Violet Fire participants

Composer Jon Gibson (1940–1920) was a pioneering figure in the minimalist movement. A virtuoso multi-instrumentalist, he was a founding member of the Philip Glass Ensemble, and took part in numerous landmark musical events, performing in the early works of Glass, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley. He created a large body of works starting in the late 1960’s—solo and ensemble, instrumentaland vocal—which have been performed throughout the world. Gibson collaborated with Nancy Topf, Thomas Buckner, the Nina Winthrop Dance Company, Elisabetta Vittoni, David Behrman, Lucinda Childs, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Jaron Lanier, and with director JoAnne Akalaitis on Voyage of the Beagle, a music theater work centered around Charles Darwin. His music can be heard on the New Tone, Point Music, Lovely Music, EarRational Records and Einstein Records labels.

Librettist Miriam Seidel has also written the libretto for Judgment of Midas, an opera with score by composer Kamran Ince, which received its concert premiere in Milwaukee, in a co-production with Present Music and Milwaukee Opera Theatre. Both operas were developed with help from American Opera Projects. Her novel, The Speed of Clouds, was published by New Door Books, and her short fiction and essays have appeared in journals including Exquisite Corpse, Calyx, Bourbon Penn, Into the Ruins, and the New York Review of Science Fiction.

Director Terry O’Reilly is a playwright, performer and director. He is a longtime co-artistic director of Mabou Mines, and co-founder of Movement Research, a center for teaching, performance and publication. His international work includes performances and productions in Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, China, Hong Kong, Taipei, Nanning, Rio de Janeiro, Singapore, Western Europe, the Czech Republic, Poland, Serbia and Montenegro. His directing work in the US includes the New York premiere of Stan Lai’s Secret Love in Peach Blossom. He directed and co-wrote (with Simon Wong) a children’s puppet play in Hong Kong and Guangxi based on US and Chinese folk stories. He was a senior Fulbright Fellow in aboriginal ritual and theater in Taiwan, and his plays there include My Sunshine Book, Flying House/Home and Cee Cee and Dee. His play Animal Magnetism was directed by Lee Breuer for its 2000 NYC premiere, and presented in China in a new incarnation which he co-directed with Dodd Loomis.

Projection Designer Sarah Drury is a media artist working with video and sound across a range of installation, performance and network platforms. Her work with sensing technologies and media focuses on narrative, play and the emergent subject in diverse contexts, including gallery installation, performance art and theatrical forms. Her work Mechanics of Place, designed with Hana Iverson, is an “augmented reality” platform for user-generated virtual public artworks in which audience members participate via their smartphones. She conceived and directed the collaborative sensor-based performance work The Walking Project, with performers “speaking” the body with dis/abilities. Installations include The Listening Microphone, Voicebox, Vocalalia and Intervention Chants, exploring the expressive qualities of the voice in interaction with video and sound. Her work has been presented at venues including ISEA International, Performative Sites, the Brooklyn Museum, the Kitchen, Artists Space, Hallwalls, and the Worldwide Video Festival at The Hague, and has aired on PBS.

Projection Designer Jen Simmons is a multimedia designer and filmmaker. Her films Bush for Peace and Inclinations have screened at hundreds of festival venues including International Film Festival Rotterdam, Resfest, Media That Matters Film Festival, Festival of New Film and Media: Split, Croatia, Inside Out: Toronto, NewFest: New York, Frameline: San Francisco and Free Speech TV. She has designed projection, lighting, scenic and sound for over 300 shows including for Peggy Shaw, Sharon Bridgforth, Lourdes Pérez, Daniel Alexander Jones, Gloria Anzaldúa, Sandra Cisneros, Paul Bonin-Rodriguez, and Cherríe Moraga. From 1992–2000, Jen worked with the Esperanza Center in San Antonio, Texas, a multidisciplinary performance venue for innovative arts and progressive action.

Choreographer Nina Winthrop has directed her own company, Nina Winthrop and Dancers, and has choreographed numerous dance works since 1992. Winthrop is committed to multimedia collaborations, and has worked with musician/ composers John Cale, Steve Sacks, Jon Gibson and Gary Lucas; set designers David Auden and Manuel Lutgenhorst; sculptor Jene Highstein; costume designers Anita Evenepoel and Naoko Nagata; filmmakers Morleigh Steinberg and Maria Antelman; and lighting designers Peter West, Nicole Pearce, Jared Klein and Oguri; and writer/director/dramaturge Linsey Bostwick, among others. As a dancer, she performed with Wendy Perron, Susan Rethorst, Yoshiko Chuma, Sally Silvers and Kei Takei, and studied with Erick Hawkins, Merce Cunningham and Deborah Hay. She curated Dance Conversations @ The Flea, a free performance and discussion series at Tribeca’s Flea Theater.

Set and Costume Designer Boris Čakširan is a choreographer and costume designer based in Belgrade, Serbia. Having worked as a costume designer for over 25 years, he is considered one of Serbia’s foremost costume designers for stage, film and television. He is the founder of ERGstatus, an award-winning contemporary dance project. His work as choreographer and director with ERGstatus reflects his belief in the arts as a healing factor in the human community. He has worked in dance education at leading institutions and festivals in Israel, Poland, and Italy. His many international awards include one of the first CEC-ArtsLink fellowships, leading to collaborative performance projects with organizations including GOH Productions, the American-Czechoslovak Marionette Puppet Theatre and the Silesian Dance Theatre of Poland.

Conductor Ana Zorana Brajović is Opera Director at the National Theater of Belgrade. Before this she held the post of Assistant Conductor starting at the age of 18. Before the age of 20, she also gave her first piano recital at the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts; was awarded prizes in competitions in Belgrade and Stresa, Italy; and received the annual October Award, the highest award in Belgrade for music achievement. As a Fulbright Scholar, she studied with Gustav Meier at the Peabody Conservatory, during which she performed in a Millennium Stage Concert at the Kennedy Center. For the National Theater Opera House in Belgrade, she has conducted the operas of Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Rossini, Bizet, Donizetti, Strauss and others.

Belgrade and New York Performance Participants

Violet Fire’s Belgrade performance was part of the City of Belgrade’s 2006 BELEF summer arts festival, with producing partners the National Theater of Belgrade and the Tesla Museum. The same artistic team and performers staged the US Premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival in October 2006. The productions received major support from the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, the Republic of Serbia’s Committee for the Nikola Tesla 150th Anniversary Jubilee, the City of Belgrade Ministry of Culture, the Soros Foundation’s Fund for an Open Society—Serbia, and others.

Philadelphia Performance Participants

Violet Fire’s first production was mounted at Temple University in Philadelphia in 2004. The production involved the collaboration of Temple faculty and students with the core project participants and the Relache Ensemble. Temple University voice students performed under the supervision of John Douglas, with the Relâche Ensemble playing the instrumental score. This production was supported by the Temple University Provost’s Commission on the Arts, the Five-County Arts Fund, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Meet the Composer, and individual donors.

John Gibson | Composer
Miriam Seidel | Librettist
Terry O’Reilly | Director