Inspired by the elaborate 17th century court masques, YOU US WE ALL begins with ultimate theatrical extravagances: the music, costume and stage are rich with a contemporary baroque – exaggerated decorative flourishes, allegorical and historical references.  Everything is maximalist.  Even the language is a hyper-hybrid of Middle English and contemporary colloquialisms.

The work unfolds in a series of episodes in which the characters reflect on the meaning of their everyday existence.  As the characters LOVE, DEATH, HOPE and VIRTUE parade through the masque of their lives, TIME destroys everything.  Gradually facades are stripped away until, ultimately, the performers are without clothes, architectural context or linguistic flourishes.

music: Shara Worden

text, direction, design: Andrew Ondrejcak

performed by Shara Worden, Helga Davis, Bernhard Landauer, Loten Namling

with BOX – baroque orchestration X

Check out all of the goings-on by jumping to the Tour Dates page.  Amplified descriptions follow:

1) She will be performing 2 solo MBD sets at Rhthym n Blooms in Knoxville on April 5th.

2) She has just finished arranging new music for the marching band (Detroit Party Marching Band) that will be joining MBD for their gig in Detroit on April 10th as part of the Opening Night of Art X (a FREE event, which requires registration).

3) She will be singing with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus at MusicNow in Cincinnati on April 13th.

4) She will be undergoing surgery to replace the ACL and repair the meniscus in her left knee.

5) On May 12th, she will be singing David Lang’s “death speaks” at the Barbican in London as part of their Nico Muhly extravaganza: A Scream and an Outrage.

6) Finally (and currently), she is knee-deep in composing the music for You Us We All, a baroque opera co-produced by deSingel International Arts Campus (Antwerp, Belgium) and the Hamburg International Summer Festival.  The libretto has been written by Andrew Ondrejcak, who will also be directing.  The performances will feature the instrumentalists of BOX Collective and vocalists Helga Davis, Bernhard Landauer, Loten Namling and, of course, Shara Worden.  Additional choreography and acting by Jessica Dessner.  Previews will be staged in the Theatre Studio at deSingel on May 28 & 29.

Penelope goes West Coast!

For those in the Portland, OR area, FearNoMusic presents Sarah Kirkland Snider’s acclaimed song cycle, Penelope, with Shara Worden at The Alberta Rose Theater on February 2, 2013 at 7:30 pm.

A New Sounds Live Presentation hosted by WNYC’s John Schaefer

Shara has been busy punching piano keys, learning new music for the concert at Merkin Hall on Feb. 6th.  She sings 9 new songs by Sarah Kirkland Snider & 3 new jams with Clogs (singing very high notes! oh my!), as well as 3 brand new My Brightest Diamond songs arranged for orchestra.  Here’s more details:

Sarah Kirkland Snider presents her new work for seven vocalists and chamber orchestra,Unremembered, a 13-song cycle set to poetry (and with accompanying projected artwork) by New-York-based poet/writer Nathaniel Bellows, featuring vocal performances by DM Stith, Shara Worden andPadma Newsome. A cycle about memory, innocence and the ways we cope with an unpredictable world, the poems recall strange and beautiful happenings experienced during a childhood in rural Massachusetts.

Newsome will also appear with Clogs, the legendary hybrid band/chamber ensemble whose latest album was called “one of the most evocative and appealing records of the year, in any genre” (NPR).

Orchestra for the Next Century, directed by Gary Schneider, will present Snider’s work along with new works and arrangements by Newsome, Worden and Stith.

(Please note it’s an “upper west side start time” ya’ll!  7:30 p.m.)

Tickets are here.

Shara has written the music for The Kings of Macedonia, a play by Andrew Ondrejcak.  The compositions include  brass quartet (featuring the amazing CJ Camerieri of yMusic), drums (the amazing Ted Poor) & choir (the amazing Khorikos).  Shara will also be acting & singing in the role of The Whore.  Other special guests include singer Helga Davis (Einstein on the Beach) and Tunde Adebimpe (TV on the Radio).

The play will be presented at The Prelude Festival in New York on October 4th at 8pm.  It’s a FREE show!

Conceived as a modern telling of “The Canterbury Tales,” the “Kings of Macedonia” is a collection of moments from everyday life, in which ten characters search for meaning while en route to destinations they cannot quite pinpoint. Individually, they reflect on their own aptitude for inciting meaning within their lives and the lives of others; collectively, they look to the impulses within (and the vast unknown above) in the search for something, anything, to hold onto.