The Gulf in Luxembourg

THE GULF (BETWEEN YOU AND ME)

A Trptych

Creation

A few months after the 20th April 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico and the ensuing disastrous oil spill, – the largest and most destructive in recorded history – Donald Nally, the conductor of the Philadelphia based chamber choir The Crossing commissioned Pierre Joris to compose three texts for their 2013 Month of Moderns project, The Gulf (between you and me).

Simultaneously, he asked the composers Gene Coleman, Chris Jonas & Gabriel Jackson to write music for these texts. The work premiered in June 2013 in Philadelphia over the course of three weekends. Now, the work will be heard in Europe for the first time.

The Gulf (between you and me) explores how we seem to hear what the earth is saying to us with the same sad inability with which we often listen to those we most love. William Saroyan wrote, « The intention of art has always been to deepen, extend, elevate, ennoble, strengthen, and refresh the experience of living. It cannot begin to do these things until it accepts part of the management of the physical life of man, which is now in the hands of inferior men. »

The Gulf (between you and me) has no pretensions toward having answers, its aim is to sing beautiful, thought -provoking music that is relevant to our lives as we engage art to better understand our world.

The three texts are inspired by Un Coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard by Stéphane Mallarmé, as well as an interview with Sheri Revette, who talks about her husband’s death, and yet another interview with Kindra Arnesen, fisherwoman, wife of a fisherman, mother, activist, cofounder of the Coastal Heritage Society, a feisty and powerful voice in the fight for justice after the Gulf disaster.

Pierre Joris lives and works in New York, but returns to Luxembourg frequently, to maintain his many literary friendships. This season, he is the TNL’s author in residence.The Gulf (between you and me) features the writer himself performing his own poems, accompanied by a choir directed by Jeff Mack.