The Emigrants

About

The Emigrants is a documentary chamber music work designed for cello, percussion, and digital playback. The production centers on verbatim oral history interviews with the emigrant musician community of Queens, New York City. The instrumental music is composed to interact directly with these recorded voices, which are treated as part of the musical score itself. The work was commissioned by the ensemble New Morse Code and focuses on the personal narratives of seven specific musicians. The performance at the Queens Museum served as the world premiere, presenting the culmination of a project that sought to map the musical landscape of one of the world's most diverse urban areas through contemporary classical music and field recordings.