Times), blends opera, spirituals, gospel and songs of protest to tell a deeply personal story of perseverance that connects to all of humanity. Both are classical performers acclaimed for their virtuosity, yet bound by an industry dominated by whiteness. Together, with an all BIPOC creative team, these path-breakers are creating an original work co-commissioned by Arts & Lecture that powerfully reclaims their narratives. Join the conversation for an insider’s preview of Everything Rises.

 

ABOUT EVERYTHING RISES

 

“Davóne and I are in this together. He gives me space and hears me because he knows what it’s like to be a minority.” –Jennifer Koh

 

“We bolstered each other’s experiences because we both understood. Jenny thought she was fighting this alone, but we connected so that I could reflect and validate her experience. We converged.” —Davóne Tines

 

When Jennifer Koh and Davóne Tines’s paths crossed, they saw in each other an ally struggling with the same issue: being an artist of color in a culture dominated by whiteness. Everything Rises is both a record and artistic product of that mutual encounter. It is about connection, resonance, and the creation of a new space. Their collective exploration leads them to their family histories, sharing stories of Jennifer’s mother Gertrude Soonja Lee Koh’s experiences of the Korean War and immigration to the U.S., as well as Davóne’s grandmother Alma Lee Gibbs Tines’s memories of anti-Black discrimination and violence. The piece asks what it would take for all this grief, frustration, and anger to finally be heard.

 

In the multiple years that Everything Rises has been in development, there has been a new surge of activism against racist violence targeting Black and Asian Americans. Inspired by the recent outpouring of support and solidarity across racial identities, the piece proposes a united front through music. Standing together, Jennifer and Davóne look out at the audience shrouded in a cloud of whiteness. Who out there will meet their gaze?

 

Everything Rises is produced and commissioned by ARCO Collaborative with co-commissioner UCSB Arts & Lectures. Learn more at www.arcocollaborative.org.

 

ABOUT JENNIFER KOH

Recognized for intense, commanding performances delivered with dazzling virtuosity and technical assurance, violinist Jennifer Koh is a forward-thinking artist dedicated to exploring a broad and eclectic repertoire,  while promoting equity and inclusivity in classical music. She has expanded the contemporary violin repertoire through a wide range of commissioning projects, and has premiered more than 100 works written especially for her. Her quest for the new and unusual, sense of endless curiosity, and ability to lead and inspire a host of multidisciplinary collaborators, truly sets her apart.

 

Koh’s critically-acclaimed series include Limitless, The New American Concerto, Shared Madness, Bach and Beyond, and Bridge to Beethoven. Her most recent project, Alone Together was developed in response to the coronavirus pandemic and the financial hardship it placed on many in the arts community. This online commissioning project brings composers together in support of the many freelancers among them with the more established composers each donating a new micro-work for solo violin, while also recommending a fellow freelance composer to write their own solo violin micro-work on paid commission from Koh’s artist-driven nonprofit ARCO Collaborative. Initiated in 2018 at Brooklyn’s  National Sawdust, Limitless is a commissioning project that engages leading composer-performers, including Lisa Bielawa, Vijay Iyer, Missy Mazzoli, Qasim Naqvi, Tyshawn Sorey, Wang Lu, NinaYoung, and Du Yun, to write duo compositions that explore the artistic relationship between composer and performer. Performed by Koh and the composers themselves, these works appear on recording in September 2019, released by Cedille Records. The New American Concerto is Koh’s ongoing, multi-season commissioning project that explores the form of the violin concerto and its potential for artistic engagement with contemporary societal concerns and issues through commissions from a diverse collective of composers. Koh has premiered five concertos as part of the project: Tyshawn Sorey’s

For Marcos Balter, premiered with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2020; Lisa Bielawa’s Sanctuary, premiered with the Orlando Philharmonic in 2020; Courtney Bryan’s Syzygy, premiered with the Chicago Sinfonietta in 2020; Christopher Cerrone’s Breaks and Breaks, premiered with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2018; and Vijay Iyer’s Trouble premiered at the 2017 Ojai Music Festival.

 

In recital, Koh continues to perform music from her Bach and Beyond series, which traces the history of the solo violin repertoire from Bach’s Six Sonatas and Partitas to 20th-and 21st-century composers; and her Shared  Madness commissioning project, comprising short works for solo violin that explore virtuosity in the 21st century, written for the project by more than 30 of today’s most celebrated composers.

 

Born in Chicago of Korean parents, Koh began playing the violin by chance, choosing the instrument in a Suzuki-method program only because spaces for cello and piano had been filled. She made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 11. She has been honored as “A Force of nature” by the American Composers Orchestra and Musical America’s 2016 Instrumentalist of the Year. Koh was a top prize winner at Moscow’s International Tchaikovsky Competition, winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition, and a recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from Oberlin College and studied at the Curtis Institute, where she worked extensively with Jaime Laredo and Felix Galimir.

 

Learn more at www.jenniferkoh.com.

ABOUT DAVÓNE TINES

Hailed as an “immensely gifted American bass-baritone who has won acclaim, and advanced the field of classical music” (The New  York  Times), Davóne Tines is a groundbreaking artist whose work not only encompasses a diverse repertoire but also explores the social issues of today. As a Black, gay, classically trained performer at the intersection of many histories, cultures, and aesthetics, his work blends opera, art song, contemporary classical, spirituals, gospel, and songs of protest, as a means to tell a deeply personal story of perseverance that connects to all of humanity.

 

Tines is Artist-in-Residence at Michigan Opera Theatre — an appointment that will culminate in his performance in the title role of Anthony Davis’X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X in the spring of 2022 — and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale’s first-ever Creative Partner. His ongoing projects include Recital No. 1: MASS, a program exploring the Mass woven through Western European, African-American, and  21st-century  traditions, with performances this season at the Ravinia Festival, in Washington, D.C., presented by Washington Project for the Arts, and at the Barbican in London. He also performs Concerto  No.  1:  SERMON — a program he conceived for voice and orchestra that  weaves arias by John Adams, Anthony Davis, Igee Dieudonné and Mr. Tines himself, with texts by James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, and Maya Angelou — with the Philadelphia Orchestra and BBC Symphony.

 

Tines is a member of the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC) and co-creator of The Black Clown, a music theater experience commissioned and premiered by The American Repertory Theater and presented at  Lincoln Center. He has premiered  works by today’s leading composers, including John Adams, Terence Blanchard, and Matthew Aucoin, and his concert appearances include performances of works ranging from Beethoven’s Ninth with the San Francisco Symphony to Kaija Saariaho’s True Fire

with the Orchestre national de France.

 

Davóne Tines is a winner of the 2020 Sphinx  Medal of Excellence, recognizing extraordinary classical musicians of color. He also received the 2018 Emerging Artists Award from Lincoln Center for the

Performing Arts and is a graduate of Harvard University and The Juilliard School.

 

ABOUT THE MODERATOR, LISA SUN-HEE PARK

 

Lisa Sun-Hee Park’s interdisciplinary research focuses on the politics of migration, race, and social policy. Her work examines the ways in which immigrants and communities of color are not only excluded from the rights and protections of social citizenship, but also the problematic ways in which they are included – and, more importantly, how this relationship is interconnected. Her most recent books include: Entitled To Nothing: The Struggle for Immigrant Health Care in the Age of Welfare Reform (NYU 2011), which investigates the impact of federal welfare and immigration policies on Latina and Asian immigrant women’s health care access. And, The Slums of Aspen: Immigrants vs. the Environment in America’s Eden (co-authored with David N. Pellow, NYU 2011), a case study of how environmental initiatives utilize anti-immigrant, population control rhetoric to produce exclusive spaces of privilege within the global economy.

 

She is currently working on a new project on the state of health care access for low-income immigrants after the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Of particular focus is the patchwork of health care negotiated by low-income undocumented immigrants in need of long-term care within the U.S.-Mexico Border States. These cases are approached as telling examples of contemporary politics and application of public charge policy. In addition, she is working on a second project on the unionization efforts of Home Care Workers in Minnesota, which extends her research interest in gendered labor within the global economy.

See A&L’s full 2022 lineup here

 

Creating Hope

This is a moment that calls for Optimism, Resilience, Courage and Vision.

Santa Barbara needs Hope, and Arts & Lectures is uniquely positioned to respond.

A&L’s 2021-2022 CREATING HOPE programming initiative has already inspired our community with presentations by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, chef Jose? Andre?s and author Anne Lamott. We will continue to inspire, through shared experiences with thought leaders, creative problem solvers and arts visionaries who will guide us forward. CREATING HOPE programs strengthen human connection, promote emotional well-being, joy and compassion, and envision positive change. Learn more about the CREATING HOPE: https://artsandlectures.ucsb.edu/CreatingHope.aspx

 

Transform your life. Transform your community. Arts & Lectures’ Thematic Learning Initiative extends the conversation from the stage into the community, inspiring lifelong learning opportunities that initiate change and empowerment. Join A&L and other knowledge seekers like you who want to learn more, know more and do more to improve ourselves and the world around us.

What is it?

The Thematic Learning Initiative provides opportunities for anyone interested in delving deeper into the issues raised by A&L artists and speakers. Connect with others at intimate salon-style discussions, film screenings and added special public events. Receive online educational resources, sign up for book giveaways and more!?

 

What does it cost?

It’s FREE!

 

Who participates?

More than 2,000 community members like you and local organizations like social services, health and wellness providers and civic organizations.

?

Get involved!

Start receiving Thematic Learning Initiative information and resources. Create or update your Arts & Lectures account and select “Thematic Learning” as one of your interests.

 

 

ABOUT UCSB ARTS & LECTURES

 

Founded in 1959, UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L) is the largest and most influential arts and lectures organization between Los Angeles and San Francisco. A&L annually presents more than a hundred public events, from critically acclaimed concerts and dance performances by world-renowned artists to talks by groundbreaking authors and film series at UCSB and Santa Barbara-area venues. With a mission to “educate, entertain and inspire,” A&L also oversees an outreach program that brings visiting artists and speakers into local classrooms and other venues for master classes, open rehearsals, discussions and more, serving K-12 students, college students and the general public.

 

 

 

The free virtual Thematic Learning  Initiative event: Meet-the-Artists Talk with Jennifer Koh, Davóne Tines, and their creative team titled Why Everything Rises is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures.

This presentation is part of the 2021-2022 CREATING HOPE programming initiative.

 

To register or for more information, call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535 or visit https://bit.ly/rises-ucsb-2022.

Everything Rises is a Justice for All series event. Justice for all Lead Sponsors are Marcy Carsey, Connie Frank & Evan Thompson, Zegar Family Foundation, and Anonymous.

With thanks to our visionary partners, Lynda Weinman & Bruce Heavin, for their support of the Thematic Learning Initiative.

UCSB Arts & Lectures gratefully acknowledges our Community Partners the Natalie Orfalea Foundation & Lou Buglioli for their generous support of the 2021-2022 season.