ISSUE's events curated by past & present Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellows are FREE to stream. In lieu of purchasing tickets, please consider making a $25 suggested donation (or an amount that you feel is meaningful) in support of ISSUE's 2020 commissions and Artist Fund.
Thursday, November 12th, 2020 Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellow Leyya Tawil presents “Crucial Language / Dirar Kalash & Jamal R. Moore,” her third program in the NOMADIC SIGNALS series.
“Crucial Language” places the work of Kalash (Haifa, Palestine) and Moore (Baltimore, US) in conversation through performance and discussion. Both artists are committed to practices that negotiate sonic language on behalf of freedom, healing, and intervention. Their solo performances on this program vibrate into the struggle. In a conversation led by Tawil, Kalash and Moore look for parallels in their Indigenous, Black and international music legacies; discussing what they have found along their path. “Crucial Language” is an invocation and reflection on unity as 2020 comes to a close.
NOMADIC SIGNALS is a vessel for sonic performance operating in what Tawil refers to as the “diasporic imaginary,” a description of how sounds change in the diaspora: how they tether to their environment, accumulate, synthesize, and adapt.
Jamal R. Moore is a native of Baltimore Maryland and multi-instrumentalist, composer/performer, and educator. His background includes California Institute of The Arts (M.F.A. 2012), Berklee College of Music (B.M 2005), Eubie Blake Jazz Orchestra (2000) under the direction of Christopher Calloway Brooks and historical acclaimed Frederick Douglass Sr. High. Jamal has worked with Wadada Leo Smith whom he studied with at California Institute of The Arts, Nicole Mitchell, Sabir Mateen, Roscoe Mitchell, David Ornette Cherry (Organic Roots Nation), Tomeka Reid, Dr. Bill Cole, DJ Lou Gorbea, George Duke, Sheila E, David Murray, JD Parran, Ras Moshe, Tatsua Nakatani, Hamid Drake and Yahyah Abdul Majid (Sun Ra Arkestra). He is a long-term member of KREation and Conference of The Birds ensembles directed by Kevin Robinson. An affiliate of The Pan African Peoples Arkestra of the late Horace Tapscott, Calvin Gant ensemble directed by Calvin Gant and Nicole Mitchell; Joyful Noise Band, and co-‐ creator of Ancestral Duo with Luke Stewart. Jamal currently leads his own groups, Akebulan Arkestra, Napata Strings, Black Elements Quartet, Organix Trio, and Interstellar Duo.
Multi-instrumentalist and composer Dirar Kalash creates live performances that combine text, sound, image, video and movement. Primary instruments are piano, oud, saxophone and electronics. Regularly using open source software in the field of real time audio, video and image processing, his work is based on everyday life as a phenomenon, which is then subjected to live processing, composition and decomposition. He holds a Masters in Sonology from the Institute of Sonology, Royal Conservatory of The Hague and has toured his work throughout Europe and the Arab world. Born in Haifa, Kalash currently works and lives in Palestine.
