Everything Rises

An evening-long multimedia staged musical work

Music and libretto by Ken Ueno

2022For violin, bass-baritone, and electronicsEverything Rises is produced and commissioned by ARCO Collaborative with co-commissioner UCSB Arts and Lectures, and the generous support of The Alphadyne Foundation, Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting, and the UCLA Department of History. Additional support from NancyBell Coe and Bill Burke, Annette and Dr. Richard Caleel, Fariba Ghaffari, Barbara and Chet Peckett, Nina and Michael Zilkha. Special thanks to CAP-UCLA for residency workshop support in the development of Everything Rises.

Everything Rises is an evening-long multimedia staged musical work featuring violinist, Jennifer Koh, and bass-baritone, Davóne Tines, that platforms their experiences with racism in classical music. Interviews with Davóne’s grandmother, Alma Lee Gibbs Tines, and Jennifer’s mother, Soonja Lee Koh, help trace their shared history of racialized trauma, the unpacking of which helps create a space of allyship between the Asian American and African American experience. Along the way, a variety of musical settings – solos and duos, instrumentals, songs – showcase Jennifer and Davóne’s virtuosity and the breadth of their musical expressions, as well as take the audience through the complexity of moods and emotions befitting the platformed subject matter.