Self-evident

the world premiere of Christopher Cerrone’s Of being numerous
w/ Present Music, Milwaukee
w/ Caroline Shaw’s Ochre (2022, reprise)

Sunday, November 23 @ 5pm

Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist | Milwaukee, WI

Tickets will be available soon via Present Music.

We have long waited for a piece from Christopher Cerrone, and our collaboration with the adventurous musicians of Present Music brings us that opportunity—a new work, with dramatically relevant content, focusing on the poetry of Pulitzer Laureate and twice-exiled critic of the American government George Oppen, writing in a(nother) time of political tumult and fractured society. Chris has set five sections of Oppen’s great tome Of Being Numerous—with its vision of diverse voices creating unity to produce an emerging mythopoetic idea of what America is—juxtaposed with the thoughts of other American patriots who turn a challenging lens on this great experiment. Likewise, Caroline Shaw focuses her lens on our relationship to the earth in Ochre, a series of seven scenes, each pondering the earth on which we walk, and on which we depend. 

Dissident. Patriot. Emigrant. Love. Being Numerous. 

Christopher Cerrone’s Of being numerous is commissioned by Present Music for The Crossing and Present Music, which presents Cerrone’s new work in Milwaukee.