Songs of Strength highlights the animacy, creative vigor, and relevance of traditional music in the modern world. This Blood Moon Orchestra production brings into alignment various musical traditions and performance arts to emphasize the generative power of cross-genre and cross-culture collaborations in pieces such as the dual-language "Born to Rise," which weaves Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ's lyrics with those of rapper Kev Choice; "My Endless Treasure," a Rumi poem reimagining by Mahsa Vahdat; and a mash-up of Erik Santi's Gnossiennes No. 3 and Jimi Hendrix "Purple Haze," arranged for the đàn bầu. Songs of Strength radically reimagines the past and offers a new vision for traditional music-making in a deeply interconnected world.

Songs of Strength premiered at Zellerbach Hall at the University of California, Berkeley on December 4th, 2021.

Click to view the program here.