I Sing - The Body

Available 2013/2014

I Sing - The Body is a collection that includes Essence and Music of Amber, both critically acclaimed works. Essence was written specifically for the 1991 New Music Concerts national composition contest, and was selected as the winning entry. Music of Amber is indicative of the composer Joseph Schwantner's colouristic and evocative music, and Joseph McLellan of The Washington Post called it "a masterpiece of constantly shifting subtle and vivid textures, which the players blended and balanced impressively." Together it is a large scale work inspired by Walt Whitman's trenchant poem 'I Sing the Body Electric' which explores the question: what is the soul, if not the body? I Sing- The Body is a celebration of the beauty of the human body, dwelling on its physicality and forms, its sexuality, and its divinity.

It first premiered at the 2011 Vancouver International Dance Festival as Kokoro Dance and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra joined forces for their fourth installment in a series of collaborations where live music and dance inform one another.

For more information about touring, please contact Jay Hirabayashi at jayh[at]kokoro.ca