ETHEL string quartet presents landmark work ‘Documerica’ at BAM, Oct. 2—5
In a vivid multimedia performance premiering Oct. 2, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) will present pioneering string quartet ETHEL’s most ambitious undertaking to date, “Documerica” —a dynamic piece inspired by the U.S. government’s Documerica Project, a program sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency to “photographically document subjects of environmental concern” in the U.S. from 1972 to 1977. The work pairs ETHEL’s dynamic virtuosity with evocative imagery, presenting a transcendent reflection of our nation’s collective soul—a synthesis of score and projections that explore America’s complicated relationship to its land.
A multimedia meditation interweaving over 3,000 vintage photographs from an astonishing trove of images from the National Archive, ETHEL commissioned the composer Mary Ellen Childs, Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr., Chickasaw Nation’s Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, and James Kimo Williams to create a work that seamlessly fuses contemporary composition with stunning projections by renowned artist Deborah Johnson (Planetarium, 2013 Winter/Spring Season) of big sky vistas, ghost towns, mountains, and slices of urban environments.
“ETHEL’s Documerica invites audiences to contemplate and respond to the environmental and social challenges that are revealed in this piece,” says ETHEL cellist Dorothy Lawson. “It’s dramatic and beautiful and very exciting.”