MetLiveArts presents
Westerly Breath
by Hamed Sinno (b. 1988)
WORLD PREMIERE
Friday, January 26, 2024 at 7 pm
Saturday, January 27, 2024 at 7 pm
Gallery 131, The Temple of Dendur
This program is made possible by the Adrienne Arsht Fund for Resilience through Art.
Additional support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts.
Westerly Breath was developed with support from The Industry's LAB 2022 Program.
WARNING: This production uses strobe lighting effects.
Cast and Crew
Hamed Sinno, composer / librettist / performer
Taibi Magar, director
Maamoun Tobbo, set / costume designer
Nick Solyom, lighting designer
Brittany Bland, video designer
Donia Jarrar, orchestrator / arranger
Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, buzuq / audio engineer
Eylem Basaldi, violin
yuniya edi kwon, violin
Joanna Mattrey, viola
Ethan Philbrick, cello
Ghina Fawaz, Arabic consultant
Dan Going, makeup artist
Samantha Greene, stage manager
Betsy Ayer, sub stage manager
Taj Rauch, video programmer
Ben Wolfe, lighting programmer
Tiffany Chen, QLab programmer
About the Artists
Hamed Sinno (composer/librettist/performer) is a composer, writer, performer, and social justice advocate based in New York. Their research explores the vocal organ, and digital vocality as sites of political negotiation. H writes and lectures about popular culture as engaged practice. They have been the lyricist and front-person for Mashrou Leila since 2008 and have been at the forefront of conversations around representation, free speech, and sexual liberty in the Middle East. H has a BFA from the Department of Architecture and Design at the American University of Beirut, and an MA in Digital Music from Dartmouth College. Their debut full-length opera, Westerly Breath, was in development at The Industry Los Angeles, and is running now here at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Their solo debut, Poems of Consumption, explores the overlaps of consumerism, mental illness, and environmental crisis. Poems of Consumption debuted at London’s Barbican Centre in July 2023.
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Taibi Magar (director) is the Co-Artistic Director of Philadelphia Theatre Company. NYC: The Half-God of Rainfall (NYTW), Help (The Shed), Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (Signature Theatre, Lortel-winning), Capsule by Whitney White and Peter Mark Kendall (Under the Radar Festival/The Public Theater, co-directed with Tyler Dobrowsky) Blue Ridge and The Great Leap (Atlantic Theater Company); Is God Is (Soho Rep, 2018 Obie Award;) Master (The Foundry, Lortel Nominated); and Underground Railroad Game (Ars Nova, Obie Award). She also premiered the new musicals Macbeth In Stride and We Live In Cairo at A.R.T. Boston. Additionally, she is attached to the commercial theatrical adaptation of Wonder by Jill Furman (book by Sarah Ruhl, music and lyrics by A Great Big World). Regional: CTG, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Alley Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, and Seattle Repertory Theatre, among others. International: Hamburg Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Malthouse Theatre (Melbourne), and Soho Theatre (London).
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Maamoun Tobbo (set/costume designer) is an interdisciplinary theatre artist. He is an alum of the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts with an MA In Architecture and NYU Tisch with an MFA in Scenic and Production design 20, and a recipient of the IAP from NYFA 21 and Innovative Architecture award from Beirut Pavillion 15.
As an artist his work stands on the intersection of Installation design, Performance Arts, and public engagement, weaving across disciplinary mediums, forms, and cultures. He is founder of ThEmptySpace an Embodiment Lab researching storytelling, art-making, sound, and movement as medicinal tools for self-discovery, empowerment, and transformation.
Credits: Al Raeou3oun, Alexandria Opera House in Egypt 2015, The Royal Cultural Center in Amman Jordan 16. Brine, winner of the 24th European Film Festival 15. Kalash, awarded at the LA International Film Festival and Hollywood MPIFF 19. Glimpse by Rattlestick Theatre NY 2021. First Down at 59E59 NY, 2021. Everywhere and Nowhere, Chashama NY, 2022. Aliens make Thanksgiving play, Rattlestick Theater NY, 202121. Play, part of La nuit de l’art festival Tantem London. Gianni Schicchi/Buoso’s Ghost, Alexander Kasser Theatre NJ, 2023. Manifesto, The Maker’s Ensemble NY 23. Marley Players, Baruch Art Center NY, 2023.
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Nick Solyom’s (lighting designer) lighting design credits include Imaginary Comforts by Daniel Handler; The Christians by Lucas Hnath and The Prince of Players by Carlisle Floyd. Nick’s recent Broadway and international associate lighting design credits include Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Moulin Rouge! The Musical, The Music Man, The Outsiders, Death Becomes Her and Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. Nick is originally from Los Angeles and lives in New York City. Learn more at SolyomDesign.com
Brittany Bland (video/projection designer) is a storyteller who has dedicated her life to the proliferation of empathy. As a projection designer for the stage, she has designed for theater, dance, and opera. The goal of her practice is to breathe life into narratives and transcend the boundaries between technology and art. Her work is a testament to the power of visual storytelling and often explores the ideas of legacy and memory. Originally from Atlanta GA, she holds a MFA in Design from the Yale School of Drama. Her recent design credits include Goddess (Berkeley Repertory Theater), Twelfth Night (Classical Theater of Harlem), A Dozen Dreams (En Garde Arts), and Seize the King (Classical Theater of Harlem).
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Dr. Donia Jarrar (orchestrator/arranger) is a first generation Egyptian-Palestinian-American composer, pianist, bassist, singer-songwriter, improviser, producer and educator known for her unique use of field recordings, working with oral histories and their relationship to the composition and shaping of new musical works across varying genres. She releases music under the solo moniker Phonodelica, an experimental sound project which The Quietus recognized as "one of the more striking examples of artistic endeavour of this still young decade". Jarrar’s debut album HIDDEN ASSEMBLAGES was released in 2022 on Deathbomb Arc and distributed through Fat Beats Records. From April to June of 2022, Dr. Jarrar was artist-in-residence at the Arab American National Museum, where they produced and debuted their theatrical multimedia production BUTCHER, featuring Jarrar’s own experiences and their community members experiences with domestic violence and sexual assault. Dr. Jarrar worked with poet Yasmine Rukia and dancers Ava Ansari and Zaza Saad. In 2021, she was nominated for and named Palestine's Young Artist of the Year for her large-scale interdisciplinary project, album and sound installation Into the Ether and Out of Our Anguish/عبر الأثير, which had its opening at the AM Qattan Foundation in Ramallah in March 2022. Her documentary opera Seamstress was awarded a Discovery Grant for female composers of opera from the National Opera Center of America, and tells the story of four women, including her students and artists from her community in Palestine, through lush chamber orchestrations, electronics, film and dance. She received her Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Michigan.
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Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (buzuq/audio engineer) is a Lebanese-Canadian artist, record producer and musician based in Tiohtiá:ke/Montréal.
In 2006, he co- founded the legendary studio Hotel2Tango, where he has produced, engineered and recorded well over 200 albums. In the early 2010s, he founded his multimedia music project Jerusalem In My Heart, with whom he has toured internationally and released 4 albums to critical international acclaim. Outside of Jerusalem In My Heart, he has contributed to several collaborative recordings on various other labels, including Asadun Alay Records, the imprint he co-founded. His compositions incorporate electronics and electro acoustic buzuk treatments performed with Arabic traditional and contemporary modal singing.
Radwan has also participated in many dance and theatre performances in Montréal as an actor, performance artist and musician. He composes music for film and dance regularly, and is currently creating his debut dance performance, to be premiered in 2025.
Radwan has created a body of work that challenges and re-imagines Arabic contemporary music and culture. He has carved a niche for himself within this world by re-envisioning what his cultural identity is and its place in the contemporary music and arts scenes. He is currently working on his debut solo album.
Turkish-born violinist, composer, and educator Eylem Basaldi (violin) performs in a wide array of settings featuring Balkan, Middle Eastern, North African and Southeast Asian musical traditions. She is a member and collaborator in various music groups, including Dolunay and Sandaraa and is a sought-after improvising violinist in world, rock and jazz music settings.
Classically trained at the New England Conservatory, Basaldi has played and recorded with many groups including Grammy winner Snarky Puppy, Dave Brubeck, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and various on and off Broadway shows.
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yuniya edi kwon (violin) is a violinist, vocalist, and interdisciplinary artist based in Lenapehoking, or New York City. Her practice connects composition, improvisation, movement, and ceremony to explore transformation & transgression, ritual practice as a tool to queer ancestral lineage, and the use of mythology to connect, obscure, and reveal. She is a recipient of the 2023 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Robert Rauschenberg Award in Music/Sound, a 2023-25 Arts Fellow at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts, and 2024 Civitella Ranieri Fellow. She was described as “absolutely stunning” in a feature in Wire Magazine, and was listed as one of the Washington Post’s “22 for ‘22: Composers and performers to watch this year.” As a violinist, violist, and/or vocalist, she has performed alongside Roscoe Mitchell, Moor Mother, Mary Halvorson, Nicole Mitchell, Henry Threadgill, Cory Smythe, Susan Alcorn, Carla Kihlstedt, Jessika Kenney, Lesley Mok, and others.
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Joanna Mattrey (viola) is a violist and composer working in free improvisation, new music, and classical music. She uses extended techniques, modern compositional approaches, and electronic alterations to challenge the conventions of the viola. Joanna creates an embodied performance practice centered on ceremony and ritual. Recent solo works include, Soulcaster (Notice Recordings), Dirge (Dear Life Recs 2021), Veiled (Relative Pitch Records, 2020). Mattrey has had residencies with Roulette, Watermill, ISSUE Project Room, Banff's Creative Gesture for Composers and Choreographers, 14th Street Y, Wild Project, and MoMa PS1's ALLGOLD. Mattrey has performed with icons Tyshawn Sorey, Henry Threadgill, Miya Masaoka, Marc Ribot, gabby fluke-mogul, John Zorn, Billy Martin, Elliott Sharpe, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Learn more at www.joannamattrey.com
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Ethan Philbrick (cello) is a cellist, artist, and writer. He is currently curator-in-residence at The Poetry Project and teaches performance studies at The New School. His book, Group Works: Art, Politics, and Collective Ambivalence was published by Fordham University Press in 2023.
Leadership support for MetLiveArts provided by:
The Adrienne Arsht Fund for Resilience through Art
Jody and John Arnhold, Frank and Lydia Bergen Foundation, Betsy and Edward Cohen / Areté Foundation, the Director’s Fund, Kathryn O. Greenberg, The Kaplen Brothers Fund, New York State Council on the Arts, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon B. Polsky, The Howard and Sarah D. Solomon Foundation, the estate of Katherine Walter Stein, Douglas Dockery Thomas, Barbara Tober
Additional major supporters:
Sarah Arison, The David Berg Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Fund, the Adbul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives Fund, the Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Fund, the Grace Jarcho Ross and Daniel G. Ross Concert Fund, Peter Steinberg and Kathrine Gehring, Helen Lee Warren and David Warren, William H. Wright II
Firebird Fellows and Firebirds:
Jenny Gerard Brown and Barry L. Brown, Magda Dvir, Constance Emmerich, Kenneth Koen, Deborah Paul, Barbara A. Pelson, Rajika and Anupam Puri, Douglas and Jean Renfield-Miller, Meryl Rosofsky and Stuart H. Coleman, Bonnie J. Sacerdote, Melanie Shorin and Greg S. Feldman, Beatrice Stern, Douglas Dockery Thomas, Lulu C. and Anthony W. Wang
Produced by The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of Live Arts
Limor Tomer, Lulu C. and Anthony W. Wang General Manager of Live Arts
Art Priromprintr, Senior Administrator
Nunally Kersh, Senior Producer
Harrison Corthell, Production Manager
Emery Kerekes, Program Coordinator
Madyson Barnfield, Production Associate
Audrey Rosenblith, Associate for Administration
Ricardo V. Barton, Associate for Administration
Kerrigan Quenemoen, Producing Associate
Emma Claire Gibson, Artist Management Associate
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is on the island known as Mannahatta—now called Manhattan—in Lenapehoking, the homeland of the Lenape people.
