Liquid Music to Hold New Composer-Filmmaker Pairings Series

Boundary-defying producer Liquid Music, led by "presenter of rare initiative" (Star Tribune) Kate Nordstrum announces Sun Dogs-an ongoing series bringing together inspired composer and filmmaker pairs to create short-format films with new music for live orchestra (10-15' in length). The first three offerings-featuring works by Daniel Wohl, Arooj Aftab, Josephine Decker, Rafiq Bhatia, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Devonté Hynes, Mati Diop, and Manon Lutanie-will premiere with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) in six Music Hall performances October 14-16, conducted by CSO Creative Partner Matthias Pintscher in partnership with the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial.

Typically, a composer responds to a director's images and ideas in a film scoring capacity, or a director is given a song to respond to for a music video, but Sun Dogs explores how stories can be told-both musically and visually-from equal footing. A "sun dog" is an atmospheric optical phenomenon produced by refracted light, allowing the viewer to briefly see another realm. This series examines the limitations and possibilities of our senses in the natural world.

"Composers and filmmakers often interact in certain prescribed ways, and I have always felt there were exciting and as of yet undiscovered, non-traditional approaches to bringing these artists together," said composer and Sun Dogs co-producer Daniel Wohl. "This program is an amazing opportunity to explore this with the unlimited sonic possibilities, and world class artistry, of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra."

The premiere of Sun Dogs merges a myriad of groundbreaking creators and first-time collaborators. "Sorcerer of electroacoustic music" (NPR) composer Daniel Wohl and recent GRAMMY-winning semi-classical, Hindustani minimalist composer/vocalist Arooj Aftab join forces with the filmmaker ushering in a "new grammar of narrative" (The New Yorker) Josephine Decker. Guitarist, composer, producer, and sound artist Rafiq Bhatia-"one of the most intriguing figures in music today" (The New York Times)-pairs up with the internationally recognized Thai director who "knows how to find the visually uncanny in the mundane" (The New Yorker) Apichatpong Weerasethakul, recognized as an original voice in contemporary cinema. "Polymath musician" (The New York Times) Devonté Hynes (best known for his project Blood Orange) collaborates with French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop-winner of the Cannes Film Festival's Grand Prix for her film Atlantics, and the first Black female director to be nominated for the festival's highest award, the Palme d'Or, and Paris based publisher and filmmaker Manon Lutanie.

"I'd like to observe a transformation of lights, nature, our brains. A change in everything. Something quiet and precious that we (or our bodies) experience daily," shared filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul on his thought process for the work. "Does cinema have a capacity to bring about the present, or it is always about the past memories?"

Liquid Music Artistic Director Kate Nordstrum added, "Daniel Wohl and I felt moved to create a new vehicle for composer and filmmaker collaboration. The CSO's commissioning investment makes this vision a reality, and hopefully inspires other orchestras to join us as we build a series of new works for orchestra and moving image, all loosely connected under a broad and resonant thematic umbrella."

Sun Dogs

Commissioned and presented by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as part of the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial: World Record

Produced by Liquid Music

October 14-16, 2022

Music Hall-Springer Auditorium, Cincinnati, OH

Tickets available July 26 at cincinnatisymphony.org.

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