Rivers In Our Veins - 2024 winner of Chamber Music America's "Interdisciplinary Collaboration of the Year" award.
Award-winning drummer and composer Allison Miller invites you to embark on a riveting journey through her newly commissioned jazz suite, Rivers In Our Veins, exploring cultural, environmental, and ecological issues surrounding US rivers. Rivers In Our Veins is an immersive live performance that seamlessly blends original music, captivating river imagery, and the expressive artistry of contemporary and tap dance. The suite mirrors the diversity of America through folk, jazz, blues, rock, classical, and funk, as Miller leads her ensemble of longtime collaborators, including violinist Jenny Scheinman, Ben Goldberg on contra-alto and Bb clarinets, pianist Carmen Staaf, trumpeter Jason Palmer, bassist Todd Sickafoose, contemporary dancer Maleek Washington, and tap dancers Claudia Rahardjanoto and Lukey Hickey. Partnering with local Riverkeeper organizations, each performance raises awareness and funds for river cleanup, encouraging audiences to notice and appreciate their local waterways.
As Miller notes, “Throughout the piece, we celebrate the biodiversity within our rivers and watersheds. We address industrialism, and its effects on our rivers. We celebrate the Riverkeeper organizations and we explore the evolving connections between communities and their waterways and how a symbiotic relationship between the two are essential for survival on both sides. All of this is done without lyrics. It’s delivered subtly and delicately through an instrumental, dance, and visual interpretation that echoes the beautiful chaos of our rivers and watersheds, their ecology, and their flow.”
Music by Allison Miller
Video design by Todd Winkler
Jenny Scheinman - violin
Jason Palmer - trumpet
Ben Goldberg - clarinet and contra-alto clarinet
Carmen Staaf - piano
Todd Sickafoose - upright bass
Allison Miller - drums, composition, and musical direction
Claudia Rahardjanoto - tap dance
Maleek Washington - contemporary dance
Luke Hickey - tap dance
Trailer by Alejandro Quiles
Performance location - Goucher College Kraushaar Auditorium
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