American Modern Opera Company (AMOC), the “hot-bed of boundary-pushing, inventive, chance-taking artists” (ZEALnyc) returns to A.R.T. for the second annual Run AMOC! Festival with four new pieces to be performed around Harvard Square: a cross-disciplinary dance piece exploring care and caregiving; a wild, technicolor romp through one of Bach’s most playful and transcendent works; a performance by the pianist The New Yorker calls “brilliant” and “effortlessly elegant;” and a recital featuring AMOC members’ newest collaboration.
AMOC is a new kind of opera company—comprised of a diverse collective of singers, dancers, instrumentalists, a director, and a composer—that aims to expand the definition and reach of opera in our world through collaborative, interdisciplinary work. 2018 MacArthur Fellow composer/conductor/pianist/poet Matthew Aucoin (Crossing, Harvard ’12) and director/choreographer/dancer Zack Winokur (The Black Clown) serve as Artistic Directors.
With Care
Friday, December 14 at 7:30PM & Saturday, December 15 at 8:30PM
The Ex (64 Brattle Street, Cambridge)
Created by Bobbi Jene Smith in collaboration with Keir GoGwilt
Original music by Matthew Aucoin
Featuring:
Or Schraiber and Bobbi Jene Smith, dancers
Miranda Cuckson and Keir GoGwilt, violinists
Building on the cross-disciplinary work performed in A Study on Effort (“chilling, thrilling rawness,” The New York Times), which was featured as part of the inaugural Run AMOC! Festival at the A.R.T., Bobbi Jene Smith and Keir GoGwilt‘s newest project explores ideas of care and caregiving through music, dance, and spoken word. Conceived as a drama between twinned characters, a caregiver and a wounded spirit, With Care is a physical investigation of vacancy, loss, and passion. With Care is a co-commissioned production by ODC Theater, San Francisco, and AMOC.
Bach Flute Sonatas and Preludes
Saturday, December 15 & Sunday, December 16 at 2:30PM
Horner Room at the Agassiz Theater (5 St. James Street, Cambridge)
Featuring:
Emi Ferguson, flute
RUCKUS
- Doug Balliett, double bass, viola da gamba, and mandolin
- Elliot Figg, keyboards
- Shirley Hunt, viola da gamba and cello
- Paul Holmes Morton, theorbo, guitar, and banjo
- Clayton Zeller-Townson, bassoon
- with special guest Stephen Stubbs, guitar
Fresh off of their first recording collaboration, widely acclaimed flutist Emi Ferguson (“dazzling…irresistibly vital,” Portland Press Herald; “wonderful,” New York Times) is joined by the continuo band RUCKUS (“superb,” Opera News; “rough-edged intensity,” The New Yorker) with special guest and Stephen Stubbs, Artistic Co-Director of the Boston Early Music Festival, in a wild technicolor romp through one of Bach’s most playful and transcendent sets of work. Don’t miss your chance to experience this special preview of never-before-heard arrangements to be released in Spring 2019.
Cage
Saturday December 15 & Sunday December 16 at 4PM
The Ex (64 Brattle Street, Cambridge)
Featuring Conor Hanick
AMOC pianist Conor Hanick (“defies human description,” Concerto Net; “brilliant… effortlessly elegant,” The New Yorker) plays the entirety of John Cage’s epochal Sonatas and Interludes, a hugely influential set of pieces inspired by Indian philosophy and written for prepared piano, in The Ex theater.
AMOC in Concert
Saturday, December 15 & and Sunday, December 16 at 5:30PM
Horner Room at the Agassiz Theater (5 St. James Street, Cambridge)
Featuring:
Jonny Allen, percussionist
Paul Appleby, tenor (December 16 only)
Matthew Aucoin, pianist
Doug Balliett, bassist
Jay Campbell, cellist
Miranda Cuckson, violinist
Julia Eichten, dancer-choreographer (December 15 only)
Keir GoGowilt, violinist
Conor Hanick, pianist
Coleman Itzkoff, cellist
AMOC artists perform two programs featuring their newest collaborations, as well as music composed by AMOC Co-Artistic Director and 2018 MacArthur Fellow Matthew Aucoin.
