Muyassar Kurdi: Where My Olive Trees Grow

• Muyassar Kurdi, electronics & voice
• Ben LaMar Gay, cornet & voice
• Lester St. Louis, cello & electronics

2022–2023 Roulette Resident Artist Muyassar Kurdi's Where My Olive Trees Grow (in four movements) is a ritualistic interdisciplinary work that honors the ancestors through an exploration into free sound and deep listening. Large scale oil paintings act as graphic scores for the musicians who embody a world beyond borders and walls. These abstract paintings represent landscapes in Palestine where olive trees grow and the indigenous thrive in abundance. As an act of protest and empowerment, Where My Olive Trees Grow lives in color, embodiment, memory, and healing while meditating on issues of displacement and colonialism.

In conversation with Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish and his ruminations on visible music and musical gardens, this work offers visual poetry to those who have been silenced.

About Roulette

https://roulette.org/

About Muyassar Kurdi, electronics & voice

Muyassar Kurdi (b. 1989 in Chicago) is a New York City-based interdisciplinary artist. Her work encompasses sound art, extended vocal technique, performance art, movement, painting, analog photography and film. She has toured extensively in the U.S. and throughout Europe. She currently focuses her attention to interweaving homemade electronic instruments into her vocal and dance performances, stirring a plethora of emotions from her audience members through vicious noise, ritualistic chants, and meditative movements. Recent projects include: ألوان (Colors)- a digital & 35mm short dance film shot in Redhook Brooklyn and Seven Voices- a multi-channel project for seven voices that was recorded during her artist residency at EMS in Stockholm. She also released Travelling on NORENT Records, Intersections and Variations on Astral Spirits, Voice Games (duo with Ka Baird) released on Astral Spirits, and Birth of a Thousand Moons on NORENT records. Publications include KunstMuzik Journal and Array Journal: Gender and Sound Technology. Kurdi’s 16mm short dance film trilogy Travelling, A Song for Many Women, and Field Dances screened throughout Europe and NYC. She taught workshops in movement and voice throughout Europe most notably Portugal at Zaratan - Arte Contemporânea and in Istanbul Turkey at Bilgi University and Cultur as well as a MoMA PS1 workshop in NYC. Kurdi was awarded a Roulette Intermedium 2020 commission and artist residency 2022 (with support from Jerome Foundation). She is also the recipient of the Queens Fund New Works Grant, NYFA City Artist Corps grant, and Puffin Foundation grant. Recent residencies include: Harvestworks and The Watermill Center with OPERA ensemble. In November 2021 she had her solo exhibition at BWS Gallery in SoHo NYC featuring her 35mm photographs and 16mm dance film.

About Ben LaMar Gay, cornet & voice

https://3arts.org/artist/ben-lamar-gay/

About Lester St. Louis, cello & electronics

Lester St. Louis (b.1993) is a New York-born and -based composer, improviser, cellist, sound designer, and curator. His work traverses through performance, installation, curation, artistic research, and recording. His works are rooted in dynamic environments of improvisation both sonically and socially, ecstatic sound worlds. flow and interaction. He has performed internationally throughout the U.S, the E.U, Canada, China, and in South America; and collaborates with artists such as Chris Williams [under the moniker HxH], Edi Kwon Jaimie Branch, Dre A. Hočevar, Charmaine Lee, Isabel Crespo Pardo, Emeka Okereke, Tortoise, Yo La Tengo, TAK Ensemble, The International Contemporary Ensemble, Random International, Superblue, Terrence Nance, Found Sound Nation, Wet Ink Ensemble, and many more. As a composer, Lester has been commissioned by artists such as The JACK Quartet, RAGE THORMBONES, Jennifer Koh, String Noise, and Ghost Ensemble, among others. He is deeply excited to see what new ventures and collaborations the future may bring and those that will be made.