Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. Image: AFP
Rockers Bon Iver and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Du Yun will showcase new works in the latest festival of forward-looking music at the Kennedy Center, the Washington cultural institution announced Tuesday.
The Kennedy Center, hoping to reach new audiences and to shake off some of its staid image, in March held its first Direct Current festival with an emphasis on contemporary and experimental fare.
The second edition, to take place from March 25 to April 7, will feature a new project by Bon Iver, the Grammy-winning band from Wisconsin that first took the spotlight a decade ago with its emotionally resonant indie folk.
Bon Iver — whose last album, “22, A Million,” took a sharply experimental turn with numerological riddles over synthesizer loops — will release a new work at the Kennedy Center called “Come Through” on March 25.
“Come Through” is a collaboration with TU Dance, a company from St. Paul, Minnesota that brings together modern dance, ballet and African influences.
The festival will also see the U.S. premiere of “Where We Lost Our Shadows,” an oratorio set to a video that explores the lives of some of the than one million refugees and migrants who have come to Germany since 2015.
The oratorio was written by Du Yun, the Chinese-born New York composer who won the Pulitzer Prize for music last year with “Angel’s Bone,” an opera that delves into human trafficking with its story of spirits descending on an American everytown.
Palestinian director Khaled Jarrar shot the video for “Where We Lost Our Shadows,” whose world premiere will take place in January at the Southbank Centre in London.
Next year’s festival will also feature a trilogy of works by the legendary choreographer Bill T. Jones including “Dora: Tramontane,” about his French Jewish mother-in-law’s experience as a nurse and social worker in World War II.
The Kennedy Center, set on the Potomac River, is considered a living national monument to slain president John F. Kennedy, a lover of the arts. NVG
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