home away from
Jimena Sarno, LACE Summer Residency 2017
Preview Reception: June 28, 2017 8-10PM
July 1 – August 13, 2017
Jimena Sarno invited the C3LA Choir to reinterpret “The Star-Spangled Banner” on the opening night of home away from. In her exhibition catalog, Sarno reflects on the meaning behind the classic American anthem from the perspective of an immigrant. She writes, “to ‘compose’ the choral piece for the opening night of home away from, the process was very simple. I printed the Star-Spangled Banner—its lyrics were a mystery to me until that moment. I took a black marker and redacted it, leaving only words of war, violence, and power. After redacting the lyrics on the sheet music, I invited the C3LA Choir to experiment with it within the installation space, sharing with them what I had in mind: to sing only those words, beginning to end, and then end to the beginning. One of the choir members interpreted that I wanted them to hum the melody backward, which they did, and on their first try, beautifully. We then decided to do the performance in three movements, starting in a circle within the installation: backward hum, redacted singing, and a final improvisation in which the 8 singers scattered, walking throughout the gallery, firing those words in loops and repetition across the space.”
Click here to find out more about the exhibition.
C3LA is an LA-based choral collective performing works exclusively within the last 25 years. C3LA has no artistic or executive director–rather, it is collectively run by its members: highly-trained new-music singers who also perform with LA Master Chorale, LA Opera Chorus, De Angelis Vocal Ensemble, and other professional ensembles. Many of the singers are also conductors and/or composers. 40-50% of each concert is written by members of the ensemble and each piece is conducted by a different ensemble member. C3LA is a unique ensemble dedicated to performing outstanding new choral music; providing a venue for multi-faceted singer-composers and singer-conductors to collaborate; and challenging the traditional hierarchical model of our choruses and orchestras.
