MATRIARK

MATRIARK is a 30 minute performance ritual composed and performed by Eli Berman with vocalists Richel Cuyler and Charles Peoples III. This work premiered at the Roth Center for Jewish Life on April 4 as the final event of the 2023 New Music Festival at Dartmouth College. The three vocalists perform improvisations and original songs by Eli Berman in Yiddish, Hebrew, and English weaving together khazonus (Ashkenazi Jewish cantorial singing), extended vocal techniques, and experimental electronic dance music. In front of the Torah ark, the performers share fragments of new and ancients melodies that transform into synths and electronic drums. The ark curtains are drawn, the Torah is revealed, and all are compelled to rise. They dance on the edges of the human/machine, voice/drum and sound/word to unearth ancestral rage of sea monsters and matriarchal grief of prophets on Shabbat Chol HaMoed Pesach, the shabbos of Passover 5783.

This performance was a part of Eli Berman's Master's thesis in the Digital Musics program at Dartmouth College.