Sanctuaries is Postponed

Image courtesy of Third Angle New Music.

Dear Friends,

Last week the email went out from Third Angle New Music announcing that the upcoming premiere of my jazz chamber opera, Sanctuaries has been postponed. The good news is that 3A remains committed to this project, and we look forward to producing Sanctuaries in April 2021. Full details with specific dates will be released soon.

Although the announcement only confirmed what I knew was inevitable, I must admit to feeling the blow of officially putting Sanctuaries on hold. This opera has largely defined my life for the past 3-plus years. Imagining, researching, composing, planning, and collaborating on its realization has changed me as a musician, as a creative artist, as a black man in Portland, and in many other ways that will deeply affect and inform me for years to come. I am incredibly humbled and grateful for the learning and connections that creating this piece has opened up. I am equally moved by the vision, enthusiasm, authenticity, and spirit with which the effort has been received.

In the same way that the opera was never really about notes on a page, the project that we are calling Sanctuaries is about so much more than the four days it was to live on the stage - although I will continue to count the days until we can make that happen. This project always was, and is, about community- addressing it, learning from it, valuing it, and best of all, creating it. It is because of this understanding that, despite the ache in my heart at having to pause this chapter of our work, I feel an equal measure of gratitude for the repository of skill, experience, wisdom, talent, belief, collaboration, soulfulness, communion and beautiful diverse humanity that this opera has brought into its orbit.

I offer my deepest thanks to all of you for your inspiration, your belief, your time, and your generous support. I would ask you to continue to hold space for this endeavor as we wait for the world to right itself. One thing I am absolutely certain of is that the truth, vision, and perspective embodied in Sanctuaries will only become more relevant and necessary as we try to put our broken world back together. As we continue to do the work of healing, my hope is that this piece contains some part of the code that will help us do it in a more just, inclusive, conscious and connected way.

Until then, stay safe, be well, and thank you!

Sincerely,
Darrell

May we make ourselves known to the Wound.
May the Wound make it known to us.
May we make ourselves known to ourselves.
May we undress the Wound and clothe it again.
May the river be wet on our skin.

May we marvel, marvel at the river––at where we just stepped from.
at what moves us, what moves beautifully before us
and behind us, and snaking beautifully to some place past what we can see…

Anis Mojgani- Sanctuaries.