Cycles of My Being / Save the Boys
Tyshawn Sorey, Joshua Stewart, Key’mon W. Murrah
European Premiere
Song cycles on race and masculinity.
„America – do you care for me, as I care for you?“ Tyshawn Sorey‘s songs tell of racism, violence and discrimination, but also of hope. The winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music 2024 is just as adept at new music as he is at jazz and reinvents his forms of composing with every task he confronts. With the song cycle Cycles of My Being and the 20-minute-long aria Save the Boys, he takes his place among the great art song composers. He uses the intimacy of the genre to expose what it means to be a Black man living in America today.
The abolitionist, writer and Black women's rights activist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper wrote Save the Boys in 1887, a poem addressing the dangers faced by young black men in society. More than 100 years later, the American poet Terrance Hayes deals in Cycles of my Being with the hardships of the Black population in the USA, primarily from the male perspective, echoing the Black Lives Matter movement. Although the texts are written more than 100 years apart, they still describe a contemporary reality.
The two soloists, American tenor Joshua Stewart and the multiple award-winning American countertenor Key'mon W. Murrah, contribute to the work not only with their voices, but also with their perspective. The prodigious multi-instrumentalist and composer Tyshawn Sorey appears here as a conductor.
Change of cast: Levy Segkapane had to cancel his performance at short notice. We are delighted that we were able to secure US tenor Joshua Stewart at short notice for the vocal part in Cycles of My Being.
Cast
- Cycles of My Being
- Tyshawn Sorey (Composition, Conductor),
- Lawrence Brownlee (Words),
- Terrance Hayes (Words),
- Joshua Stewart (Tenor),
- Khari Joyner (Cello),
- Yshani Perinpanayagam (Piano),
- Alexander Laing (Clarinet),
- Sarah Martin (Violin)
- Save the boys
- Tyshawn Sorey (Composition),
- Frances Ellen Harper Watkins (Words),
- Key'mon W. Murrah (Countertenor),
- Yshani Perinpanayagam (Piano)
- Production Manager Ruhrtriennale
- Lukas Kurz
- Technical Project Manager Ruhrtriennale
- Frank Böhle
- Technician
- Carsten Funke,
- Jan Kunz,
- Franzi Luhn,
- Andreas Semmler
- Dressing and Costume Team Ruhrtriennale
- Chantal Baumann
- Hair and Makeup Team Ruhrtriennale
- Freya Rottländer
Visit
Directions
Turbinenhalle an der Jahrhunderthalle Bochum
An der Jahrhunderthalle 1
44793 Bochum
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