Aruán Ortiz: Reimagining Tropiques: Then and Now

Name: Aruán Ortiz: Reimagining Tropiques: Then and Now
Start: 2024-11-14T21:30:00-05:00
Location: 3111 N Western Ave Chicago IL 60618

Schedule

Thu Nov 14 2024 at 09:30 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

3111 N Western Ave Chicago IL 60618 | Chicago, IL

8:30pm.

Reimagining Tropiques: Then and Now featuring Aruán Ortiz, Anaïs Marviel and Aliya Ultan.
Reimagining Tropiques: Then and Now, is an new trio project with singer and percussionist Anaïs Maviel that examines articles, comments, and essays on negritude, creolization, and transatlantic Surrealism published by the iconic Martinican magazine Tropiques from 1941 to 1945, and explores the cultural syncretism between French modernism and the Afro-Caribbean experience. My score includes a series of pieces/sketches that integrate traditional Afro-Caribbean rhythms and chants, contemporary classical music, and avant-garde jazz improvisation, as well as poetry and spoken word with the idea of reinterpreting the ideas to illustrate the work narrative of the journal.
Reimagining Tropiques: Then and Now, has been made possible through Jazz & New Music, a program of Villa Albertine and FACE Foundation, with support from the French Ministry of Culture, Institut français, SACEM (Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique) and the CNM (Centre National de la Musique).

Aruán Ortiz (piano, voice and percussion):
Born in Santiago de Cuba, composer, pianist, music researcher and conceptualist Aruán Ortiz has been an active figure in the progressive jazz and avant-garde scene for more than 20 years. Ortiz’s career includes writing, producing, conducting, and directing music for jazz ensembles, orchestras, dance companies, chamber groups, and feature films. His music consistently strives to break stylistic musical boundaries incorporating influences from contemporary classical music, Cuban-Haitian rhythms, and avant-garde improvisation.
He is a Guggenheim Fellow in Music Composition 2024 and a Doris Duke Impact Award 2014. Ortiz’s works include “Episodes of an Unforeseen Departure” (2023), premiered by the Harlem Chamber Players; “Piedras de Ida y Vuelta” (2023), premiered by Ensemble Ipse; and “Remaining Tropiques: Then and Now” (2023); the jazz suite “Pastor’s Paradox” (2022), inspired by the political legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., premiered at Teatro Dallas; the multi-disciplinary project “Flamenco Criollo” (2021), premiered at the Flamenco Biennale Nederland; and the score for ballet Santiarican Blues Suite (2011). Ortiz has more than 15 albums as a leader, and has collaborated on more than 30 recordings. As a music researcher and conceptualist, his works express a reverence for the rich diversity present in the music, history, politics, literature, visual arts, oral cultural expressions and traditions of the Afro-descendent communities in the Americas.

Anaïs Marviel (voice and percussion):
A vocalist, percussionist, composer, music director, educator, curator and healer, Anaïs’s work focuses onthe function of music as essential to settling common grounds, addressing Relation, and creating a utopianfuture.
Inspired by Edouard Glissant's reflections on Creolization, she has associated her work with the inextricablecurrents that move spaces and people between times and lands. The contemporary context of re-formulationof self, reality and social structures led her to question the use of language, and to explore its vibratoryessence in music. Involved at the crossroads of mediums - music, visual art, dance, theater andperformance art - she has been an in-demand creative force for artists such as William Parker, SteffaniJemison, Wally Cardona, Larkin Grimm, Shelley Hirsh, Mara Rosenbloom, Jonathan Bepler, Jawole Zollar &La Bomba de Tiempo, to name a few. As a leader she is dedicated to substantial creations from solo tomusic direction for large ensembles, and to expanding the power of music as a healing & transformative act.Her path has led her to share her music extensively in New York, as well as in multiple places throughoutNorth, Central & South America, Europe and Haiti. Her solo debut hOULe, out on Gold Bolus Recordings,received international acclaim.

Aliya Ultan (voice, cello):
Aliya Ultan is a composer and cellist from Brooklyn, NY. As a teenager Ultan participated in the New YorkPhilharmonic’s Very Young Composer’s Program where her music was both workshopped and performed atthe Lincoln Center. In 2011 Ultan was accepted to the Interlochen Arts Academy on a full scholarship whereshe studied composition with Dr. Cynthia Van Maanen and cello with Crispin Campbell.
Her musical talent goes beyond the boundaries of conventional classical music. She flawlessly combinesaspects of other genres with her distinctive brand of classical crossover, producing an enthralling andenergetic sound. She has collaborated with musicians based in folk, punk, jazz and classical musics as wellas creative writers with an interest in abstract storytelling. Her capacity to combine traditional melodies withmodern elements demonstrates her versatility as an artist and expands the definition of what classical musiccan be.
Besides her own multi-disciplinary projects, Aliya has worked with the New York Philharmonic, TyshawnSorey, the International Contemporary Ensemble, Metropolis Ensemble, choreographer Teddy Ment, amongmany others. She is a Jack Kent Cooke Young Artists Awardee (2015) and currently serves as a Programdirector for Make Music Cleveland and CREDO Music

Reimagining Tropiques: Then and Now, has been made possible through Jazz & New Music, a program of Villa Albertine and FACE Foundation, with support from the French Ministry of Culture, Institut français, SACEM (Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique) and the CNM (Centre National de la Musique).