PUTNEY — Next Stage Arts presents composer and 2018 Guggenheim Fellow Felipe Salles's multimedia work, The New Immigrant Experience, on Friday, October 13, at 7:30 p.m. at Next Stage Arts, 15 Kimball Hill.
The project portrays experiences of the almost 700,000 individuals currently protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, commonly referred to as "Dreamers" based on the never-passed proposals in Congress called the DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education, for Alien Minors) Act. Salles himself emigrated from Brazil to the U.S. in 1995.
"Felipe Salles is a jazz composer who uses his personal narrative of an immigrant to help us understand the human stories behind headlines in the news," Keith Marks, executive director of Next Stage Arts, said in a news release. "We love presenting artists who utilize their artistry as a lever for social change and bringing us together. We're proud to bring Salles into local schools to talk with kids and present his craft."
The two-CD/DVD set of The New Immigrant Experience, his eighth recording, features the 18-piece Felipe Salles Interconnections Ensemble and was released in 2020 via Tapestry Records. With the aid of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship, Salles developed this work using speech cadences and melodic motifs based on key words as the main source of musical material.
Individual stories and experiences of growing up bilingual and undocumented also informed musical choices, he says. The personal stories shared in this work were collected through interviews Salles conducted with a group of nine "Dreamers" during the summer of 2018. Videos of the interviews were created by Fernanda Faya.
"It's an emotional musical journey through beautiful orchestral textures, carefully developed motifs, and intense solo features that combine the power of a big band recording and the dramatic landscape of a soundtrack," say organizers.
Premiered in April 2018 at performances in New York City and Massachusetts, The New Immigrant Experience was subsequently recorded in the studio. The recording was then recombined with live video excerpts, creating an experience that "gives full-throated voice to immigrant groups in the United States today," notes the artist's (1)website.
Salles gained firsthand knowledge of the issues surrounding DACA and the "Dreamers" after befriending classical pianist Tereza Lee, the original inspiration behind the DREAM Act.
After writing The Lullaby Project (2018), a large-scale work inspired by the cross-generational importance of Brazilian lullabies as part of a cultural identity for immigrant families like Salles's, The New Immigrant Experience was a continuation of his artistic vision and a vehicle to contribute to the discussion regarding the place and value of immigrants in America during these turbulent political times.
"The New Immigrant Experience is a complete work of art, whether one experiences the music alone or in combination with the DVD, or in live performance with videos projected behind the band, as it will be presented at Next Stage," say organizers.
Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door, and $10 for access to the livestream of the performance. Next Stage will provide a cash bar. Advance tickets and more information are available at nextstagearts.org.
This The Arts item was submitted to The Commons.