QUESTIONS WE DON’T DARE ASK OURSELVES

for flute and percussion
dur: 15:00

Program Notes:

Questions We Don’t Dare Ask Ourselves explores the true levels of social distance and isolation – our unwillingness to interrogate ourselves. Onstage, the musicians face multiple challenges: the hard questions they ask each other; the circumscribed stage they must navigate and share; the individual concessions they must make to perform together; and the demanding techniques they must execute to please their audience. Voyeuristic cameras reinforce each’s individuality and isolation, documenting their interactions, and exposing sides of them we cannot usually see.  Questionsasserts that understanding others’ perspectives and experiences is the path to inclusion, shared power, and lasting personal and social change.

Together, flutist Jennifer Grim, composer Dorothy Hindman, and percussionist Svet Stoyanov’s past and present experiences and identities include third-world immigrant, black, biracial, white, American, European, male, female, privileged, middle-class, poor, mentally ill, food and shelter insecure, abuse survivor, products of excellent and distressed educational systems, and many more not visibly apparent. In Questions, the artists share their innermost identities and experiences with each other and with an audience. The risks are outweighed by the artists’ belief that that the questions we face from others may be the most unpredictable, unknown, uncomfortable, yet potentially transformative that we can ask ourselves. 

Premiere:
October 1 and 2, 2021
Jennifer Grim, flute and Svet Stoyanov, percussion
The Light Box at Goldman Warehouse
Wynwood Arts District, FL
Commissioner: Miami Light Project Here and Now Commissioning Project, 2021