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 our own geologic epoch—the Anthropocene—and its attendant crises. 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 recording and performance project, combining music with anthropology in an attempt to address the disconnect with our nature and origins. Project founder and violinist Maiani da Silva has commissioned six stylistically eclectic musicians to compose for solo violin based on what intrigues them about our human nature. In addition, Maiani and the composers have collaborated with world-renowned scientists in the fields of evolutionary, paleo, and cultural anthropology, biology and primatology to gain insights on their chosen theme. What results is an imaginative collection of works that both transcends stylistic labels and embraces intellectual inquiry.
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The drive to express and understand are both deeply human. Brouhaha combines two cultural pillars—art and science—to further ask: What separates and also connects us to the delicate web of nature, other species, and one another?
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Brouhaha will be recorded in early 2025, and subsequently tour
North America and Europe.
Composers & Themes
Works for solo violin, sometimes with voice and/or electronic sounds
Zachary Good | Tools
Ian Gottlieb | Anthropogenic fires
Fjóla Evans | Symbiosis between plants & humans
Kelley Polar | Love, attraction, connection
Jascha Narveson | The concept of time
Viet Cuong | Migration (forced and natural)
Approximate run time: 55 minutes
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