MotherTongue, MotherLand
Sunny Kim
In her new work Sunny Kim has assembled a stellar cast of musicians: Aviva Endean, Mindy Meng Wang and Gelareh Pour. At the heart of their work is a poetic response to motherhood referencing the artists' and their mothers' experiences of migration, longing, belonging, joy, and pain.
A poetic response to motherhood
At the heart of MotherTongue, MotherLand is a poetic response to motherhood, with specific reference to migrant experiences, as all these amazing musicians, or their mothers, were born somewhere other than Australia. MotherTongue, MotherLand is intended to create an intimate and safe space in which family stories of longing, belonging, joy, and pain are shared and celebrated. In the premiere of the new work, listeners will be invited to connect across culture and language through spoken to sung, structured to improvised, and traditional to experimental sonic narratives.
From Sunny Kim:
"The Utzon Room at the Sydney Opera House seems to be the perfect place for the performance of this work - with the beautiful tapestry on one side designed by Jorn Utzon, the architect of the Sydney Opera House, who worked closely with his daughter, Lin Utzon, to produce the artwork. Then on the other a wall of glass window looks out to the sea and evokes one’s imagination for the many untold Australian family stories of migration, longing, and belonging. My collaborators - Gelareh Pour, Mindy Meng Wang, and Aviva Endean – and I very much look forward to sharing with the audience the celebration of our stories and sounds coming together in this special place."
Featured artists:
Sunny Kim (composer, vocals)
Aviva Endean (clarinets)
Mindy Meng Wang (guzheng)
Gelareh Pour (kamancheh, qeychak, vocals)
Tamara Saulwick (dramaturg)
MotherTongue, MotherLand is commissioned by Sydney Opera House, and is enabled by our New Work Now program donors.
Presented by Sydney Opera House in association with UKARIA & Finding Our Voice
Finding Our Voice is supported by Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund – an Australian Government initiative, UKARIA and the following individuals and foundations: Ulrike Klein AO, Berg Family Foundation, The Yulgilbar Foundation, The Aranday Foundation, Playking Foundation and Julie Kantor AO.