Brouhaha
noun a noisy and overexcited reaction or response to something
From social gatherings around our first hearths 800,000 years ago to virtual meetings over Zoom today, we humans have solved and created an amazing array of problems that culminate in the climate crisis during our own epoch, the Anthropocene. Learning about our human identity and history through music aims to inspire creative ways of addressing our greatest existential threat as well as strength: Ourselves.
Human fossil footprints at White Sands National Park in New Mexico. Image Credit: Courtesy of the National Park Service
About Brouhaha
Brouhaha is a syncretic performance project, combining the arts with anthropology in an attempt to address the disconnect with our nature and history, and its potential contributions to the climate crisis.
Project founder, producer, performer, and violinist Maiani da Silva commissions imaginative musicians to compose works for solo violin based on what intrigues them about our human nature. The compositional process for each composer will include discussions with Maiani about shared articles and books, as well as chats with various experts in biological, evolutionary and paleo anthropology and primatology to help fill in gaps in their knowledge pertaining to the chosen topic. This intellectual inquiry will inform the composers' creative process, generate musical ideas, and ultimately
shape their work itself.
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Brouhaha will be toured in North America and Europe in 2024/2025.
Close-up of Western Lowland Gorilla's right hand. Photo courtesy of Atlanta Zoo
Both the use of tools and interactions with other human species—that came about during past climate change—have played a
direct role in enlarging our brains and fine-tuning cognition, thus solving a series of existential threats with high sophistication.
With my tool of choice, the violin, and from concert halls to museums,
I endeavor to connect with the greater community of
artists, scientists, thinkers, and the young and old
for intellectually profound exchanges.
Please donate today to make this dream a reality.
Thank you!
