Miami Dade College’s (MDC) Museum of Art and Design (MOAD) will present The Transformations Suite, a genre-defying musical tour de force by the rising young composer and pianist Samora Pinderhughes.
The Transformations Suite, performed by Pinderhughes and a small jazz ensemble, combines words and music to paint a picture of America today— tragic and indicting, but ultimately, hopeful. The Transformations Suite will have one performance at the Miami Light Project at The Light Box at Goldman Warehouse, 404 NW 26 St., on Friday, Feb. 2, at 8 p.m.
The Transformations Suite paints a musical picture of the current state of social inequality and injustice in the United States and beyond.
Pinderhughes has spent the past five years writing, recording, and producing this work, which combines music, theater, and poetry to examine the radical history of resistance within communities of the African diaspora.
Within the composition’s framework, the project connects contemporary issues, such as the prison industrial complex and the Black Lives Matter movement, with the history of revolutionary movements of color.
Centered in the belief that there is a soundtrack to every revolution, The Transformations Suite intends to foster dialogue on social justice issues throughout the world, show how art can promote social change, contribute to the powerful growing movement on behalf of black lives around the country, and empower all people — especially youth — to make their voices heard.
Samora Abayomi Pinderhughes is a world-renowned pianist and composer who has performed at the White House, the Blue Note, MoMA, Sundance Film Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, and Carnegie Hall, and has toured internationally with Branford Marsalis, Christian Scott, Jose James, Harvey Mason, Emily King, and other artists.
His projects include I’m Still Here: Letters on Trauma & Healing for the Institute for Arts and Civic Dialogue; The James Baldwin Essays: Examining the American Dream Narrative commissioned by Harlem Stage; The Migration of Protest: Meditations on Jacob Lawrence for the Museum of Modern Art, and Billy Strayhorn: The Music of the Sutherland Period for the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.
Pinderhughes also is a member of Blackout for Human Rights, and was musical director for their 2016 #MLKNow and #JusticeForFlint events. The Transformations Suite has been performed throughout South America and the U.S. at venues including the American Museum of Natural History, Harlem Arts Festival, Juilliard, UC Irvine, NYU, Joe’s Pub, the Jazz Gallery, MoMA, and Columbia University.
The Transformations Suite is part of “Living Together,” an exciting cross-disciplinary series of programs that will galvanize Miami audiences with thoughtful and challenging performances and exhibitions that draw from art, music, theater, politics, and poetry.
Spread across the city at a wide array of venues, the series features performances, exhibitions, film and video screenings, readings, talks, and workshops that will reflect the cultural, social, and political realities of how we live now. “Living Together” seeks to find new ways to think about civic space and citizenship, to instigate actions and conversations that may help us to reimagine our cities and our lives.
“Living Together” will take place at various sites across the greater Miami area from Janunary to September and will include works by 17 of the most acclaimed national and international artists, art collectives, musicians, and writers. Events in the series will be produced by MDC’s MOAD in collaboration with a range of other Miami institutions, and most events will be free and open to the public. The curators of “Living Together” are Rina Carvajal, executive director and chief curator of MDC’s MOAD, and Joseph R. Wolin, an independent curator based in New York.
Tickets are: $15, general admission; $10, MDC faculty and staff; $5 students with ID; free to MDC students. Tickets are available at MDC’s MOAD website at www.mdcmoad.org/.
To view the full schedule of events, www.mdcmoad.org/.
