Distant Pairs: Sofia Jernberg & Tomeka Reid - Meditations for voice and cello

Wednesday, July 7th, ISSUE is pleased to stream a new collaboration between Swedish experimental singer, composer, improviser and performer Sofia Jernberg and Chicagoan cellist, composer, and educator Tomeka Reid. The duo’s new work will stream on ISSUE’s website.

Having collaborated only once before (in trio formation with Nicole Mitchell), Sofia Jernberg and Tomeka Reid embark from two respectively vast performative histories of composed and improvised music. From Jernberg’s standing collaborations with Fire! Orchestra, The End (Kjetil Møster, Mats Gustafsson, Anders Hana, Greg Saunier, Jernberg), Mette Rasmussen, and the Alexander Hawkins, to Reid’s shortlist of collaborators that include Anthony Braxton, George Lewis, Roscoe Mitchell, and Mary Halvorson, the artists have created a series of “meditations” and improvisations for this digital commission.

During the Summer 2021, ISSUE is commissioning artists to produce collaborative work at a time when the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has drastically impacted their ability to travel and perform, and altered the nature of collective work and performance. Pairing artists in disparate locations who cannot work together in “traditional” ways, the Distant Pairs series examines the collaborative process, methods of working, and partnership amidst these constrained conditions.

Notes from Sofia Jernberg & Tomeka Reid:

We each created a set of pieces that we refer to as meditations and then sent them to the other to respond to. We also created two extended improvisations in real time using clean feed. We have only had one opportunity to create together as a part of a trio in a live concert in Norway a few years ago so we were excited for the chance to get to know each other better and collaborate with each other again.

Sofia Jernberg is a Swedish experimental singer, composer, improviser and performer, born in Ethiopia, 1983. She grew up in Ethiopia, Vietnam, and Sweden. One of her deepest interests as a singer is to explore the “instrumental” possibilities of the voice. Her singing vocabulary includes sounds and techniques that often contradict a conventional singing style. She has dug deep into non verbal vocalizing, split tone singing, pitchless and distorted singing. She has performed several staged music theater pieces like Arnold Schönberg’s ”Pierrot Lunaire” and Salvatore Sciarrinos "Lohengrin.” Composers have written roles especially with her in mind like in Emily Hall’s ”Folie à Deux” and Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s ”UR:” She will sing Pierrot Lunaire at Wiener Festwochen 2021, staged by choreographer Marlene Monteiro Freitas, conducted by Ingo Metzmacher with musicians from Klangforum Wien. In 2021/2022 she will be working with choreographer Erna Ómardóttir, Hildur Guðnadóttir (Chernobyl, The Joker), electric bass hero Skúli Sverrisson (Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed) and Valdimar Jóhannsson in ”Orpheus & Eurydice”. Besides being a singer in this Iceland Dance Company/Kampnagel Hamburg co production Sofia will be responsible for the vocal material and guide the actors involved (Theater Freiburg). She has performed together with visual artist Camille Norment and was part of her piece ”Rapture” (Venice Biennale 2015, Nordic Pavillion) and ”Lull” (Festspillene i Bergen 2016). She is featured as a singer in an 80 minute cinematic work, ”Union of the North”, by Matthew Barney, Erna Ómarsdóttir and Valdimar Jóhannsson. She is central in an audiovisual work by visual artist Kristina Norman and composer Märt - Matis Lill exhibited in Tallin art museum in feb 2018. As a composer she has been commissioned by Barents composer orchestra, Swedish Radio P2, Stockholm Jazz Festival, Trondheim jazz orchestra, vocal ensemble Oslo 14, Klang - Copenhagen Avantgarde Music Festival, BANFF - Center for arts and creativity, The Gothenburg Combo, Opera Nord, Ultima Contemporary Music Festival and various chamber ensembles. Currently she is working on a piece (commissioned by Ultima Contemporary Music Festival) for children’s choir, soprano, voice and chamber ensemble that will be premiered at Ultima in 2022 as well as a chamber ensemble piece for Ensemble Contrechamps in 2021. As a teacher in singing and composition she has been part of faculty at BANFF Center for arts and creativity contemporary music summer course 2017. She has given lectures/workshops at several Universities around Europe. She is one of the mentors in Forecast platform 2021/2022. Her active groups include Solo (voice solo, Jernberg), Fire! Orchestra, The End (Kjetil Møster, Mats Gustafsson, Anders Hana, Greg Saunier, Jernberg), Mette Rasmussen/Sofia Jernberg duo, and the Alexander Hawkins/Sofia Jernberg duo.

Cellist and composer Tomeka Reid has emerged as one of the most original, versatile, and curious musicians in Chicago’s bustling jazz and improvised music community over the last decade. Her distinctive melodic sensibility, always rooted in a strong sense of groove, has been featured in many distinguished ensembles over the years. Reid has been a key member of ensembles led by legendary reedists like Anthony Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell, as well as a younger generation of visionaries including flutist Nicole Mitchell, vocalist Dee Alexander, and drummer Mike Reed. She co-leads the adventurous string trio HEAR IN NOW and in 2013 launched the first Chicago Jazz String Summit, an international festival of cutting edge string players held in Chicago. A 2021 USA Fellow, Reid has received awards from the Foundation of the Arts 3Arts and received her doctorate in music from the University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign in 2017. In the Fall of 2019 Tomeka Reid received a teaching appointment at Mills College as the Darius Milhaud chair in composition.

Full Distant Pairs Series Schedule*

Sofia Jernberg & Tomeka Reid: Wednesday, July 7th
Rob Thorne & Raven Chacon: Thursday, July 8th
Viola Yip & Laetitia Sonami: Wednesday, July 14th (Co-presented with Harvestworks)
Cecilia Lopez & Carmen Baliero: Thursday, July 15th (Co-presented with Harvestworks)
Louis Carnell & Okkyung Lee: Wednesday, July 21st
Rashad Becker & FUJI||||||||||TA: Thursday, July 22nd (Co-presented with AvanTokyo)**

*All Times 8pm ET