Northern Kentucky University’s School of the Arts welcomes new music ensemble Zohn Collective on March 20, performing an evening of modern piano trios in collaboration with videographer José Camacho and famed, Mexican cartoonist, José Ignacio Solórzano (a.k.a. “Jis”).
All works on the program relate to the idea of music as a powerful gateway to memory. Audience members may recognize the Ives Trio, which is flecked with numerous quotations of American folk and popular music.
Ives evokes memories from his own personal life as well as memories from the collective American consciousness. Other works on the program were written by Daniel Pesca and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, both members of Zohn Collective, and also deal with the idea of music and memory.
“The performance will stimulate audiences to respond more creatively to contemporary and 20th-century chamber music while creating an experience to reflect on the relationship between music, imagery, and memory,” said Hanna Hurwitz, co-director of Zohn Collective and lecturer of violin at NKU SOTA. “The information about the works will be integrated as an artistic, rather than descriptive, component of the event. The intention is to refract that information through a combination of visual and auditory means that gives space for individualized reflection and fluid interpretation.”
Founded in 2017, Zohn Collective is a contemporary music collective, which seeks to produce and perform artist-driven projects generated by its members. For this reason, the diversity of backgrounds, interests, and expertise of each member is an essential and vibrant element of the group’s model.
The ensemble core is comprised of nine members, which includes instrumental performers, composers, and a conductor, however, the group may expand or contract as dictated by the repertory of each project. The group recently performed with internationally recognized puppet company, La Coperacha, at the Festival de Mayo in Guadalajara, Mexico, and has given performances and workshops at the University of Kentucky, Belmont University, Oberlin Conservatory, Notre Dame, and University of Chicago.
“Jis” José Ignacio Solórzano is a renowned cartoonist, conceptual artist, and radio personality born in 1963 in Guadalajara, México. He has been a longstanding contributor to many of the preeminent newspapers and magazines in Mexico (La Jornada, Milenio, Galimatías, among others) and is co-author of the fabled comic strip “El Santos.”
He has presented numerous exhibits of his work at noted galleries in Mexico and abroad and published several books with his drawings, comic strips, and cartoons, for including one in English, titled Cats don’t exist for Fantagraphics.
Zohn Collective will perform Wednesday, March 20, 2019 at 7 p.m. in Greaves Concert Hall at NKU. Admission is free and open to the public. Parking is available for patrons in Lots D & I on campus. For more information about NKU’s School of the Arts, click here.
NKU School of the Arts
