A musical manifesto on resistance and self-assertion: »Gay Guerrilla« by the Black, queer composer Julius Eastman. Music as a stance: radical and uncompromising. Long overlooked, the work now takes on a new urgency. Together with cellist Seth Parker Woods, the Ensemble Resonanz brings this work, along with other voices on memory, loss and solidarity, to the stage. »…because without blood there is no cause.«
Eastman (1940–1990) was a composer, performer and a radical maverick in 1970s and 1980s New York. As a Black and queer artist, he combined minimalist music with political acuity. His works bear titles such as »Evil Nigger«, »Crazy Nigger« or »Gay Guerrilla« – terms he deliberately employed as a form of confrontation. For Eastman, »guerrilla« referred to someone prepared to risk everything for a conviction. Combined with »gay«, it becomes an attitude: visibility as both resistance and self-assertion.
PERFORMERS
Ensemble Resonanz chamber orchestra
Seth Parker Woods violoncello and direction
PROGRAM
Pauline Oliveros
Out of the Dark
Chinary Ung
Khse Buon
Pēteris Vasks
Trīs skatieni (Drei Blicke)
Jessie Montgomery
Divided für Violoncello und Streichorchester
Edward Elgar
Elegy op. 58
Julius Eastman
Gay Guerrilla
