Leslie Damaso with Mr. Chair and Sahada Buckley

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Anya Kubilus

Leslie Damaso with Mr. Chair (from left): Ben Ferris, Michael Koszewski, Leslie Damaso, Mark Hetzler, Jason Kutz.

press release: The Madison Music Collective and The Arts + Literature Laboratory present Spring DIG Jazz 2022

Presenting new, original works by local jazz artists

Concerts will be held in-person at the Arts + Literature Laboratory, 111 S. Livingston St. Suite 100

You can view the livestreams of each performance on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/ArtLitLab and on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ArtLitLab

Friday, April 1, 7:30pm -  Leslie Damaso with Mr. Chair -  Sirena

SIRENA is a multimedia collaboration between Mr. Chair and Leslie Damaso. It is a presentation of Mr. Chair’s unique brand of jazz/classical fusion, Leslie Damaso singing kundiman (Filipino art songs), her art, and a contemporary story, hearkening back to myth. Sirena, a story about a mermaid who falls in love with the moon, touches on the ideas of identity, of struggle and resilience of a group of people with a substantial amount of its population in diaspora across the globe. 

Mr. Chair and Leslie have worked together to rearrange these beautiful songs from the 19th century, which are mostly sung in Tagalog, a major dialect in the Philippines. Kundiman, as a genre, started as a reaction to the Spanish colonization of 333 years. These songs tell of the struggles of colonization, the beauty of the Philippines landscape and complex history in the form of love songs. With respect to the original arrangements, we have largely kept the melodies intact but paired with an orchestration that includes improvisation and colors not typically associated with kundiman.

The kundiman will pepper the story-telling, providing musical context to SIRENA and to the Philippines history. Alongside the kundiman, SIRENA will involve a collection of string players who will have their own voice, perhaps the motif of SIRENA, and will provide additional color to the orchestrations.

This project will also include projections of Leslie’s paintings, projected alongside the text of the narration and during the performance.

Leslie Damaso (vocals, kulintang) 

Mr. Chair: Ben Ferris (bass), Mark Hetzler (trombone), Michael Koszewski (percussion), Jason Kutz (piano) 

featured guest, Sahada Buckley (violin)

Series Sponsors: Madison Music Collective, Arts + Literature Laboratory, Wisconsin Union Theater, John and Carolyn Peterson Charitable Foundation, Dane Arts, Wisconsin Arts Board, Madison Arts Commission, Janus Galleries Studio Earth Audio; this engagement is supported by the Arts Midwest GIG Fund, a program of Arts Midwest that is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts; and WORT-FM