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World Premiere of Douglas J. Cuomo's Seven Limbs ft. Guitarist Nels Cline & the Aizuri Quartet

The Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech presents the virtual world premiere of Douglas J. Cuomo’s Seven Limbs, an exciting new workfeaturing Wilco guitarist Nels Cline and the Aizuri Quartet, on February 3. The composer describes the inspiration for this new work:


"This piece is inspired by an ancient Buddhist purification ceremony called The Seven Limbs. It’s part of a meditation practice I do every day. The practice has lots of words; the piece has none. The feel of this ceremony is what I kept going to as I composed, and then at some point I realized I was setting text without using words. For me Seven Limbs is a dream-like piece; I can look inward to a new terrain and find out what’s there. Stillness, turmoil, suppleness, euphoria, high drama. I wrote it for Nels Cline and the Aizuri Quartet because, for composers, to write for great players is another kind of dream. Together, we offer you our dream, in the hope it makes some connection with you."

Following the premiere, there are two additional opportunities to view a performance of Seven Limbs this month. Nels Cline and the Aizuri Quartet give a livestream performance of Seven Limbs for Aperio, Music of the Americas on February 5, and UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) presents a virtual performance of the new piece on February 12 through CAP UCLA Online. Enjoy a teaser here.

To learn more about Douglas J. Cuomo, visit: schott-music.com. Douglas J. Cuomo Seven Limbs (2020) for electric guitar and string quartet 75'

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