Seeds Under Nuclear Winter: An Earth Opera

Dive into the ethereal realms and sounds of ‘Seeds Under Nuclear Winter: An Earth Opera’—an interdisciplinary recreation of dreams and visions through live world and sacred music, performance art, and light experiments. An immersive theater experience adapted for one night only at Graveside Variety, this special and intimate live performance was created/composed by Elizabeth Clark (harp/voice) with music and performances by Andes Manta (traditional Andean/South American ensemble), Jaguar Mary X (performance artist), Henry Lowengard (harmonium, bells), Antonin Fajt (piano/synths) and special guest performers including Lisa B Kelley, Annie Roland, Phillip x Levine, Alvaro Romao, and other surprise guests. The ‘Earth Opera’ takes place in a post-apocalyptic atmosphere and centers on finding light in the dark, and on our deep connection with all living things, our planet, and with each other. This performance will include adapted excerpts from the full-length opera.

Friday May 10th 8-9:30pm

$20 Advance. $25 at door.

ELIZABETH CLARK is a Hudson-Valley NY based composer, multi-instrumentalist (harp/voice/piano), performance artist, and humanitarian. Exploring interdisciplinary art forms in live performance, she weaves together elements of ethereal future-folk, early/sacred and world music, contemporary minimalism, ecstatic poetry, mythology, contemplative practice, and the healing arts.

She composed and developed her first large-scale experimental theater piece, 'Seeds Under Nuclear Winter: An Earth Opera' as an artist-in-residence at Byrdcliffe Arts Colony in Woodstock from 2018-2021. Originally performed site-specifically with a cast of 33 Hudson Valley artists/musicians/dancers inside of the earth in an old cement mine/stone amphitheater, the 'Earth Opera' is an immersive experience that recreates dreams and spiritual visions through live performance art, music, dance, and experiments with light. She performs her original ethereal music throughout the Northeast with various incarnations of her ever-evolving ensemble 'Mamalama', and collaborates with many other notable artists and performance projects. Her healing work and original musical piece, "Freide's Opera", written in collaboration with Holocaust survivor Freide Gorowitz, was featured in the 2022 PBS documentary "We Remember: Songs of Survivors".

www.mamalamamusic.com

ANDES MANTA perform the uplifting and traditional music of the South American Andes on over 35 instruments---from the lyrical sound of the quena/Andean Flute to the haunting tones of six-foot long pan-pipes, charango, rondador, and Amazonian percussion instruments. An ensemble of four brothers (Luis, Fernando, Bolivar, and Jorge Lopez) from Ecuador, they have been performing throughout the United States for over 30 years including at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The National Cathedral, and hundreds of universities across the country. They have collaborated with many notable artists such as Paul Winter, Denyse Graves, and many others.

andesmanta.com

JAGUAR MARY X is a performance artist, glossolalia vocalist, ritual performance artist and mover, filmmaker, and hoop dancer, making work informed by queer and black feminist discourse, afro-futurisms, plant sentience and shamanism. JM has shown films and performed internationally at the Havana and Johannesburg Biennials, KARST (UK), Museo de Belles Artes (Venezuela) and more. She is also the host of "Midnight/Midday Medicine Journey" on Radio Kingston. https://www.kaliartproject.com

LISA BARNARD KELLEY is a producer, vocalist, performer, Deep Listening Certificate Holder, and Minister Priestess of Maat. Lisa spent twelve years working closely with composer Pauline Oliveros and Ione as a staff member and artist of the Deep Listening Institute, as well as with Ione’s non-profit Ministry of Maat, performing in numerous festivals and concerts internationally. As a vocalist and performer, Lisa has worked in traditional theater on-stage and off, and has also performed and recorded with various bands and ensembles.
https://www.lisabarnardkelley.com

ANTONIN FAJT is a composer and pianist from the Czech Republic based in the Hudson Valley and Brooklyn. His work explores the themes of nocturnal music, embodying environmental rhythms, and the integration of traditional, folkloric practices from Eastern Europe and contemporary music through improvisation.

HENRY LOWENGARD is mostly known musically as a computer music programmer and performer, most recently on iOS devices with AUMI, SrutiBox, Droneo, Tondo, synthicity itself, and other apps. He was also a singer with the Loser's Lounge and the Empty Orchestra Cafe in NYC, an experimental autoharpist, hammered dulcimer player, and performer/ composer with the American Festival of Microtonal Music. His droning iPhone apps are featured in Pauline Oliveros's "Droniphonia(2009)."and his iOS app AUMI ( aumiapp.com ) helps people with little voluntary movement participate in music improvisation groups.