Brooklyn Botanic Garden Announces New Details About Kamala Sankaram's 2023 Residency

Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) today reveals it has commissioned two new works by Kamala Sankaram, acclaimed composer, performer, and BBG's 2023 Artist in Residence. The first work, Cultivar, will be performed by vocal sextet The Western Wind.

The second work, The Garden, will feature Sankaram singing and playing sitar; guitarist Drew Fleming will also be providing vocals. Both compositions will premiere in live performances at the Garden on September 30 and October 1 as part of Power of Trees, a program series centered on the ways trees serve as pillars of our natural and cultural worlds. Throughout spring and summer 2023, Sankaram spent 200 hours in the Garden exploring its collection of trees, the way they are cared for, and their symbolism as places of gathering, shelter, and culture.

Cultivar is made up of five movements, each focused on a different tree found at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Highlighted trees include the Evamaria (Magnolia × brooklynensis), the cherry collection (Prunus), the weeping beech (Fagus sylvatica 'Pendula'), the dawn redwoods (Metasequoia glyptostroboides), and the mangrove trees (Rhizophora mangle).

 

The Garden will use audio from Sankaram's interviews with BBG staff members and community members, collected on her quest to learn more about how the Garden's collection of trees is maintained and appreciated. Featured interviewees include William Lenihan, a BBG native flora gardener discussing the pitch pine (Pinus rigida), Shelley Worrell, founder of I AM caribBEING reading her recipe for soursop punch, and Georgia Silvera Seamans, an urban and community forester.

Praised by the Washington Post as “one of the most exciting opera composers in the country,” Sankaram moves freely between the worlds of experimental music and contemporary opera. Nature is a frequent inspiration in Sankaram's work. She has crafted immersive soundscapes in Prospect Park and Van Cortlandt Park, championing the urban forests across the city. Her experience creating these dynamic soundscapes makes her uniquely qualified to partner with BBG for the Power of Trees program series.

“I'm very excited to share these new works with the Brooklyn Botanic Garden community,” said Kamala Sankaram. “Over the last few months, it has been a pleasure to spend time both with the trees and with the people who care for them– the fantastic team at BBG. Those conversations have sparked new ideas about our connection to the natural world as humans and as people living together in the city. I hope that these pieces can spark similar conversation among the people who come to hear them.”

“Kamala has immersed herself in the trees of BBG's living museum – she has learned about the science of how trees grow and how we care for them,” said Adrian Benepe, president and CEO of Brooklyn Botanic Garden. “We are excited to host the premiere of Cultivar and The Garden, which may alter the way audience members look at and think about the trees in their lives.”

As part of the residency, New Yorkers and visitors joined Sankaram to collaboratively create a soundscape of the community around the Garden on August 15. Publicly sourced sounds used in the piece included singing, running water, birdsong, frogs, and thunder.

The live performances of Kamala Sankaram's Cultivar and The Garden will take place at Brooklyn Botanic Garden on September 30 and October 1 at 2 p.m. Tickets are included with Garden admission. Visit bbg.org to reserve tickets. 

Praised as “one of the most exciting opera composers in the country"” (Washington Post), composer Kamala Sankaram moves freely between the worlds of experimental music and contemporary opera. Recent commissions include works for the Glimmerglass Festival, Washington National Opera, the PROTOTYPE Festival, and Creative Time, among others. Kamala is known for her operas fusing Indian classical music with the operatic form, including Thumbprint, A Rose, Monkey and Francine in the City of Tigers, and the forthcoming Jungle Book. Also known for her work pushing the boundaries of the operatic form, recent works include The Last Stand, a 10-hour opera created for the trees of Prospect Park, Brooklyn, Only You Will Recognize the Signal, a serial space opera performed live over the internet, Looking at You, a techno-noir featuring live datamining of the audience and a chorus of 25 singing tablet computers, all decisions will be made by consensus, a short absurdist opera performed live over Zoom, and The Parksville Murders, the world's first virtual reality opera.

As a performer, Kamala has been hailed as "an impassioned soprano with blazing high notes" (Wall Street Journal). A frequent collaborator with Anthony Braxton, she has premiered his operas Trillium E and Trillium J, as well as appearing on his 12-hour recording GTM (Syntax) 2017. Other notable collaborations include Meredith Monk's Atlas with the LA Philharmonic, The Wooster Group's LA DIDONE (Kaaitheater, Brussels, Edinburgh International Festival, Rotterdam Schouberg, Grand Théâtre de la Ville, Luxembourg, St. Anne's Warehouse, NY, REDCAT, Los Angeles),and the PROTOTYPE Festival's production of her composition THUMBPRINT (Baruch Performing Arts, NY, REDCAT, Los Angeles). Kamala is the leader of Bombay Rickey, an operatic Bollywood surf ensemble whose accolades include two awards for Best Eclectic Album from the Independent Music Awards, the 2018 Mid-Atlantic touring grant, and appearances on WFMU and NPR. Awards, grants and residencies: Jonathan Larson Award, NEA ArtWorks, MAP Fund, Opera America, HERE Artist Residency Program, the MacDowell Colony, and the Watermill Center.

Dr. Sankaram holds a PhD from the New School and is currently a member of the composition faculty at SUNY Purchase.

Founded in 1910, Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) is an urban botanic garden that connects people to the world of plants, fostering delight and curiosity while inspiring an appreciation and sense of stewardship of the environment. Situated on 52 acres in the heart of Brooklyn and open year-round, the Garden is home to over 12,000 kinds of plants and more than 30 specialty gardens.

Garden entrances are at 990 Washington Avenue, 150 Eastern Parkway, and 455 Flatbush Avenue. Learn more about BBG at bbg.org.

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