Awakenings - New Music Inspired by Buddhism

The Momenta Quartet performs contemporary works by Asian American composers, and a composition by John Cage, for a program inspired by Buddhist art and thought. This performance is a part of the "Locating the Sacred Festival."

The celebrated Momenta Quartet (Emilie-Anne Gendron and Adda Kridler, violins; Stephanie Griffin, viola; Michael Haas, cello) performs contemporary works by Asian American composers, and a composition by John Cage, for a program inspired by Buddhist art and thought.

The performance features Kee Yong Chong‘s Clouds Surging (2011), based on a contemporary ink painting reflective of contemplation in nature; Ushio Torikai‘s Four Teen (2003), which involves Japanese Buddhist chant; Huang Ruo‘s The Flag Project (2009), exploring the movement of Tibetan prayer flags; and Jason Kao Hwang‘s If We Live in Forgetfulness, We Die in a Dream (2011), inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh. In honor of John Cage’s centenary year, Momenta closes the performance with Cage’s mystical Quartet in Four Parts (1951), which draws from Indian philosophy. Featuring the world premiere of Canadian artist John Gurrin’s video art, created for Cage’s composition.

Presented by the Rubin Museum of Art. This performance opens Momenta’s 2012-2013 season. The Momenta Quartet’s 2012-2013 season is made possible through the generous support of the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, New Music USA’s Cary New Music Performance Fund, and by the New York Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Two years in the making, the Locating the Sacred Festival, a project of the Asian American Arts Alliance, has brought together hundreds of artists, arts workers and cultural activists to create twenty-five events in churches, museums, cultural centers, botanical gardens and theaters across all five boroughs of New York City, exploring the meaning of the word “sacred” and its relevance in their communities.

From an inflatable Buddha on the East River to a flash mob in Washington Square Park, the festival showcases Asian American artists as agents of change, demonstrating the power of art to unleash imagination and break down barriers. Festival Producing Partners include New York University, the Rubin Museum of Art, Queens Botanical Gardens, Poetry Society of America, Church Center for the United Nations and several others. In the wake of the shootings at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin and as the eleventh anniversary of 9/11 approaches, New Yorkers are reminded that opportunities for greater cultural understanding are never more important. The Asian American community is the fastest growing cultural group in New York, now 13% of the population (one million people), with heritages spanning the Middle East to the Pacific Islands. The festival aims to provide a platform for all New Yorkers to engage deeply with each other on questions of fundamental values and to be inspired to imagine moving towards together as a society.