On the heels of the contentious 2024 presidential election, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) and the orchestral collective Wild Up, present a weekend of activities that examine “democratic and cooperative practices” during a period of uncertainty and political change.
The three-day happening begins tonight (Friday, Nov. 8) with the concert, Democracy Session 1: American Ledger. Featuring the music of Pulitzer Prize-winning artist, composer, and CalArts alum Raven Chacon (Music MFA 04), Wild Up member Rachel Beetz, and Dutch composer Louis Andriessen, the session asks listeners to think about civic structures, history, and the balance between individual freedom and collective responsibility.
Concert performers include members of Wild Up, many of whom are CalArtians, including Music faculty Mona Tian (Music BFA 13), violin, and mattie barbier (Music MFA 10), trombone; Andrew Tholl (Music MFA 08, DMA 12), violin; Matt Cook (Music MFA 10), percussion; and Archie Carey (Music MFA 11), bassoon and electronics.
Democracy Session 2: The Dispossessed takes place on Saturday with a work-in-progress reading and discussion of the libretto for a new musical-theatrical-operatic adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin’s science fiction classic novel, The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia. Composed by Ted Hearne with librettist Chana Porter, Saturday’s session also features CalArtians, including Carey on bassoon and Brian Walsh (Music BFA 06, MFA 08) on saxophones.
Democracy Session 3 on Saturday afternoon features a screening and reading of Harmony Holiday’s work Ark of Bones/To the Race Industry In Crisis (after Henry Dumas and Frank O’Hara). A conversation with Holiday follows the screening.
On Sunday at noon, Democracy Session 4: The Democracy Bardo is a participatory work in which contributions by Democracy Sessions participants throughout the weekend are interpreted and responded to during a series of live improvisations by Wild Up members. Performers include Max Jaffe (Music MFA 21) on drumset and electronics, and M.A. Tiesenga (Music-IM MFA 19) on saxophones and the hurdy-gurdy.
The weekend closes with the participatory workshop and performance, Stimmung. This reimagining of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Stimmung (“tuning” in German) features live electronics and ritualistic elements by vocal ensemble HEX. The session explores “harmony and the communal experience of making music to understand the vital and deeper social and political meanings and implications of sound and tuning.” Members of HEX performing at MOCA include CalArtians Molly Pease (Music MFA 17), Chohi Kim (Music MFA 14), Fahad Siadat (Music MFA 09, DMA 18), and Scott Graff (Music MFA 02).
