November 16, 2018
Doors at 7:30. Music at 8.
In the final evening of Oscillations performances, composer, musician, and puppeteer Divyamaan Sahoo will present his new work “Flatland” and Les Chanteuses du Rien (Elaine Lemieux, Hanna Brock, and Sara Zalek) will present an immersive improvisation utilizing the entire ESS building.
OSCILLATIONS presents concerts by artists selected from submissions received in response to an open call for proposals.
DIVYAMAAN SAHOO presents “Flatland” (2018), a theatrical adaptation of Edwin Abbott Abbott’s novel “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions” (1884). The performance score is constructed using George Spencer Brown’s Laws of Form and will be performed as a solo shadow puppet theater piece.
TRICKSTER QUARTET/LES CHANTEUSES DU RIEN is Elaine Lemieux (operatic voice), Hanna Brock (violinist), and Sara Zalek (vocal/movement). They explore the personal dynamics of resonance and hidden histories in relation to space, drawing inspiration from classical scores, experimental opera, improvised sound, expanded cinema, and Butoh dance. Their performances are motivated by a strong desire to communicate intimately, through the absurd, the dramatic, the fantastical, and reconstructed language. For Oscillations, Les Chanteuses du Rien will perform two improvisations using the entire ESS building, moving from back to front and through, activating the various spaces and their resonance with their voices and movement.
Divyamaan Sahoo, from Kolkata, India, graduated from Bates College with a triple major in mathematics, music composition, and philosophy. He is a member of the intermedia improvisational unit BLURB, directed by virtuoso guitarist Arthur Kampela, and is the co-founder of the improvisational ensemble Eagle Stick, described by the Lewiston Sun Journal as “hard to pin down”. Sahoo served as resident musician for Bearnstow, dance accompanist for Bates, Bowdoin, and UMass Amherst, and resident composer at Incubating 001, hosted by Arts Incubator, Seoul, South Korea. He currently tours Sandglass Theater’s “Babylon” as a puppeteer, while pursuing his MFA in Sound at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Elaine Lemieux has always been fascinated by the sonic colors of the human voice, its possibilities for creative expression and the diversity of emotions that can be revealed. Elaine received a Master’s degree and a Post-Master’s degrees in Music Interpretation in Voice from the University of Montreal, Canada. She has more than 30 years of experience in voice study, singing performance and teaching. Elaine has acquired experience as a recitalist, cantor, chorister, performer, voice teacher and music facilitator. She also had the opportunity to solo with different chamber music ensembles, choirs, theatrical groups and dance companies. She performed classical, baroque, sacred and contemporary repertory in Canada, the United States, as well as in Europe. In addition, she has completed five years of training in the Musicianship and Leadership Program (MLP) from the MUSIC FOR PEOPLE organization.
Elaine has always been inspired by the theatrical and dance improvisation styles created by many performance artists that she had the privilege of working with. For the past 3 years, Elaine has been focusing on the collaboration with Butoh artist Sara Zalek and Avant-Garde violinist Hanna Brock. This beautiful collaboration opened new creative pathway in her vocal expression. Elaine focuses on voice and channeling self-expression and movement. As a result, she has truly enhanced her leadership and creative musical language and has found a new way to help people find their authentic expressive selves.
https://elainelem6.wixsite.com/mysite-1 / voix-de-vivre.com
Hanna Brock is a Chicago based violist, improviser, and composer. Her work fuses an orchestral training with a love for jazz, house music, and ragtime. Appearing frequently in collaboration with other Chicago-based improvisers, her mission is to create compositions that structure improvisation and encourage the mixture of different musical styles. Brock’s work seeks to embolden other instrumentalists through the creation of genre-bending performances, all while challenging herself to sculpt mood and strive for technical excellence. Notable collaborations include a.peri.od.ic, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, The Trickster Quartet, Ben Lamar Gay, will soderberg, Cat Mullins and Them Boys, and Michael Zerang’s SILT ensemble. "Blending elements of pop, electronic, jazz and classical music with rhythms and melodies that seem otherworldly, Brock has established herself as a truly dynamic force capable of realizing nearly any sonic vision."-Midwest Action
https://soundcloud.com/hannabrock
Sara Zalek is an artist, choreographer, and curator rooted in investigations of personal identity through cycles of struggle and triumph. She is obsessed with hybrids, time travel, experimental science, debris, and the intentional act of transformation. She has received numerous dance awards and residency opportunities including Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist in 2015 and a fellowship in 2017 at the Ragdale Foundation. Artistic director of Butoh Chicago, Zalek continues to connect national and international Butoh artists with Chicago art makers across genres of dance, music, film and performance art. Her mission is to foster positive communication and arts integration within Chicago’s complex, overlapping arts sectors by providing opportunities for workshops, conversations, and performances.
www.saratonin.com / www.butohchicago.com