The Work

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Deliverance

Mali Irene will explore improvisation as composition centering the sacred Black feminine voice. Her project deconstructs the traditional format of the orchestra conjuring an ecstatic ceremonial experience reminiscent to a cypher, church service, kirtan, or jam session. Mali will work with ensembles to explore form, trust, deep listening, and call and response in the rehearsal process. She will devise scores for musicians and music leaders to co-create similar experiences unique to their respective groups. The project invites musicians to use the musical score as a guide and liberates musicians to explore individuality and/or sectional unity while incorporating the magic of a vocalist who doubles as a conductor/composer. The project welcomes Afro-diasporic music lovers, experimental intellectuals, and classical music audiences while also expanding the minds of scholars, conductors, music directors, and players to explore more possibilities for the orchestra and the capacity of its traditional instruments. Mali Irene’s work with various collaborators over the past decade draws from sacred lined-hymn singing, Ring Shout, African chanting, spirituals, the blues, jazz, and scat. Her musical inspirations are Umm Kulthum, Baaba Maal, Alice Coltrane, Sun Rah, Fela Kuti, Mahalia Jackson, Esperanza Spaulding, Jill Scott, and Tunde Jegede.

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Workshop ideas

• Explore the creation and interchange between designated groupings at rehearsals, including an improvisation group, a bass/groove group, a harmony group, and treble group, some of which could stem from improvisation exercises that the composer has already produced
• Experiment with electronic triggers in collaboration with orchestral musicians, resembling DJing, that involves loops, drones, and rhythms/styles drawn from house music and ring shout

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Recent Work

Lead support for EarShot CoLABoratory is generously provided by TD Charitable Foundation, Altman Foundation, Jerome Foundation, The New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellowships, and the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.