GLOBAL | LOCAL V:
Half Waif (Chatham, NY)
with Elori Saxl (Ghent, NY)
October 5 at PS21 Pavilion Theater
Chatham-based singer, songwriter, and producer Nandi Rose, who records and performs internationally as Half Waif (ANTI- Records), premieres a brand new work—a collection of original songs written in Chatham, NY. With the ability to "turn her voice into a choir" (The New York Times), Rose will lead an eight-piece ensemble through this complex work, which grows out of her classical piano training towards pop songwriting styles with experimental electronic production and expansive arrangements. The songs—performed live at PS21 for the very first time— each have their own choreographed movement, and lyrically focus on themes of fertility, loss, motherhood, mortality, and the role of nature in healing.
Ghent-based experimental electronic composer Elori Saxl, whose music is “more serene than Steve Reich, more textured than Philip Glass” (Jayson Greene, Pitchfork), transforms the rich resonances of experimental electronics, digitally processed recordings of natural sounds, and traditional chamber music orchestration into hypnotic counterpoint.
GLOBAL | LOCAL: Musical Worlds Meet at PS21
Our new season-long series features musicians from across the world and from our backyard. The series examines the intersection of two ideas: the continuing need to open our minds to international art and perspectives, and the growing importance of local community, place, and togetherness in an increasingly decentralized and digitized world. PS21 resides in a hotbed of creativity—the Hudson Valley—and many of its finest musicians will be presented alongside world-class international acts in this summer-long series.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
For Chatham-based singer, songwriter, and producer Nandi Rose, writing a song is an act of transformation. As Half Waif, Rose pieces together the patchworks of our darkest and most vulnerable moments with a golden thread, crafting a majestic evocation of the human experience that permeates with a graceful strength. Over the past decade, Rose has built upon her classical training to create a bold and unique sound that melds pop and folk songwriting styles with experimental production and arrangements. It is a form of emotional storytelling that is radically vulnerable and deeply layered, probing into what it means to be alive and in relationship with ourselves and with the world.
Since joining the roster of renowned indie label ANTI- Records (Tom Waits, Fleet Foxes, Mavis Staples), Half Waif has released the critically acclaimed records The Caretaker (2020) and Mythopoetics (2021), the latter of which was described by the New York Times as a “chordal anthem” and featured on their Best Songs of the Year list. Half Waif has also made an appearance on NPR’s Tiny Desk series and toured internationally.
Elori Saxl (Ghent, NY) is an American experimental electronic composer. Her debut album The Blue of Distance (released 2021 on Western Vinyl) received critical acclaim for its elegant combination of digitally-processed recordings of wind and water with the rich sounds of analog synthesizers and chamber orchestra. Half-written in the verdant Adirondack mountains of northern New York in a hot summer filled with love, ecstasy, and a feeling of promise, and half-written in the frozen Apostle Islands in Lake Superior in the dead of winter looking back at videos from the summer, The Blue of Distance effortlessly captures the gentle sorrows of nostalgia in an age of perpetual digital memory.
Saxl has composed music for classical ensembles, The Guggenheim, Burton, Patagonia, Google, Poler, Dove, the New Yorker, This American Life, Public Radio International, SFMOMA, and more. She's directed films for the New Yorker and Slate. Her music has been featured by Pitchfork, The New Yorker, WNYC New Sounds, BBC 3 Radio, Popmatters, Dusted, A Closer Listen, and more. Her film work has been nominated for two Emmys and been featured by the New Yorker, Vimeo Staff Picks, and festivals around the world.
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About PS21
A vibrant center for contemporary performance in the Hudson Valley, PS21 “presents work that challenges and invites” (The New York Times): adventurous productions by leading and emerging American and international artists in music, dance, and theater, and visionaries creating entirely new genres. On our open-air Pavilion Theater stage, across our expansive, unspoiled grounds, and in the diverse surrounding communities, PS21 cultivates and presents productions that transcend aesthetic boundaries and revitalize existing artistic languages and grammars. Throughout the year, we host developmental residencies for dancers, musicians, actors, and creators of original, even unclassifiable new work. Rooted in community collaboration, PS21’s programming engages creatively with critical global and social issues. It is a mecca for innovative and original artistic voices, a destination for performance that can be experienced nowhere else in the region. PS21’s Pavilion Theater is a green-energy marvel surrounded by 100 acres of unspoiled meadows, trails, and woodlands that are a haven to wildlife and visitors across the region. Integrated into our unspoiled campus, the theater embodies our commitments to the public: open, inviting, and optimized for their enjoyment and encouraging citizen expression and participation.
Photography
PS21 will take photos of this event for use in social media and on our website. The photos sometimes include audiences. Your attendance at this performance indicates you consent to appear in PS21 photography. If you would prefer not to appear in any photos, please let a staff member know, and we will be glad to accommodate your request.
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