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8:00 PM
being-sent
Concert | Contemporary low string ensemble concert by the trio, the catinblack ensemble
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Goethe-Institut Boston
Contemporary Music Festival @ Goethe
being-sent (2022) is an hour-long étude of becoming-with — a glimpse into the quotidian dance of beings, the active and passive enmeshment of cells that results from cohabitation with other life on Earth. What does it mean — in the framework of our humanness — to share life with another species? Having only about 10% of cells with human genomes, our human bodies act as abundant transporters of life, the remaining 90% of cells consisting of bacteria, protists, and fungi. As Donna Haraway says, “… human nature is interspecies relationship.” Can we accept the multiplicity of our physical selves? In the words of Fred Moten, do we consent not to be a single being?
In close collaboration with catinblack ensemble, being-sent will examine the world of cohabitation we have or had with our respective animal companions, the daily reality of a consciously shared microbiome. Through the intentional and unintentional movement of our cells, this work will send our becoming-with from inside our beings to outside into the world, into another
About the Artists:
The catinblack ensemble is a low string trio (viola, cello and contrabass) with musicians from different parts of the world who have developed a common sound and a strong connection with each other in a short time. They performed at the NOW! Festival 2021 and were selected for a concert with WDR live recording in the “WDR 3 Campus Concerts” series in the same year. In 2022 and 2023 they were selected by the Music Fund for the NEUSTARTKULTUR program “FEB-II and FEB-III - Funding for Ensembles and Bands”. catinblack's repertoire focuses on the music of our time for viola, cello and contrabass in solo, duo and trio settings. In 2023 they premiered a one hour long piece “being-sent” for “singing low string trio”, which the composer Jonah Haven wrote for them. In the same year they collaborated with composer Chaya Czernowin on her new work “Poetica” and recorded it at the renown IRCAM Institute in Paris. A particular concern of the ensemble is to experiment with new concert formats and concepts and to seek collaboration with contemporary artists in order to develop new sound worlds.
Ensemble members:
Sofia von Atzingen – VIola
Ema Grčman – Violoncello
Javad Javadzade – Contrabass
Composer:
Jonah Nuoja Luo Haven (born 1995 in OH, USA), laureate of the 2025 Luciano Berio Rome Prize in Musical Composition, is a composer, improviser, and pianist. Driven by writers of Auto-theory, he composes as a way of bearing loose witness to his life—an expression of aging. His primary mentors have included Chaya Czernowin, Sabrina Schroeder, Josh Levine, and Aaron Helgeson. Haven has been selected for a 2024-25 DAAD One-Year Research Grant, loadbang’s 2023 Commissioning Competition, first prize in the 2021 International Acht Brücken Composition Competition, the I Creation/Mivos Prize for Chinese Composers, the 2018 Bernd-Alois-Zimmermann Composition Prize of the City of Cologne, an Edition Zeitgenössische Musik Portrait CD, the 2020 BTzM Commission Competition, among others. His music has been performed by Ensemble Musikfabrik, ensemble recherche, Trio Catch, Distractfold Ensemble, Mivos Quartet, Parker Quartet, TAK Ensemble, Ensemble Multilatérale, Quatuor Tana, Duo XAMP, Broken Frames Syndicate, Divertimento Ensemble, Ensemble Garage, ensemble proton bern, United Instruments of Lucilin, Ictus Ensemble Academy, electronic ID, Ensemble BRuCH, and by musicians of the Internationale Ensemble Modern Akademie (IEMA), among others.
In 2023, catinblack ensemble (Sofia von Atzingen, Ema Grčman, Javad Javadzade) premiered his first concert-length chamber work titled being-sent for singing low string trio (viola, cello, double bass). being-sent is an hour-long étude of becoming-with—a glimpse into the quotidian dance of beings, the active and passive enmeshment of cells that results from cohabitation with other life on Earth.
Haven’s debut portrait CD gasser (released in September 2023 on Wergo) was nominated for the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik.
Current collaborations include a large ensemble piece with electronics titled as rage gone to seed for ensemble mosaik, an orchestral work titled parhelion for Eroica Berlin commissioned by EZM’s Orchesterförderung, and a concert-length work titled naomi for the Riot Ensemble. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin Conservatory under the guidance of Josh Levine and Aaron Helgeson, a master’s degree from the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln with Brigitta Muntendorf, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Harvard University with Chaya Czernowin.
being-sent (2022) is an hour-long étude of becoming-with — a glimpse into the quotidian dance of beings, the active and passive enmeshment of cells that results from cohabitation with other life on Earth. What does it mean — in the framework of our humanness — to share life with another species? Having only about 10% of cells with human genomes, our human bodies act as abundant transporters of life, the remaining 90% of cells consisting of bacteria, protists, and fungi. As Donna Haraway says, “… human nature is interspecies relationship.” Can we accept the multiplicity of our physical selves? In the words of Fred Moten, do we consent not to be a single being?
In close collaboration with catinblack ensemble, being-sent will examine the world of cohabitation we have or had with our respective animal companions, the daily reality of a consciously shared microbiome. Through the intentional and unintentional movement of our cells, this work will send our becoming-with from inside our beings to outside into the world, into another
About the Artists:
The catinblack ensemble is a low string trio (viola, cello and contrabass) with musicians from different parts of the world who have developed a common sound and a strong connection with each other in a short time. They performed at the NOW! Festival 2021 and were selected for a concert with WDR live recording in the “WDR 3 Campus Concerts” series in the same year. In 2022 and 2023 they were selected by the Music Fund for the NEUSTARTKULTUR program “FEB-II and FEB-III - Funding for Ensembles and Bands”. catinblack's repertoire focuses on the music of our time for viola, cello and contrabass in solo, duo and trio settings. In 2023 they premiered a one hour long piece “being-sent” for “singing low string trio”, which the composer Jonah Haven wrote for them. In the same year they collaborated with composer Chaya Czernowin on her new work “Poetica” and recorded it at the renown IRCAM Institute in Paris. A particular concern of the ensemble is to experiment with new concert formats and concepts and to seek collaboration with contemporary artists in order to develop new sound worlds.
Ensemble members:
Sofia von Atzingen – VIola
Ema Grčman – Violoncello
Javad Javadzade – Contrabass
Composer:
Jonah Nuoja Luo Haven (born 1995 in OH, USA), laureate of the 2025 Luciano Berio Rome Prize in Musical Composition, is a composer, improviser, and pianist. Driven by writers of Auto-theory, he composes as a way of bearing loose witness to his life—an expression of aging. His primary mentors have included Chaya Czernowin, Sabrina Schroeder, Josh Levine, and Aaron Helgeson. Haven has been selected for a 2024-25 DAAD One-Year Research Grant, loadbang’s 2023 Commissioning Competition, first prize in the 2021 International Acht Brücken Composition Competition, the I Creation/Mivos Prize for Chinese Composers, the 2018 Bernd-Alois-Zimmermann Composition Prize of the City of Cologne, an Edition Zeitgenössische Musik Portrait CD, the 2020 BTzM Commission Competition, among others. His music has been performed by Ensemble Musikfabrik, ensemble recherche, Trio Catch, Distractfold Ensemble, Mivos Quartet, Parker Quartet, TAK Ensemble, Ensemble Multilatérale, Quatuor Tana, Duo XAMP, Broken Frames Syndicate, Divertimento Ensemble, Ensemble Garage, ensemble proton bern, United Instruments of Lucilin, Ictus Ensemble Academy, electronic ID, Ensemble BRuCH, and by musicians of the Internationale Ensemble Modern Akademie (IEMA), among others.
In 2023, catinblack ensemble (Sofia von Atzingen, Ema Grčman, Javad Javadzade) premiered his first concert-length chamber work titled being-sent for singing low string trio (viola, cello, double bass). being-sent is an hour-long étude of becoming-with—a glimpse into the quotidian dance of beings, the active and passive enmeshment of cells that results from cohabitation with other life on Earth.
Haven’s debut portrait CD gasser (released in September 2023 on Wergo) was nominated for the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik.
Current collaborations include a large ensemble piece with electronics titled as rage gone to seed for ensemble mosaik, an orchestral work titled parhelion for Eroica Berlin commissioned by EZM’s Orchesterförderung, and a concert-length work titled naomi for the Riot Ensemble. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin Conservatory under the guidance of Josh Levine and Aaron Helgeson, a master’s degree from the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln with Brigitta Muntendorf, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Harvard University with Chaya Czernowin.