New York, NY (MATA – Aguas da Amazonia PREMIERE)
May 18
https://www.matafestival.org/2024-mata-festival
May 18, 2024 @ 7:00PM
OPEN WATERS
The closing concert of the 2024 MATA Festival features Olivier Glissant’s new orchestration of Philip Glass’s Aguas da Amazonia, featuring the Brooklyn Orchestra. Composed by Glass and based on his travels in Brazil during the early 1990s, Aguas da Amazonia deftly incorporates elements of classical, new age, and jazz music. The work, composed as a series of musical “sketches,” was first performed by the Brazilian percussion ensemble Uakti using highly specialized instrumentation.
Released as an album on Point Music in 1999, Aguas da Amazonia has since captivated countless listeners despite amassing only a thin live performance history – limited by the unusual Uakti instrumentation. In this new arrangement, Glissant has translated the feel and rhythms of Glass’s work into a version for mainstream orchestral instrumentation – making this enduring work accessible to a broader range of ensembles worldwide. This final program also features Anthony R. Green’s Connections, Wenbin Lyu’s Duke’s Fantasy I, and Mariel Terán’s Manos de Tierra. The evening highlights scores for open instrumentation, graphic notation, and a live installation performance of Andean wind instruments from selected submissions.