School of Music, Theatre and Dance

‘Bridging the Gaps’

Oakland University performance to bring together music and social justice

icon of a calendarOctober 30, 2018

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‘Bridging the Gaps' - Oakland University performance to bring together music and social justice
Bridging The Gaps: Guitars for Social Justice
Bridging the Gaps: Guitars for Social Justice, a collaborative and interdisciplinary project that marries music and social justice, will return to Oakland University at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 6.

Bridging the Gaps: Guitars for Social Justice, a collaborative and interdisciplinary project that marries music and social justice, will return to Oakland University at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 6.

The event, which will take place in OU’s Varner Recital Hall, will feature compositions by Jon Anderson, Christopher Burns, Terry Herald, Joo Won Park, Stuart Scott and Bill Withem, as well as spoken word texts by Jenifer DeBellis, Felicia Krol, Peter Markus and Vanessa Stauffer.

“Each piece already feels unique on paper — the pairing of one writer to one composer has made some wonderful combinations of art, and each piece feels unique when put in the hands of particular performers,” said guitarist Shea Socrates, an OU student and co-founder of Bridging the Gaps: Guitars for Social Justice.

“Even though there are directions for when a word is to be spoken or a note to be played, every performance is different, and every person interprets and performs these pieces differently. I feel like we've really succeeded in the art of it, and I'm really proud of this thing that we've been able to create.”

According to Socrates, all of the works will be performed by OU students, including instrumentalists, singers and actors.

“We had local Michigan writers — all of which were either alumni or faculty from OU's Creative Writing program — initially provide us with prose and poetry, some of which was previously written and some newly composed just for this. The texts follow themes that are important to us — poverty, internal struggle, social commentary, etc.,” Socrates said.

“We then sent an individual piece of text off to several music composers from various higher education institutions, including the University of Michigan, Wayne State University, Mott Community College, Macomb Community College, and Oakland University. These composers carefully examined the text and wrote appropriate music around it to create these beautiful moments of drama with a soundtrack.”

Based at Oakland University, Bridging the Gaps also partners with local non-profit organizations to hold the performances, which help to bring attention to and raise money for the organizations and their causes.

“We support these nonprofits by performing a program of spoken word and classical guitar music,” Socrates said. “It's a great way to partner with and promote local, smaller nonprofits in Michigan that can do a lot of good in our communities.”

For more information, visit www.facebook.com/BridgingTheGapsMusic.

Performances:

• 
The Moon

Stuart Scott

Text by Peter Markus

Angela Tocco, voice

Desmond Doneen and Samad Ansari, guitars

• Mud

Bill Withem

Text by Peter Markus

Angela Tocco, voice

Seth Miller, guitar

• Lessons

Christopher Burns

Text by Vanessa Stauffer

Kadry Julian, voice

Shea Socrates, guitar

• Hungry

Joo Won Park

Text by Jenifer DeBellis

Elena Hensel, voice

Bianca Pokrzywa, guitar

• DTE

Jon Anderson

Text by Vanessa Stauffer

Elena Hensel, voice

Samad Ansari, guitar

• Loretta

Terry Herald

Text by Felicia Krol

Elena Hensel, voice

Desmond Doneen, Daniel Byington, and Shea Socrates, guitars

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