National Sawdust

"a thrillingly original dive into colonial history" (The Guardian). This concert celebrates the release of The Zarabanda Variations, a combined album and chapbook exploring the historical and present syncretism of Baroque music in 12 original songs, dances, and poems. A group of musicians convened by violinist/composer Keir GoGwilt, and in collaboration with acclaimed poet Edgar Garcia, bend the historical rhythms, rhymes and resonances of the Baroque. These artists traverse the colonial histories of the zarabanda dance in this unique multimedia collage of contemporary folkloric and improvised traditions, poetry, and new compositions. The Zarabanda Variations is a group of visionary composers, performers, and poets creating a surprising and vibrant synthesis of Baroque, folkloric, and contemporary music of the American hemisphere. The members of the ensemble work across genres including traditional Mariachi and Baroque music, improvisation collectives in Mexico City and New York, and contemporary composition, creating new songs and dances inspired by the eclecticism of the zarabanda: a dance with Spanish, pre-Columbian American, and African origin stories. Woven in with the music is the poetry of Edgar Garcia, whose work maps the emergence of the Baroque through scenes of colonial and contemporary translation, emergency, and migration. The Zarabanda Variations was commissioned and produced by the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC) with additional support from YellowBarn Music Festival, YoungARTS, Clark Art Institute, Frequency Festival, the Peabody Essex Museum, and Lincoln Center. The Zarabanda Variations features Mariana Flores Bucio (voice), Wilfrido Terrazas (flutes, composition), Jonny Allen (percussion), Miranda Cuckson (violin), Carrie Frey (viola), Keir GoGwilt (violin / composition), Alec Goldfarb (guitars), Kyle Motl (contrabass), Coleman Itzkoff (cello), Vicente Atria (composition), and Edgar Garcia (poetry). The Zarabanda Variations by Keir GoGwilt // This performance is made possible thanks to the generous support of The Howard & Sarah D. Solomon Foundation. // This is a seated performance. If you require accessibility accommodations, please email boxoffice@nationalsawdust.org. ‍ About Edgar Garcia Edgar Garcia is an acclaimed poet and scholar of the hemispheric cultures of the Americas. He was born in California to a family of Central American extraction. He earned an associate degree from Chaffey Community College, a BA from the University of California, Berkeley, and a PhD from Yale University. He is associate professor of English at the University of Chicago and works in the fields of indigenous and Latinx studies, American literature, poetry and poetics, and environmental criticism. He also teaches in the Department of Creative Writing, where he serves as director of Undergraduate Studies. Garcia's collection of poems and anthropological essays, Skins of Columbus: A Dream Ethnography , won the 2018 Fence Modern Poets Series award. He is also the author of the chapbook Boundary Loot (Punch Press, 2012) and the coeditor of American Literature in the World: An Anthology from Anne Bradstreet to Octavia Butler (Columbia University Press, 2017), as well as a collaborator on Infinite Regress (Bom Dia Books, 2021). His other books include a scholarly monograph, Signs of the Americas: A Poetics of Pictography, Hieroglyphs, and Khipu (University of Chicago Press, 2020), and a collection of essays, Emergency: Reading the Popol Vuh in a Time of Crisis (University of Chicago Press, 2022). His poems and translations have appeared in the Antioch Review , Berkeley Poetry Review , Fence , Jacket2 , Mandorla , Portable Gray , and the anthology The Alteration of Silence: Recent Chilean Poetry (Diálogos, 2013); and his essays on poetry and related topics have appeared in American Religion , Chicago Review , Los Angeles Review of Books , MAKE , Modern Philology , New Writing , PMLA , and Tupelo Quarterly . In 2022, he was the guest editor in chief of Fence magazine. About Keir GoGwilt Keir GoGwilt is a violinist and composer whose work combines historical & musicological research with collaborative experimentation. As a violinist, he is known as a "formidable performer" ( The New York Times ) with an "evocative sound" ( London Jazz News ) and "finger-busting virtuosity" ( San Diego Union Tribune ). He has soloed with groups including the Basel Sinfonieorchester, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Chinese National Symphony, Orquesta Filarmonica de Santiago, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. As a founding member of the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC), he has performed original, collaboratively-devised music, dance, and theater works at The 92nd Street Y, Luminato Festival, PS 122 COIL, Stanford Live, the American Repertory Theater, Carolina Performing Arts, the Momentary, and the Ojai Music Festival. This past season he has been composer-in-residence with the JACK Quartet and has received commissions from the Barlow Foundation and the Copland House. His recompositions of renaissance and medieval music with violinist Johnny Chang have been released on Another Timbre; his improvising duo with bassist Kyle Motl has been acclaimed for their "rhapsodic gestures" ( The New Yorker ) and "keen musical intellects" ( The Wire ). He has worked closely with a broad range of artists including Matthew Aucoin, Bobbi Jene Smith, Mark Dresser, Eyvind Kang, Tan Dun, Steve Schick, and George Lewis. GoGwilt earned his PhD in Music (Integrative Studies) from UC San Diego in 2021, where he received the Chancellor’s Dissertation Medal for the Division of Arts & Humanities. His musicological research has been published in the Bach Journal , Current Musicology , Naxos Musicology , and the Orpheus Institute Series.

New York-based singer-songwriter Loren Berí celebrates the release of his new album 'Stagehand' — alongside a companion book of poems — in an evening that brings together his indie music with premieres by contemporary classical composers. His songs like "My Brooklyn (Is Better Than Yours)" have been praised for their inventive storytelling and charismatic performance style. FLOOD Magazine called his breakout single a "wildly magnetic—and hilarious—homage to NYC," highlighting its bubbly synths and clever lyricism. Recent collaborations include the song "Al Pacino" with Glassio; contributions from Mauro Refosco (David Byrne, Atoms For Peace, Dirty Projectors) throughout 'Alby's Ghost'; and his song "Greta's Inn", featuring Kishi Bashi, which was included in Fortnite. The program includes world premieres from three composers. Alaina Ferris — described by The New York Times as "arrestingly lovely" and "haunting" — is an interdisciplinary composer, poet, and Celtic harpist whose work spans opera, choral music, and contemporary theater. Samn Johnson, whose 2024 album 'Consolation' on Innova Recordings was praised by Under The Radar, writes for chamber ensembles using historical tuning systems and ancient languages. Cindy Lan, violist and Queens Art Fund grantee, explores voice, strings, and electronics through her project 'Breath & Bow Meditations'. The Ondine Quartet — violinists Ariana Cappon and Chloe Kim, violist Cindy Lan, and cellist Sara Song — performs with Berí and premieres all three composers' new works. A New York ensemble celebrated for programs spanning Beethoven to Gabriella Smith, they are a 2024 Chamber Music America Ensemble Forward grantee and made their Downtown Music debut in 2023. This is a seated performance. If you require accessibility accommodations, please email boxoffice@nationalsawdust.org. ABOUT LOREN BERÍ Loren Berí’s album release performance will feature new songs from his upcoming album ‘Stagehand’, performed with string ensemble Ondine Quartet. The album will be released alongside a book of accompanying poems. Berí is a New York‐based singer‐songwriter whose work blends lush chamber textures with catchy indie; his songs like “My Brooklyn (Is Better Than Yours)” have been praised for their inventive storytelling and charismatic performance style. FLOOD Magazine called his breakout single a “wildly magnetic—and hilarious—homage to NYC,” highlighting its bubbly synths and clever lyricism. His music has also been featured in Earmilk, 1883 Magazine, TMRW Magazine, and Tonitruale. Recent collaborations include the song “Al Pacino” with Glassio; contributions from Mauro Refosco (David Byrne, Atoms For Peace, Dirty Projectors) throughout ‘Alby’s Ghost’; and his song “Greta’s Inn” from Alby’s Ghost, featuring Kishi Bashi, which was included in Fortnite. In addition to his music career, Berí has directed episodes for television on BRIC TV, and holds a degree in Playwriting. ‍ ABOUT ALAINA FERRIS Alaina Ferris is an interdisciplinary composer, poet, and performer working in opera, choral music, and contemporary theater. Described by The New York Times as “arrestingly lovely” and “haunting,” her music explores empathy, memory, resilience, and the impact of violence against women. A vocalist, pianist, and Celtic harpist, she draws on experience as a music therapist and influences from Renaissance chorales, classical orchestrations, jazz, folk improvisation, and avant-garde poetics. She performs on harp with Night Heron Quintet and is one half of the folk duo Physical Kids. Her recent works include The Lydian Gale Parr (oratorio/incantation), Simone at the Museum (vampire opera in development), and collaborations on adaptations of The Blind and The Black Crook, among others. She has worked with Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Barnard College, César Alvarez, Coco Karol, Sxip Shirey, Anne Waldman, and William Burke. Ferris has received fellowships and grants from Hermitage Artist Residency, NYC Women’s Fund, New Music USA, Cité Internationale des Arts, American Opera Project, and National Sawdust Summerlab. Born in Las Vegas and raised in Boulder County, Colorado, she holds a B.A. in Music and Creative Writing (University of Denver), an M.F.A. in Poetry (NYU), and an M.M. in Composition (Manhattan School of Music). She lives in New York. ‍ ABOUT SAMN JOHNSON Samn Johnson (he/they, b. 1991) is a composer whose work merges arcane technical interests with a plainspoken emotional directness. Their music often explores memory and the reception of historical material, uniting premodern and contemporary musical languages in a surreal kaleidoscoping of time. Johnson’s work spans solo keyboard music, electronics, vocal music, chamber music, and orchestra. Drawing on an abiding interest in historical linguistics, they frequently set texts in old languages including Latin, Old English, Hittite, and Gothic. Tuning and acoustics are another throughline, with many works involving historical temperaments and Just Intonation. Collaborators include JACK Quartet, Righteous GIRLS, Chromic Duo, harpsichordist Nathan Mondry, and conductor Elim Chan. Their 2024 album Consolation , released on Innova Recordings, sets Latin texts from The Consolation of Philosophy for the non-binary vocalist Tis Kaoru Zamler-Carhart and electronics. Under The Radar described the work as “uniting seemingly divergent fields, crafting compositions that feel like equal parts academic works and complex experimentalist art pieces.” Earlier releases include Ageless Sea (2022), for chamber choir, chamber orchestra, electronics, and rock band, and First Book for Piano (2022), performing their own piano music. Johnson is also one half of the synth-pop duo Acraea. Johnson holds an M.M. in Composition and Music Theory from NYU, a B.M.A. in Composition from the University of Michigan, and was a fellow at the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival. They currently live and work in Kalamazoo, Michigan. ‍ ABOUT CINDY LAN Cindy Lan is a violist, composer, and songwriter from Queens, NY. Since 2019, she has explored her inner emotional world through the interplay of voice, strings, and electronics in her project ‘Breath & Bow Meditations’. She is a 2025 recipient of the Queens Art Fund New Work grant for the development of her interdisciplinary dance piece, “Sadness isn’t any louder than joy”. Cindy performs with Isogram and is a contributing performer for “Antonym: the opposite of nostalgia” by Sugar Vendil, which premiered at Pioneers Go East Collective’s Out-FRONT! Fest. in January 2026. Her string quartet, Ondine Quartet, was a 2024 Chamber Music America Ensemble Forward grantee, and she is a 2025 Marble House Project Artist-in-Residence. Since 2023, she has been the Executive Director of the Greenwich Village Orchestra, and holds an MM in Viola Performance from the Eastman School of Music. ‍ ABOUT THE ONDINE QUARTET The Ondine Quartet is comprised of violinists Ariana Cappon and Chloe Kim, violist Cindy Lan, and cellist Sara Song-a New York–based ensemble celebrated for its vibrant, wide-ranging programs spanning classical masterworks to contemporary music. Following their acclaimed 2023 Downtown Music debut, they continue to present dynamic performances featuring composers from Beethoven to Gabriella Smith. Each member brings a rich and diverse musical background, performing as soloists, chamber musicians, and collaborators across prestigious venues in New York, Europe, and beyond. Committed to both tradition and innovation, the quartet explores everything from Mozart to modernist works, championing new music while creating engaging experiences for audiences.

The Healing Scapes is an immersive audio-visual performance by Nigerian-American sound artist, saxophonist, DJ, and producer Eli Fola. Blending electronic, ambient, jazz, and techno with elements of traditional West African instrumentation, the work explores sound as a tool for emotional and physical connection. Original compositions create evolving sonic environments that move between rhythm and stillness. Eli will be joined onstage by drummer Daniel Fresco, with abstract visuals by Manami Sakamoto accompanying the performance, deepening immersion and focus. Sonic Griot AnAkA sets the tone for the evening with an opening set that weaves together ancestral rhythms, elemental textures, and messages from the unseen. Together, sound and image invite audiences into a shared terrain—slowing down, tuning in, and experiencing electronic music beyond the dance floor. About Eli Fola Eli Fola is a Nigerian-American multidisciplinary sound artist, saxophonist, DJ, and producer, and the creator of the acclaimed live-hybrid performance style Yoruba Tech Soul. His immersive sets fuse AfroHouse, techno, jazz, classical elements, live saxophone, and Yoruba rhythmic traditions—delivering a powerful experience that bridges electronic music, live performance, and ritual sound. Eli has released music on influential labels including He.She.They Records, Armada Music, ULU Records, Rise Berlin, Mobilee Records, Connected Frontline, Cacao Records, and his own imprint Tech Afrique. His growing catalog spans Afrotech, AfroHouse, experimental electronica, and cinematic sound design. A dynamic touring artist, Eli has performed in over 30 countries, bringing his hybrid live sets to major festivals and global platforms such as Voodoo Village Festival, Sunburn Festival Goa, SXM Festival, Elements Festival, EDC Las Vegas (Ubuntu Stage / Bridges for Music), EDC Sea, and numerous Insomniac events. He is also known for standout performances on iconic Burning Man art cars and stages. His work has earned support from cultural leaders including Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys, and he has shared stages with artists such as Black Coffee, Pablo Fierro, Honey Dijon, Sinego, Audiofly, and A$AP Rocky. Beyond the stage, Eli has composed music for Vogue Italia and Free The Work, and collaborated with brands including Soho House, Chanel, Bacardi, and Art Basel. In 2016, Eli founded Tech Afrique, a B-Corp–certified creative label and cultural platform dedicated to Afrofuturism and the advancement of BIPOC artists across electronic music and multimedia art. Defined by innovation, spiritual depth, and a bold fusion of ancestral sound with forward-thinking electronic production, Eli Fola stands at the forefront of the next evolution of global club culture. ‍ About AnAkA AnAkA is a sonic griot, weaving ancestral rhythms, elemental textures, and messages from the unseen through Angel Music — a genre born from ritual, resistance, and remembrance. Her sound draws on her African and Native ancestry, alongside her training as a ceremonialist in Ifa and medicine ceremony traditions. She has performed at places such as The Shed in New York, opened up for artists such as Mereba, and led sound healing sessions and underground ceremony globally. Last year she released her debut album, Crisis of the Concrete — a call to action and soundtrack for a new earth, guided by a calling for liberation.Angel Music finds its fullest form within AKASHIP, AnAkA’s traditional medicine ceremony movement, where it’s sung as an offering in ceremony. If you require accessibility accommodations, please email boxoffice@nationalsawdust.org. About Manami Sakamoto Manami is a visual artist based in Tokyo, known for immersive, abstract visual expressions that blur the boundaries between sound, image, and light. Her diverse body of work spans A/V performances, live visuals, and installations, and she has presented her work at festivals and venues both in Japan and abroad, including MUTEK Montréal, Junction 2 Festival, Awakenings Festival, and SAT Montréal. ‍ About Daniel Fresco Daniel Fresco is a multicultural drummer and percussionist from The Bronx who draws from his Puerto Rican, Afro-Cuban roots for inspiration. Fresco combines the traditional drumset with world percussion instruments to create his own unique sound, supporting a wide range of genres and artists. From touring internationally to playing on a street corner, Daniel's groove is sure to move the heart, body and soul. ‍

National Sawdust hosts the New York premiere of a [time] patterned, taken from harpist Lara Somogyi’s latest full-length work: a contemporary harp album constructing sonic environments, exploring how time is felt, shaped, and experienced through sound. Built from harp, pedal textures and electronics, virtuosic arpeggios, stacked tape machines, ambient processing, contemporary extended harp techniques, graphic scored symphonic language, string orchestra, and field recordings, the album constructs time not as a linear experience—but as an emotional landscape. Through the process of writing, Somogyi found that time is not something she perceives linearly, but sensorially — through patterns, texture, resonance, and subtle shifts in feeling. In this way, the album centers on an idea that soon emerged: music decorates time. Rooted in a classical and symphonic sensibility, the work expands through a contemporary lens, as Lara continues to stretch the traditional forms and shift how harp is heard. A central pillar of the record was to parallel innovative time-based processes into light, exploring how these approaches can shift the way time is perceived through sound. Writing this record opened a door to composing a world through tape loops, delays, granular repetition and glitches in time, through patterns unfolding and refracting upon each other. Rather than leaning on traditional harmonic structure, the music prioritizes tactile form: a sonic architecture where textures carry meaning and rhythm acts as emotional meter. ABOUT LARA SOMOGYI A harpist and contemporary classical performer-composer, Lara Somogyi is known for her work in forging a new artistic identity for the harp. Born and raised in Kauai, Hawaii and New York, Lara is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in London, and was awarded as an honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) for her contributions to her field. With an unwavering dedication to sculpting a world of sonic exploration, Lara has seamlessly integrated electronics and pedal effects with her deeply classical roots, redefining the artistic possibilities of the harp. Cultivating an individual sound - she brings a fresh, passionate, modern sonority to the instrument. Years of sculpting her sound and developing her set of contemporary expressions on the harp led her to write compositions for solo harp and electronics. Finding company and comfort in vast sonic expanses and exploration ushered her to a renewed clarity of expression and identity with the instrument. Her debut full-length album ! released under Decca Records’ Mercury KX, stands as a testament to Lara's innovative approach, seamlessly blending traditional harp with electronics and pedal effects. Praised by BBC 6’s Mary Anne Hobbs as “an artist who takes the harp into contemporary worlds,” Somogyi’s album was met with acclaim by Pitchfork for its innovation, and showcases Lara's mastery in pushing the boundaries of the harp's expressive capabilities. In 2023, Lara released an "expanded" version of ! which featured new orchestral expansions, new music, and remixes, and in fall 2024, Lara released a new EP entitled blueprints , a reflection on life’s cycles—the way we lay the groundwork, make decisions, adapt to change, and eventually look back to see the design of it all. Lara's scoring work includes the Sundance Film Festival premiere of Better Angels: The Gospel According To Tammy Faye , the latest documentary from Academy Award–nominated director Dana Adam Shapiro with an original soundtrack spanning 4 episodes scored by Lara and composing partner Cyrus Reynolds. Producers include Elton John and VICE. Beyond her role as a composer-performer, Lara's sonic footprint resonates across a myriad of acclaimed records including in Bonobo’s Grammy Nominated record Fragments , Ólafur Arnalds & Loreen 's SAGES Remix album, and seamlessly traverses genres in recording sessions for film and TV. She also features heavily on scores for A24's Eddington , Death of a Unicorn , Disney’s The Lion King , The Color Purple , Green Book , Haunted Mansion , Netflix’s Bridgerton , Queen Charlotte , King Richard , When They See Us , The Simpsons , Charlie’s Angels , Spike Lee’s film with Oscar-nominated score Da 5 Bloods , Marvel film Birds of Prey , and Coming 2 America . Notably she played a pivotal role in exploring harp textures and effects for the score to Blue Planet II by Hans Zimmer featuring Radiohead with her signature use of electronics and harp heavily noted on the score. Her collaboration also extends to the realm of live performances, where Lara's playing has graced stages alongside luminaries like Anderson. Paak, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Daniel Caesar, H.E.R. Camila Cabello, Ashanti, Rufus Wainwright, Josh Groban, Sarah Brightman, Son Lux, and more. In every note she plays and every composition she crafts, Lara Somogyi propels the harp into uncharted territories, creating a symphony that seamlessly marries tradition and innovation. Her musical odyssey continues to captivate audiences, making her a trailblazer in the contemporary classical landscape.

John Zorn’s newest project Flatlands is a dynamic power trio in the Simulacrum / Naked City / Insurrection mold—a new music super-group featuring Matt Hollenberg (Simulacrum, Shardik, Secret Chiefs 3) on electric guitar, Simon Hanes (Gargantua, Tredici Bacci, Tsons of Tsunami) on electric bass, and Ches Smith (Clone Row, We All Break, Laugh Ash) on drums. The music is intense, quirky, and wildly ecstatic—thirteen compact stop-on-a-dime kaleidoscopic compositions filled with virtuosic solos, infectious riffs, atonal melodies, advanced harmonies, complex rhythms, and plenty of the ever surprising structural innovations that has made Zorn one of the most continually fascinating composers of the past fifty years. Not to be missed! John Zorn's FLATLANDS features Matt Hollenberg (guitar), Simon Hanes (bass), and Ches Smith (drums). Zorn's newest project is a dynamic power trio — intense, ecstatic, and not to be missed. // This is a seated performance. If you require accessibility accommodations, please email boxoffice@nationalsawdust.org. // This is an all ages performance. No photography is allowed.

We Were Fridays is an interdisciplinary music project led by cellist Jeffrey Zeigler - a deeply personal exploration of cultural memory and diaspora. It will follow a story that began in the Griot tradition of West Africa, travel to South Carolina by way of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, then north by way of the Great Migration, and beyond. We Were Fridays explores the music of the Gullah people of the Low Country of South Carolina, a community which to this day has preserved more of their West African linguistic and cultural heritage than any other African American community in the United States. Gullah music has influenced spirituals, gospel, ragtime, rhythm and blues, soul, hip hop and jazz. We Were Fridays will extend this reach into the world of instrumental cello music. Told through cello, electronics, and dance, We Were Fridays will explore forbidden love, fractured lines, and complex legacies. The work is centered around new compositions from Etienne Charles, Tamar-kali, Hannah Ishizaki and Jeffrey Zeigler; and features choreography/dance from Flexn pioneer Reggie “Regg Roc” Gray, and a bespoke interactive book design from sister sylvester. The project is deeply rooted in an ethos of community and intergenerational learning – partnering with the Penn Center on St. Helena Island, South Carolina and the University of Georgia Culture & Community program to devise community engagement and education platforms. This work brings together community members and elders from local Gullah communities, along with students and teachers from HBCUs across the country - to engage in dialogue, conversation and creative exchange around the project’s themes of memory and diaspora. The album and touring performance work will premiere in 2026 and tour across the US and internationally. This event marks the world premiere of We Were Fridays and its album release, with LPs available for purchase with your ticket or onsite at the performance while supplies last. Available via Amazon Music, Apple Music, Soundcloud, Bandcamp beginning September 18, 2026. ‍ Commissioned by VisionIntoArt, National Sawdust, and The Wexner Center for the Arts Developed by VisionIntoArt and National Sawdust, with support from Penn Center, PS21 Center for Contemporary Performance, and Weeksville Heritage Center Produced by VisionIntoArt, with support by Jill and Bill Steinberg, National Sawdust, the MAP Fund, and Mellon Foundation. Created by Jeffrey Zeigler Music by Tamar-kali, Etienne Charles, Hannah Ishizaki, and Jeffrey Zeigler Director & Creative Producer Ras Dia Choreography by Reggie “Regg Roc” Gray Projection and Book Design by sister sylvester Lighting design by Itohan Edoloyi Sound design by Garth MacAleavey and Zo McGlynn Wardrobe design by Fulani Hart of Javelin Nyc VisionIntoArt Impact Lab Fellow Tendaji Bailey Choreography Assistant Quamaine Daniels Impact Producer and Film Documentation by Daniel Oxenhandler // This is a seated performance. If you require accessibility accommodations, please email boxoffice@nationalsawdust.org. // This performance is recommended for ages 12 and up. // This performance is made possible thanks to the generous support of William Abrams and Julie Salamon, Ted Cornwell & Pedro Carroll, The Endeavor Foundation, Jeanne Giordano, Helen Little and William Little, Lostland Foundation, Julie Mehretu, Cav. Simon Mordant AO and Catriona Mordant AM, Catharine and Jeffrey Soros.

We Were Fridays is an interdisciplinary music project led by cellist Jeffrey Zeigler - a deeply personal exploration of cultural memory and diaspora. It will follow a story that began in the Griot tradition of West Africa, travel to South Carolina by way of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, then north by way of the Great Migration, and beyond. We Were Fridays explores the music of the Gullah people of the Low Country of South Carolina, a community which to this day has preserved more of their West African linguistic and cultural heritage than any other African American community in the United States. Gullah music has influenced spirituals, gospel, ragtime, rhythm and blues, soul, hip hop and jazz. We Were Fridays will extend this reach into the world of instrumental cello music. Told through cello, electronics, and dance, We Were Fridays will explore forbidden love, fractured lines, and complex legacies. The work is centered around new compositions from Etienne Charles, Tamar-kali, Hannah Ishizaki and Jeffrey Zeigler; and features choreography/dance from Flexn pioneer Reggie “Regg Roc” Gray, and a bespoke interactive book design from sister sylvester. The project is deeply rooted in an ethos of community and intergenerational learning – partnering with the Penn Center on St. Helena Island, South Carolina and the University of Georgia Culture & Community program to devise community engagement and education platforms. This work brings together community members and elders from local Gullah communities, along with students and teachers from HBCUs across the country - to engage in dialogue, conversation and creative exchange around the project’s themes of memory and diaspora. The album and touring performance work will premiere in 2026 and tour across the US and internationally. Commissioned by VisionIntoArt, National Sawdust, and The Wexner Center for the Arts Developed by VisionIntoArt and National Sawdust, with support from Penn Center, PS21 Center for Contemporary Performance, and Weeksville Heritage Center Produced by VisionIntoArt, with support by Jill and Bill Steinberg, National Sawdust, the MAP Fund, and Mellon Foundation. Created by Jeffrey Zeigler Music by Tamar-kali, Etienne Charles, Hannah Ishizaki, and Jeffrey Zeigler Director & Creative Producer Ras Dia Choreography by Reggie “Regg Roc” Gray Projection and Book Design by sister sylvester Lighting design by Itohan Edoloyi Sound design by Garth MacAleavey and Zo McGlynn Wardrobe design by Fulani Hart of Javelin Nyc VisionIntoArt Impact Lab Fellow Tendaji Bailey Choreography Assistant Quamaine Daniels Impact Producer and Film Documentation by Daniel Oxenhandler // This is a seated performance. If you require accessibility accommodations, please email boxoffice@nationalsawdust.org. // This performance is recommended for ages 12 and up. // This performance is made possible thanks to the generous support of William Abrams and Julie Salamon, Ted Cornwell & Pedro Carroll, The Endeavor Foundation, Jeanne Giordano, Helen Little and William Little, Lostland Foundation, Julie Mehretu, Cav. Simon Mordant AO and Catriona Mordant AM, Catharine and Jeffrey Soros.