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Site: Yizkor

Site: Yizkor is an interdisciplinary project created collaboratively by Maya Ciarrocchi and Andrew Conklin that documents manifestations of loss through text, video, and music. The work exists in three modes of presentation, allowing audiences and viewers alternative forms of engagement. Site: Yizkor is an autonomous video/sound installation, an evening-length musical performance in an immersive projected environment, and a workshop where participants create Yizkor pages to mourn and commemorate lost people and places. 

Site: Yizkor – Sichów

A 15-minute documentary about the making of Site: Yizkor in Sichow Duzy, Poland, June 2022

Site: Yizkor – Roza

Excerpt of Site: Yizkor, performed on June 17, 2022 at the Roza Centre, Ruszcza, Poland.

Presented in collaboration with FestivALT Kraków.

 

Concept, direction and video by Maya Ciarrocchi

Concept, direction and music by Andrew Conklin

Jon Arkin, Electronics

Ben Goldberg, Clarinet

Morris Kliphuis, French Horn, Trumpet

Joanna Duda, Electronics

Natalia Chylinska, Movement

Małgorzata Haduch, Movement

Maya Gelfman, Movement and Text

Alexandrov Krilil, Movement

Katarzyna Pastuszak, Movement

Sarah Turquety, Movement and Text

In June 2022, Ciarrocchi and Conklin, along with a team of American and European musicians, performed the work at the Sichów Educational Foundation, an education and research center in Sichów Duży, Poland, followed by the Róża Centre for International and Interdisciplinary Art and Cooperation in Ruszcza, Poland where they were joined by movement-based artists. Both locations are historical sites once belonging to aristocratic Polish families. The properties fell into ruin in the aftermath of WWII, and their restoration is ongoing. These performances of Site: Yizkor were site-specific, with the musician and dancers performing inside the buildings surrounded by video projected onto the architectural surfaces. Ciarrocchi offered Yizkor writing workshops to the participants, and their writing was included in the performance. 

Site: Yizkor – King Manor

Excerpt of a performance of Site: Yizkor at the King Manor Museum, Jamaica, Queens, May 19, 2023.

Created by Maya Ciarrocchi with music direction by Andrew Conklin.

Preview in NY Jewish Week

 

Performed by:

Anna Azrieli (movement)

Maya Ciarrocchi (video)

Andrew Conklin (guitar, electronics)

Marques Hollie (vocals)

Darvejon Jones (movement)

Sam Kulik (trombone)

Matt Nelson (saxophone)

maura nguyễn donohue (movement)

Alethea Pace (movement)

 

Site: Yizkor/King Manor was funded in part by the Howard Gilman Foundation via Bronx Council on the Arts Cultural Visions Fund.

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Site: Yizkor – Vancouver

00:00 / 10:50

Excerpt of a performance of Site: Yizkor at the Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre, Vancouver BC, ​November 19, 2022.

Created by Maya Ciarrocchi with score composed by Andrew Conklin.

Commissioned by the Chutzpah! Festival

Co-presented with the Sidney & Gertrude Zack Gallery and in partnership with the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre and the Jewish Community Foundation.

Music performed by the Mikrokosmos Quartet.​

Site: Yizkor – Installation

 

Single Channel Sound/Video Installation (9')

Exhibited at 14th St Y in New York, and at the Sichów Foundation in Poland

Music composed by Andrew Conklin. Music includes excerpts of an improvised piece by Andrew Conklin, Eli Crews, Matt Nelson, and Sam Ospovat, recorded by Michael Coleman at Figure 8 Studios (Brooklyn, NY).

Drawing, animation and editing by Maya Ciarrocchi

Text written by anonymous writers and Maya Ciarrocchi

Readings performed by Haley Boehning, Ari Brand, Maya Ciarrocchi, Andrea Kleine and Deb Travis.

Movement sequences performed by Maya Ciarrocchi, Jason Cortlund, Lisa Sanaye Dring, Julia Halperin, Andrew Ondrejcak, Isabel Sandoval, and Jessica Shi.

Site: Yizkor – San Francisco

Excerpt from a work in progress performance at the Center for New Music, San Francisco, CA on October 6, 2019.

 

Andrew Conklin, composer, vocals, guitar

Maya Ciarrocchi, video, reader

Alisa Rose, violin

Ben Goldberg, clarinets

Lisa Mezzacappa, bass

Jon Arkin, percussion and electronics

Michelle Alexander, reader

Jesse Rimler, reader

Site: Yizkor – Installation

Site: Yizkor – New York

Excerpt from a work in progress performance at the Bronx Museum of the Arts Block Gallery on January 10, 2020.

 

Maya Ciarrocchi, concept and direction, video

Andrew Conklin, concept and direction, composition, guitar, vocals

Ben Goldberg, clarinet

Dana Lyn, violin 

Sam Ospovat, percussion

Marques Hollie, vocals

Andrea Kleine, reader

Michelle Levy, reader

Jesús López, reader

How I've notated the music for Site: Yizkor

Site: Yizkor Score Examples

This project has required so many different musical approaches over its varied iterations, which has made it extremely fulfilling and challenging as a composer in the best possible way!

In some cases, it has made the most sense to write out a full score that encompasses the entire piece from beginning to end, including both acoustic instruments and triggered electronic elements:

Other times, a graphic score containing pitches overlaid on a map of the performance site has offered an ideal creative springboard with just enough guidance for the music to cohere:

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Ground 1 King Manor - Full Score copy.jpg

Certain portions of the piece have benefitted from the straightforward notation of pitches on a five-line staff when order and register is predefined:

In Site: Yizkor/Vancouver, for string quartet, it made more sense to notate precise rhythms for the melody above so that the desired "blurring" effect would translate reliably in the absence of electronic manipulation:

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