FUTURE
SYZYGEAN: A Multi-Media Butoh Opera
The Philosophical Research Society
February 5, 2025 7:00PM
Los Angeles, CA
Syzygean is a night of after-earth fables presented by Neoma (a collective of multi-disciplinary artists).
Sprouting from workshop concepts by josie j. Syzygean is a conjunction of collected fables by LA artists and beyond. Each contributing an equal part to this tapestry of tales.The work is a meditative living book about a hollow earth, robbed from its insides. This dimensional tapestry unfolds in alignment with an experimental orchestra and video dioramas. Flowing from one fable to the next, Syzygean explores the many spirits remaining after the dust has settled, once a civilization has crumbled.
Neoma is a collective of interdisciplinary artist collaborating on a dance opera. We are a diverse group of artists practicing in the fields of dance, photography, sound, sculpture, visual and healing arts. Most came together in the search for practicum and community-based mindfulness. Neoma was formed from butoh workshops facilitated by josie j at The Philosophical Research Society In Los Angeles, Ca,
Neoma consists of LA-based artists representing different nationalities and backgrounds. We support artists traveling to join our group performances and teach workshops.
Participating Artists:
Arden- gototradeschool.org
Casey Anderson- https://awavepress.com/
Echo- @cecelia_echo
Fenner Merlick- @allfenner
Hermonie Byrd- bhermoniebb.com @hermoniebb
Hollye Holbrook- hollyeholbrook.com @hollyeholbrook
Ibuki Kuramochi- @ibuki_kuramochi
Jade Cruz Quinn- jadecruzquinn.com @jadecruzquinn
josie j- razethewhitebox.com @divinebrickartist
Karim Shuquem
Lauren Puente- laurenpuente.com @laurenpuente
Mica Underdown- https://micaxlly.wixsite.com/bodyspeaker @micaxlly
Mike Meanstreetz-www.mikemeanstreetz.bandcamp.com @mmzblast
Mónica Moreno- www.Desviado.com @MonicatheCreator
Nayantara Banerjee- www.nayantarabanerjee.com
Nelle J. Anderson @soubrettemusick
Nicki Chen- @viola.wave
Patrick Behnke- www.patrickbehnke.com
Pattern
Paula Helen- https://www.tumblr.com/littlemuddycreek @the.story.tree
Sara Zalek- www.saratonin.com @01saratonin
Señora Bufo- @blufrogchiqa
SooHoo- www.soohoo.art
Zac Burgenbauch- @z.bach
Ticket price: $20 (in-person event only)
PAST
The Dragons in my Life: an evening of new compositions by composer Trevor Treglia
Broiler Artist Residency
Oracle Egg
Los Angeles, CA
P R O G R A M
O vis eternitatis – an arrangement of Hildegard von Bingen for soprano, saxophone, tuba, and shruti box
Every Form of Freedom – for microtonal harpsichord
The Dragons in My Life – for soprano, alto, horn, saxophone, tuba, synthesizer, and tape
A Special Mystic Joy – arranged for saxophone
F E A T U R I N G
Conductor/Harpsichord: Sebastian Suarez-Solis
Soprano: Nelle J. Anderson
Alto: YARA ANGEL
Voice: Zhu Dongchen
Trumpet: Nev Wendell
Horn: Nick Ginsberg
Tuba: Mason Moy
Saxophone: Ivan Cunningham
Synthesizer: Peter Gonzalez
Electronics: Jack Kilgore
Electronics: S280F
Live Sound: Sky Meyer
BEDROCK
Broiler Artist Residency
Oracle Egg
Los Angeles, CA
by Nelle J. Anderson & Ivan Cunningham
a performance of bizarre dialogues, soliloquies, and songs that explore semantic meaning and non-meaning accompanied by a microtonal ensemble
Featuring Nelle J. Anderson, Violet Battaglia, Nicki Chen, Grace Dashnaw, Jaz(mine) Jendersee, Gabe Le Neveu, Matt LeVeque, Simone Maura, Brody Scott, and Michael Pisaro-Liu
Composed by Ivan Cunningham
Directed by Nelle J. Anderson
Conducted by Mason Moy
Microtonal Organ programmed by Gabe Le Neveu
Film projections by Drew Gebhardt
*This performance is a part of Oracle Egg’s Broiler, a series supporting the incubation of ambitious new work through 3 to 7 day residencies.
IVAN CUNNINGHAM’S BROKEN SPADE
Coaxial Arts
Los Angeles, CA
August 21, 2024
Vocalist
with
Jacob Wolff’s substitute for the hypnotic object ensemble
&
Battaglia Treglia Duo
GOD’S FAVORITE COLLECTIVE
Artbar
Los Angeles, CA
August 25, 2024
Vocalist/Enfant Terrible
Free-improvisation performance
PARTCH ENSEMBLE
REDCAT
Los Angeles, CA
June 14-15, 2024
Marilyn Monroe/Sex in LSD - Huxley’s Last Trip
PARTCH Ensemble—the Grammy Award-winning ensemble specializing in the music and instruments of the iconoclastic American Maverick composer Harry Partch—returns to REDCAT with an evening of alluring and powerful music performed on the extraordinary orchestra of instruments Partch designed and built himself. This year’s program includes Partch’s Three Dances, Progressions/Abstractions & Delusions, and Five Intrusions, as well as the world premiere of Jeffrey Holmes’ Reið (Raidō) [Ride, Journey] and a staged concert version of new scenes from Anne LeBaron’s latest opera, LSD - Huxley’s Last Trip.
The program includes an instrument “petting zoo”: audiences are encouraged to touch the instruments on stage after the show.
MFA GRADUATION RECITAL
California Institute of the Arts
Valencia, CA
April 3, 2024
TiAmo
Wild Beast at CalArts
Valencia, CA
November 3, 2023
Composers— Ivo Medek, Sará Medková, & Vit Zouhar
Performers—Sará Medková, Hana Hána, *Nelle J. Anderson (*cover for Lucie Rozsnyó)
Director—Rocc
TiAmo is a chamber team opera about the transformations of women's roles, desires, needs and the objects of their interests: love, motherhood, instruments, toys, emancipation, etc...The topic was inspired by news reports responding to the changes in women's attitudes and rights over the last decade, and the changes in their perception within global society. The eternal female stories become a parallel to Ovid's Metamorphoses and legends. TiAmo as an opera about women was created for 3 members of the ensemble ISHA trio, where the very name "isha" means woman in Hebrew.
Cover art for score
HERE BE SIRENS
Roy O. Disney Hall at CalArts
Valencia, CA
April 30, May 2, May 3
Composer—Kate Soper
Director—Hector Alvarez. Music Director—Daniel Newman-Lesser Peitho—Mikaela Elson Polyxo—Elliot Menard Phaino—Nelle J. Anderson
Described by the New Yorker as "erudite, hilarious, furiously inventive," Here Be Sirens presents the daily life of three sirens, who kill time on their island as they await an endless procession of doomed sailors. Peitho revels in the luxurious sensuality of their rite; Phaino stonily enacts the ritual with no inner feeling; and Polyxo longs for escape into the world of the real, delving into centuries of scholarship and research on her species in an attempt to untwist their circumstances. As the opera goes on, the sirens re-enact the abduction of Persephone, encounter (and battle) their favored sisters the Muses, and leave no rock unturned to plumb the depths of their own origins in this work of "audacious, genre-bending music theatre" (Wall Street Journal).
From Meine Gesangskunst by Lilli Lehman
HEAD VOICE
The WaveCave at CalArts
Valencia, CA
March 14 - 21, 2023
Concept & Sound—Nelle J. Anderson
Scenic Design—Jane Hamor, assist. Holly Webb
In this interactive installation with electronic and passively amplified sound, an opera singer and a scenic designer join forces to shape the WaveCave into the inside of a singer’s head—a room-sized, artfully-abstracted skull which visitors will explore with a flashlight, triggering light-sensored sound modules. Each module will play a recording of my voice which corresponds to the anatomical area or metaphorical object as it relates to my singing practice. Every singer has their own matrix of spatial orientations and visualizations that trigger conducive body responses, developed through lessons with different teachers, literature, intuition, and experimentation. This installation reflects this; singing is as much a spatial-visualization practice as it is a sound practice.
Drawing by Biba Kayewich
I want a country
Ensemble Theater II @ CalArts
Valencia, CA
February 9-17, 2023
Playwright—Andreas Flourakis
Translator—Eleni Drivas
Director—Tatou Dede Music Director—Daniel Newman-Lesser Vocalist—Nelle Anderson
“We need to dream, otherwise we’ll just die sleepless.”
I Want a Country, written a decade ago during Greece’s severe debt crisis, is an interdisciplinary theatrical performance that explores what is at stake when a country is not safe anymore. Greek writer Andreas Flourakis imagines a chorus of young people planning to escape into their own dream countries. Will their desires come true?