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composition will incorporate the field recordings the poet has shared, creating soundscapes that span from Girmay’ s grandmother’ s era through to her own experience of motherhood today.
The three artists have been collaborating remotely across different time zones, sharing materials through virtual platforms.“ So far, we’ ve connected to exchange words, images, text, and we ' ll get together next with Brittany to share soundscapes and some musical ideas,” Gordon says, explaining that the piece was still a work-in-progress when we talked.
For Girmay, working with musicians has expanded her conception of storytelling:“ To begin to think alongside musicians about sound, and how it is carried, communicated, or interpreted really expands my sense of what it is possible to listen toward. It really changes my engagement with the stories, memories, and objects that I am working with.”
During her time at Hampshire College, Girmay occasionally ventured into the Berkshires, teaching for a semester at Williams College and visiting MASS MoCA with her children. She particularly remembers the sound of the Green River,“ to witness it through the winter and into spring, to hear its sounds and voices. It was so alive. So active.” This sensitivity to the sounds of nature informs her work on An Experiment in Voices, which seeks to capture the resonances between past and present, between human voices and environmental echoes.
The Linde Center’ s Studio E provides an ideal venue for this intimate, boundary-crossing work. Its flexible space allows for the integration of multiple art forms and creates an immersive environment where audiences can fully experience the interplay of words, music, and recorded sound.
“ When you put poets in a room with composers and musicians, something magical happens,” says AGF’ s Schwartz, whose original inspiration for the commissions was 20th-century poet Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood, produced at the 92nd St Y in Manhattan in 1953.“ We’ re excited to support artists making new work and presenting it to a wider audience with such amazing partners like Tanglewood.”
In addition to the performance on Saturday, August 9, there will be a“ Meet the Makers” session on Friday, August 8, where audiences will be privy to how the piece and its execution came together.
“ I’ m excited to be a part of something that feels very expansive,” says Green,“ that is pushing all three of us in new and exciting directions.”
Girmay echoes this sentiment, saying she’ s“ excited to risk meaningfully, to stretch outside, and even to think about sound and voice differently. It’ s been generative in ways that I can feel already, and I also suspect I’ ll be feeling for a long time.”
For years, Girmay has expressed a desire to pursue“ collaborations that foster new ways of thinking, seeing, identifying, and signifying.” With An Experiment in Voices, she has created a work that not only explores her personal ancestral connections but also demonstrates how art can forge meaningful dialogues across disciplines, generations, and experiences— precisely the kind of innovative, boundary-crossing work that the Linde Center was designed to nurture.
As audiences experience this conversation between past and present, between spoken poetry and musical expression, they will witness firsthand how the blending of artistic languages can open profound new possibilities for connection and understanding. n
Friday, August 8, 4 p. m., TLI Meet the Makers: Aracelis Girmay An Experiment in Voices.
Sat, August 9, 2 p. m., TLI Presents: Aracelis Girmay An Experiment in Voices( World Premiere).
Both events are in Studio E, Linde Center for Music and Learning, Tanglewood.
The Authors Guild Foundation’ s 4th Annual WIT( Words, Ideas, and Thinkers) Literary Festival is September 26-28. The lineup will be announced June 9; tickets go on sale to the general public in July. For updates, go to authorsguild. org / event / wit-festival.
For more information about the programs at the Linde Center, go to bso. org / events / tanglewood-events / tli
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May / June 2025 BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE // 97