Orpheus Fragments

2021 — Maya + Rouvelle with Carduus Chamber Choir.

Six movements about the myth of Orpheus.

From Carduus Chamber Choir:
In the exquisite corpse game, created and popularized by André Bréton, several players work together to draw an imaginary creature. Each person takes a turn to draw one part of the body. They cannot see the rest of the body, but they can see where the last person left off. The result is an absurd figure, contiguous but made of vastly different parts. Carduus wrote this piece using the exquisite corpse game as a model, with the story of Orpheus serving as the “corpse” that they aimed to stitch back together. 

Visual Art by Maya + Rouvelle

Soprano / Catherine Psarakis, Andrea Wozniak
Alto / Wei En Chan, Jenny Herzog
Tenor / Leo Balkovetz, Sam de Soto
Baritone / Tyler J. Bouque, Jacob Hiser
Bass / Elijah Botkin, Chris Talbot

Audio Engineer / Peter Atkinson
Carduus Director / Holly Druckman

Holly Druckman’s pre-concert remarks (Youtube)
Post-premiere panel discussion with Carduus and Maya + Rouvelle (Youtube)

Maya + Rouvelle statement
mayarouvelle.com/orpheus-fragments-with-carduus-chamber-choir/