Black Angels and Secrets: An Extraordinary Evening with the Daedalus Quartet
At the Penn Museum 8:00 pm Friday, January 13, 2017

PHILADELPHIA, PA—The Daedalus Quartet, the University of Pennsylvania’s internationally renowned string-quartet-in-residence, and the Penn Museum join forces to present a new interpretation ofGeorge Crumb’s classic Black Angels. The site-specific, multi-media concert also features remarkable contemporary music created to be performed amidst the ancient artifacts of the Penn Museum’s echo-rich Chinese Rotunda. The program is co-presented by the University of Pennsylvania Department of Music and Bowerbird.

Hauntingly beautiful soundscapes, looming shadows, ancient artifacts, and world-class new music come together in Black Angels and Secrets: An Extraordinary Evening with the Daedalus Quartet, in the towering rotunda of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

The concert begins at 8:00 pm on Friday, January 13, 2017 at 3260 South Street in Philadelphia. Tickets to the program are $15 general admission, $5 students, purchased online in advance at www.penn.museum/blackangels; $20 at the door. Seating is limited and advance reservations are suggested.

George Crumb’s visionary Black Angels: Thirteen Images of the Dark Land for Electric String Quartet with guest shadow-choreography by designer/directorSebastienne Mundheim, (Founder/Director White Box Theatre) anchors the program. The evening opens with a new work, lens flare from Alpha Centauri by Joshua Hey, and concludes with Scott Ordway’s whisper play,Tonight We Tell the Secrets of the World, a 2016 commission inspired by the archaeological work of the Penn Museum and the acoustics of the magnificent 90-foot dome of the Chinese Rotunda. Tonight We Tell the Secrets of the World will feature a special guest, acclaimed soprano Ah Young Hong, who has been called “a tour de force” by the Baltimore Sun, and “a blazing lone star” by the New York Times.

“Crumb, who is emeritus at Penn, completed his masterpiece on Friday the thirteenth of March, 1970, ‘in tempore belli,’ as he writes on the score. We’re revisiting it on Friday the thirteenth in another time of uncertainty,” said Min-Young Kim, violinist of Daedalus. “The Penn Museum’s vast rotunda space, the ancient artifacts and the shadow projections, the resonance of strings and of whispering, chanting, and the eerie glass harmonicas—all come together to create an unforgettable evening of music and magic.”

Black Angels and Secrets will run approximately 90 minutes with one intermission.

The Daedalus Quartet Project site is here.