Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ The Odyssey

Arneis Quartet

Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ

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Benjamin Britten String Quartet No. 3 in G Major, Op. 94

Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ The Odyssey

Written to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, The Odyssey–from Vietnam to America (The Odyssey) explores the personal and spiritual journeys of the Boat People escaping war and abandoning their lives in the search for freedom with an alien and unknowable future. The work, created by composer-performer Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ in partnership with Yerba Buena Center for Performing Arts (YBCA), Creative Work Fund (CWF), Asia Society Texas Center (ASTC), utilizes new music for Vietnamese and Western instruments, ambient sound, spoken word, historical objects, and live media. The work was first premiered at The Kennedy Center and YBCA with 4 sold-out concerts in 2016. The Odyssey is intended to convey stories of human transformations that resonate for all, not just Vietnamese refugees. It is further hoped that the work can be extended in future iterations to embrace the parallel experiences of people from other communities.

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