In the world premiere of brea(d)th, with music by Carlos Simon and libretto by Marc Bamuthi Joseph—who performs as spoken
word artist—the murder of George Floyd is situated in the context of the United States’ centuries-long oppression of Black Americans,
asking the audience to consider how we heal and what comes next. Joseph’s libretto, which “considers bread, as in value, breath, as in
lifeforce, and breadth, as in the radius of American promise,” is tightly woven with Simon’s music of great emotional range—at turns
solemn, bluesy, heart-rending and dissonant, with an instrumental Elegy movement for strings placed at the center.