UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) will present Jennifer Koh & Davóne Tines' Everything That Rises Must Converge on Friday, Apr 17, 2020 at 8 p.m. at Royce Hall. Tickets starting at $28 are available now at cap.ucla.edu, 310-825-2101 and the Royce Hall box office.
Everything That Rises Must Converge weaves together Jennifer Koh and Davóne Tines' family histories through music, their voices and their ancestor's voices-Gretrude Soonja Kim, Koh's grandmother and John Hilton Tines Senior, Tine's grandfather-projection design, movement, and lighting, all under the direction of co-creator James Darrah.
With a score that combines African-American spirituals, Korean lullabies, works written for Jennifer Koh by composers Missy Mazzoli, Andrew Norman and Julia Wolfe, and music by Bach, Beethoven and Holst, Everything That Rises Must Converge culminates in a new duo by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, Du Yun.
Although their paths never crossed, Soonja and John's remarkable lives are intertwined by the changing tides of immigration and civil rights in the late-twentieth century. Soonja and John tell personal stories of survival and determination, but also of heartache and isolation. This multimedia work is structured as a call and response among these four voices, spanning generations and marginalized communities.
Koh and Tines ask questions of themselves, their families, and the shared experiences of Korean and African Americans and respond with a new understanding of their roots, through music. The four voices converge on the next important question: "Where do we go from here and now?"
Funds for Everything That Rises Must Converge were provided in part by Fariba Ghaffari and Kathleen & John Quisenberry.
CAP UCLA's Contemporary series concludes with Anthony de Mare: Liaisons 2020: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano (Apr 25, Royce Hall).
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