Numinous at Roulette

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Joseph C. Phillips Jr.'s 21-member Numinous ensemble returns to Roulette to present excerpts from his opera So Far Behind Now Because Then along with world premieres by George Brandon, Anthony Branker, Bob Goldberg, and Steven Swartz.

Swartz's 'Any minute, now' (2021-23) references the COVID pandemic. Says the composer, "For most, it was a time of waiting, alternately tinged with boredom, despair, frustration, and flickers of optimism. In the two contrasting panels that comprise 'Any minute, now,' time passes in distinctly different ways. The first part is yearning and expectant; the second, suspended and tremulous. Waves of hope crest and recede, looking out toward an uncertain future."

George Brandon's 'Introduction, Litany and Prayers' represents the composer's wish to "counter those people and those forces that endanger the good of the earth." The title of Anthony Branker's 'The Door of No Return' refers to a portal on Gorée Island in Senegal through which many enslaved Africans passed as they were led onto ships destined for the New World. Bob Goldberg's 'Dream Sequence' is the composer's new arrangement of a piece originally written for twelve accordions. 

In the second set, Numinous will perform a few excerpts from the first opera in the 1619 opera cycle, So Far Behind Now Because of Then by Joseph C Phillips Jr.. Reduced from the original 50-person orchestra to a 21-person chamber ensemble, the performance will feature sopranos Rebecca L. Hargrove and Ariadne Greif singing excerpts from their roles in the opera. The opera is centered on a Black family’s experience living in a sundown town outside of Chicago in 1948. This performance will be a first chance to publicly hear selections from the opera and to learn more about the development of the cycle and how “the past is still present.”