Updated 25 March 2024, 2pm
Knowing / Not Knowing
(2022-2024)
Narrator, recorded voices, mixed chorus, 2 percussion, trombone, actor
8-channel sound and video projections
World premiere performance: Sunday, 17 March 2024, 7 pm
Ken Herman Review
UC San Diego Park & Market
1100 Market Street, San Diego
Creative Team
Roger Reynolds, composer
Kyle Johnson, filmmaker and video design
Jacob Sundstrom, electronics and sound design
Robert Castro, stage director
Steven Schick, conductor
Juan Carlos Acosta, choir conductor
Leslie Ann Leytham, creative producer
With Performances By
Aiyun Huang, percussion
Berk Schneider, trombone
Kosuke Matsuda, percussion
Jesse Perez, actor
SACRA / PROFANA, choir
Description By The Composer
What can I as an individual know? What seems out of reach? In fact, how does “knowing” come about? In everyday life, one faces such questions constantly. One is perplexed by events, by the opinions of others, with deciding how to act in circumstances with immediate or more long-term implications. In contrast, other moments can feel immediately “right”. There’s no friction. Living in this world of disrupted comfort, we seek perspective. KNOWING / NOT KNOWING is an 80-minute musical work for narrator, recorded actors, live and filmed performers, projected imagery, San Diego’s SACRA / PROFANA Chorus, and 8- channel sound movement. The work’s text has nine sections spanning Infancy and Individuation through Communality and Knowledge. It is a montage of more than two dozen sources ranging from ancient Persian and Indian wisdom, through the contemporary voices of Chinua Achebe, Wallace Stevens, James Baldwin, Simone Weil, Albert Camus, Amanda Gorman, Carlo Rovelli, David Brooks, Toni Morrison and many others. Although their perspectives span time and arise from the living of contrasted lives, the composite weave feels natural: many voices speaking as one about the lives we all lead. “Trust implies a willingness to depend upon another.” … “Compassion is a miracle more astonishing than walking on water.” … “Make yourself into an agent – consistent, unified and whole.” … “Every human being is a miracle.”
Experiencing KNOWING not only entails a kaleidoscopic array of observations, but frames and interconnects their content with a central musical score that stems from the world of lullabies: a mother singing to her child. Computer technologies allow individual phrases, nested dialogs, and shared ruminations to move choreographically across the performance space, circling around and through the audience. And what a listener experiences will not only come from the work’s sources and the efforts of those who realize it in performance, but will also include the literal voices of the community in which the finished work is heard. In a tenth section, the community speaks back to the work with its own voice.
Our diverse, dynamic, and turbulent world offers opportunity and peril in comparable proportion. If one cares about what they observe and wants to use who they are and what they can do to respond in useful ways, what to do? KNOWING seeks to address our perplexing encounters with the world. It involves a process of investment that hopes to clarify terrain, diminish tensions, and enable action.
Acknowledgements
The realization of KNOWING / NOT KNOWING has been generously supported by Chancellor Pradeep Khosla, to whom we are deeply indebted.
We also acknowledge the important support of UC San Diego's Park & Market Facility, and the UCSD Department of Music, as well as the many KNOWING collaborators whose energies and imagination have been and continue to be essential, including: Robert Castro, Steven Schick, Kyle Johnson, Peter Sellars, Jacob Sundstrom, Karen Reynolds, Juan Castro Acosta, Shahrokh Yadegari, Paul Hembree, Berk Schneider, Aiyun Huang, Kosuke Matsuda, Jessica Flores, Andrew Munsey, Andrew Waltz, Jennifer Ziemba, and, of course, Producer Leslie Leytham.
UC San Diego Division of Extended Studies
UC San Diego Division of Extended Studies has a mission to serve the critical lifelong learning needs of individuals, organizations, and the community, which includes the cultivation of arts enrichment and cultural experiences in the region. We are dedicated to sharing unique and diverse performances to foster vibrant and inclusive artistic encounters. The collaboration with internationally recognized composer Roger Reynolds on the KNOWING / NOT KNOWING Project aligns with these institutional commitments and helps ensure the transformative power of his innovative work reaches a broad audience.
Quote
“UC San Diego Extended Studies is thrilled to collaborate with Roger Reynolds on the KNOWING / NOT KNOWING project. This performance explores the uniquely human quality of self-knowledge and how this innate ability evolves from infancy to adulthood as the boundaries between self and other are explored. Roger's body of work has contributed greatly to our region's creative legacy, leaving an indelible mark on the intersection of art and innovation. The addition of KNOWING / NOT KNOWING amplifies his influence.”
- Andrew Waltz, Director of Arts Management, UC San Diego Division of Extended Studies.