Jennifer Koh

“Davóne and I are in this together. He gives me space and hears me because he knows what it’s like to be a minority.” ─Jennifer Koh

When Jennifer Koh and Davóne Tines’s paths crossed, they saw in each other an ally struggling with the same issue: being an artist of color in a culture dominated by whiteness. Everything Rises is both a record and artistic product of that mutual encounter. It is about connection, resonance, and the creation of a new space. Their collective exploration leads them to their family histories, sharing stories of Jennifer’s mother Gertrude Soonja Lee Koh’s experiences of the Korean War and immigration to the U.S., as well as Davóne’s grandmother Alma Lee Gibbs Tines’s memories of anti-Black discrimination and violence. The piece asks what it would take for all this grief, frustration, and anger to finally be heard.

In the multiple years that Everything Rises has been in development, there has been a new surge of activism against racist violence targeting Black and Asian Americans. Inspired by the recent outpouring of support and solidarity across racial identities, the piece proposes a united front through music. Standing together, Jennifer and Davóne look out at the audience shrouded in a cloud of whiteness. Who out there will meet their gaze?

“We bolstered each other’s experiences because we both understood. Jenny thought she was fighting this alone, but we connected so that I could reflect and validate her experience. We converged.” —Davóne Tines

Everything Rises is produced and commissioned by ARCO Collaborative with co-commissioner UCSB Arts and Lectures, and the generous support of The Alphadyne Foundation, Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting, Nina and Michael Zilkha, NancyBell Coe and Bill Burke, Annette and Dr. Richard Caleel, Fariba Ghaffari, and Barbara and Chet Peckett.

Project Components and Team

Duration: 70 minutes with no intermission
Performance in English

Produced and Commissioned by:
ARCO Collaborative

World Premieres
UC Santa Barbara Arts and Letters: April 12, 2022
UC Los Angeles CAP: April 14, 2022
BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music): October 12-15, 2022 (New York City Premiere)

Booking Inquiries: Patricia Winter - Opus 3 Artists | pwinter@opus3artists.com
Production Manager: Cath Brittan | cathbrittan@yahoo.co.uk
Projects Advisor: Kristin Lancino | kristin@lancino.org

Biographies

Jennifer Koh (Violin and Co-Creator) Koh is recognized for her intense, commanding performances, delivered with dazzling virtuosity and technical assurance. With an impassioned musical curiosity, she is forging an artistic path of her own devising, choosing works that both inspire and challenge. She is dedicated to performing the violin repertoire of all eras from traditional to contemporary, believing that the past and present form a continuum. Koh has performed with leading orchestras around the world including the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, and the Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Houston, New World, Montreal, and National Symphonies, as well as the Czech Philharmonic, BBC London and Scottish Symphonies, and Helsinki Philharmonic. She performed the role of Einstein in Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach in its most recent revival. She has been honored as “A Force of Nature” by the American Composers Orchestra and Musical America’s 2016 Instrumentalist of the Year. Ms. Koh was a top prize winner at Moscow’s International Tchaikovsky Competition, winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition, and a recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from Oberlin College and studied at the Curtis Institute, where she worked extensively with Jaime Laredo and Felix Galimir.

Davóne Tines (Bass Baritone and Co-Creator) Tines came to international attention during the 2015-16 in breakout performances at the Dutch National Opera premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Only the Sound Remains directed by Peter Sellars and at the Ojai Music Festival presenting works by Caroline Shaw and Kaija Saariaho with the Calder Quartet and the International Contemporary Ensemble. In summer 2019, Davóne Tines made his debut at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in the world premiere of Fire Shut Up In My Bones by the creative team of Terence Blanchard and Kasi Lemmons, based on the memoir of New York Times op-ed columnist, Charles M. Blow. John Adams and Peter Sellars’ Girls of the Golden West was the platform for Tines’ San Francisco Opera debut and the work was later given its European premiere by Dutch National Opera. Tines is a winner of the 2020 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, recognizing extraordinary classical musicians of color. He also is the recipient of the 2018 Emerging Artists Award given by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and is a graduate of Harvard University and The Juilliard School.

Ken Ueno (Composer and Librettist) Recipient of the Rome Prize and the Berlin Prize, Ken Ueno (b. 1970), is a composer/vocalist/sound artist who is currently a Professor at UC Berkeley, where he holds the Jerry and Evelyn Hemmings Chambers Distinguished Professor Chair in Music. Ensembles and performers who have played Ken’s music include Kim Kashkashian and Robyn Schulkowsky, Mayumi Miyata, Teodoro Anzellotti, Aki Takahashi, Wendy Richman, Greg Oakes, BMOP, Alarm Will Sound, Steve Schick and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Nieuw Ensemble, and Frances-Marie Uitti. His music has been performed at such venues as Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MusikTriennale Köln Festival, the Muziekgebouw, Ars Musica, Warsaw Autumn, Other Minds, the Hopkins Center, Spoleto USA, Steim, and at the Norfolk Music Festival. Ken’s piece for the Hilliard Ensemble, Shiroi Ishi, was featured in their repertoire for over ten years, with performances at such venues as Queen Elizabeth Hall in England, the Vienna Konzerthaus, and was aired on Italian national radio, RAI 3. Another work, Pharmakon, was performed dozens of times nationally by Eighth Blackbird during their 2001-2003 seasons. A portrait concert of Ken’s was featured on MaerzMusik in Berlin in 2011. In 2012, he was a featured artist on Other Minds 17. In 2014, Frances-Mairie Uitti and the Boston Modern Orchestra premiered his concerto for two-bow cello and orchestra, and Guerilla Opera premiered a run of his chamber opera, Gallo, to critical acclaim. He has performed as soloist in his vocal concerto with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project in New York and Boston, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Lithuanian National Symphony, the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, and with orchestras in North Carolina, Pittsburgh, and California. Ken holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University. A monograph CD of three orchestral concertos was released on the BMOP/sound label. His bio appears in The Grove Dictionary of American Music.

Alexander Gedeon (Director) Alexander Gedeon is a stage director, songwriter and performer born and based in Los Angeles. His creative work has spanned the divide from pop to classical, and has been called "provocative, visually stunning" and "a perfect, experimental approach to opera.” Prior to committing to opera, Alexander created Trick & the Heartstrings, a New York punk-funk trio, for which he composed music and created a live show the London NME called "a supertight howl of righteous rhythm and blues with jaw-dropping pop twists." This spring, Alexander presents a new production Karlheinz Stockhausen's STIMMUNG, staged in an abandoned grocery store. Recent credits include: Sanctuaries at Portland's Memorial Coliseum; Concerto for Having Fun with Elvis on Stage [REDCAT];  Judith Hill in Concert & Conversation [Social Convention, UK]; Yuval Sharon’s Twilight: Gods at Michigan Opera Theatre and Lyric Opera of Chicago [associate director]. Previously: La tragédie de Carmen [San Diego Opera], associate directing John Cage’s Europeras 1 & 2 [LA Phil] & David Lang’s anatomy theater [LA Opera]. In June, Alexander will creative produce LBO's new production of Anthony Davis’s Pulitzer Prize winning opera The Central Park Five, directed by Desean Terry. Alexander is a graduate of NYU's Experimental Theater Wing, and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London.

Kee-Yoon Nahm (Dramturg) Kee-Yoon Nahm, D.F.A. is Assistant Professor in Theatre Studies at Illinois State University and Festival Dramaturg at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. He works as a dramaturg and theatre translator in the United States and South Korea. His translations have been staged at the National Theatre Company of Korea, the Seoul Performing Arts Festival, Illinois State University, and Yale Cabaret. His dramaturgy work include productions at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Yale Repertory Theatre, Yale Cabaret, the National Gugak Center, and the National Dance Company of Korea. He also works as regional editor for The Theatre Times, where he covers South Korean theatre.