Collaging sonic meditations with performance-specific scenography and digital-visual archive projections, “In Service to Whom” integrates Solange’s spirit in music, design, visual art, and cultural archive and preservation into one four-act performance.
This piece features Solange alongside a 10-piece ensemble and centers orchestral works composed by the artist between 2018 and 2023 (“Villanelle For Times,” “God Rest Your,” “Bridge-s,” and “In Past Pupils and Smiles”), alongside her contemporary music. These compositions were inspired by repetition, gospel vocal arrangements, minimalism, and the Black southern marching band music of football games frequented by the artist in her hometown of Houston, Texas. The performance also debuts the world premiere of two original works: a duo tuba piece titled “Not Necessarily In Arms Reach” for two tubas, and a solo cello and double bass number titled “If the Promise is Large”.
In each act, everyday mundane gestures demonstrate the personal expansiveness of the artist’s sustained creative process, culminating in a rare view into the immersive world of grounding practices that continue to evolve Solange’s artistic fingerprint. As she contemplates the evolution and maturation of her artistry, “In Service To Whom” was created and developed around the posture of rest, and speaks to the artist’s reemergence into the world of everyday life following periods of personal incubation and self-revitalization at home.
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