Performance of Self

Jodie Landau
WEST COAST PREMIERE

About

Fusing memoir, concert, and cabaret, Jodie Landau takes up stories of his life in a personal exploration of love, sex, gender, and family through opera. This debut solo show from the Grammy Award-nominated vocalist, composer, and percussionist features original chamber rock compositions written and performed by Laudau, backed by a six-piece band of contemporary music all-stars. Performance of Self reflects on the tension Landau has found amidst crafting, curating, and codifying his identity. While labels and definitions have provided comfort to the artist and those around him, this autobiographical piece also considers the ways definitions can also feel limiting in their imperfection. With commentary ranging from online dating to boy bands, Landau contends with what it means to not quite fit into the boxes society constructs in a poignant and funny performance. Presented in collaboration with Beth Morrison Projects.

 

Please note: This program contains mature content.

 

Jodie Landau’s compositions create the path the listener is on. His works, and voice, seduce us with the charm of an old flame laying next to us in bed, the past forgotten and all that matters is where we are now.

Jackson Cooper, I Care If You Listen

Commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects, Raulee Marcus, & Stephen Block. Developed by Beth Morrison Projects. Produced and presented by Beth Morrison Projects in partnership with REDCAT. Support for a developmental residency for Performance of Self provided by CAP UCLA.

 

about the artists

Jodie Landau is a vocalist, composer, keyboardist, and percussionist. He is a member of the Grammy-winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth, Icelandic record label Bedroom Community, and Los Angeles-based modern music collective Wild Up. His music combines elements of contemporary chamber music, rock, jazz, and electronics for live performance, dance, theater, opera, and film. On stage, Landau can be found singing amidst a sea of dancers, conducting audience members as he teaches them to sing a song on the spot, portraying a disembodied heart donor in Valgeir Sigurðsson’s opera We Are In Time, playing handmade microtonal glass bells by Meara O’Reilly, or singing original music and covers while playing vibraphone, marimba, keyboards, and harpejji on his own or surrounded by various ensembles of singers and instrumentalists.

Landau’s debut album with Wild Up, you of all things, featured the Icelandic female choir Graduale Nobili. Landau has performed with Los Angeles Master Chorale, LA Phil, NY Phil, The Scottish Ensemble, ICKAmsterdam / Ballet National de Marseille, Ate9 dANCE cOMPANY (for whom he composed the score to their “mouth to mouth”) The Industry, and Iceland Symphony Orchestra, as well as artists like Robin Pecknold, serpentwithfeet, Jherek Bischoff, Miya Folick, Ellen Reid, Jacob Cooper, Nadia Sirota, Nico Muhly, Daniel Bjarnason, Dirty Projectors, and more. He’s recorded with Caroline Shaw, Amanda Palmer, Rebekka Karijord, Vampire Weekend, and The Weeknd. His singing can be heard on Simon Franglen’s scores for Avatar: The Way of Water and Avatar: Fire and Ash. Landau worked as lead copyist, orchestrator, conductor, and performer on David Longstreth’s score for The Legend of Ochi.

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Beth Morrison Projects (BMP) is one of the foremost creators and producers of new opera-theater and music theater, with a fierce commitment to leading the industry into the future, cultivating a new generation of talent, and telling the stories of our time. Founded by “contemporary opera mastermind” (Los Angeles Times) Beth Morrison, who was honored as one of Musical America’s Artists of the Year/Agents of Change in 2020, BMP has grown into “a driving force behind America’s thriving opera scene” (Financial Times), with Opera News declaring that the company, “more than any other … has helped propel the art form into the twenty-first century.” Operating across the US and internationally, with offices in Brooklyn and Los Angeles, BMP’s unique model offers living composers support, guidance, and freedom to experiment, allowing them to create singularly innovative and impactful projects. Since forming in 2006, the company has commissioned, developed, produced, and toured over 50 works in 14 countries around the world, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning chamber operas Angel’s Bone and p r i s m. In 2013, BMP co-founded the PROTOTYPE Festival with HERE, which has been called “utterly essential” (The New York Times), “indispensable” (The New Yorker), and “one of the world’s top festivals of contemporary opera and theater” (Associated Press). 

Website