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	For Immediate Release Krista Fleischner (kristaf@ucla.edu) (310) 794-4044 Renee Johnson (reneej@ucla.edu) (310) 825-5202 Nicole Cavazos (ncavazos@ucla.edu) (310) 206-5305 Dark Diva Diamanda Galás brings U.S. Premiere of "Defixiones: Will and Testament: Orders from the Dead" to UCLA's Royce Hall, Nov. 29 "Galás is one of music's most passionately beloved cult artists and one of its most daunting." -The New York Times UCLA Live presents internationally acclaimed vocalist, pianist, composer and poet, Diamanda Galás in the U.S. premiere of "Defixiones, Will and Testament," her latest work for solo voice and piano. The performance is an angry meditation on genocide and the politically cooperative denial of it, in particular the Turkish and American denial of the Armenian, Assyrian, and Anatolian Greek genocides from 1914 to 1923. It will take place at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 29 at UCLA's Royce Hall. The program "Defixiones, Will and Testament" features selections of work that address man's inhumanity to man, and is concerned with material written by those living in exile: "The Dance," a poem by Armenian poet Siamanto; "The Desert," by Syrian poet Adonis; "Epistle to the Transients," by Peruvian poet Cesar Vallejo; "Ain't No Grave Can Hold Me Down," by American Bosie Stuyvesant; "Todesfuge," by Rumanian-Jewish poet Paul Celan; Greek and Armenian rembetika (a form of music brought by Asia Minor refugees from Smyrna down into Greece) and amanedhes (an Asia Minor style of improvisation), including "If I Die on the Boat," by Sotiria Bellou and "Anoixe," by Papaiannou; "Hastayim Yasiyorum," by Udi Hrant; "Artémis," by Gérard Nerval; work by Assyrian poet-martyr Dr. Freidoun Bet-Oraham and the music of American artists Ornette Coleman, John Lee Hooker, and Blind Lemon Jefferson. "Defixiones" refers to the warnings engraved in lead that were placed by relatives of the deceased on the graves of the dead in Greece and Asia Minor. These warnings cautioned against moving or desecrating the corpses under the threat of extreme harm. "Will and Testament" refers to the last wishes of the dead who have been taken to their graves under unnatural circumstances. Concerned with the poet/author living in exile, either from his homeland or within his homeland, "Defixiones, Will and Testament" speaks for individuals who have had to live as outlaws, and for those who have had to create houses out of rock. One of the most startling artists of our time, Galás creates haunting gospels of despair, desolation and redemption that leave the audience shaken and transformed. For some, the things of which she sings are too much to bear; for Galás, it would be unbearable to remain silent about them. Galás treats her piercingly beautiful multi-octave voice as an instrument whose sound defies description, penetrating like wind to the bone, resurrecting the dead in the living. She stands alone by virtue of her extraordinary technical accomplishment and her passionate commitment to the principle that the personal is the political. The themes she addresses are universal-a ferocious grieving of real and immediate loss-taking material from a wide variety of cultures and eras. The sorrow of which she sings addresses in chilling recollection, man's inhumanity to man, songs of life and death, redemption and damnation, of human pain and suffering which is experienced directly by the audience. Raised in San Diego, Calif., Galás was born to Greek Orthodox parents, who always encouraged her gift for piano. Galás studied a wide range of musical forms, as well as visual-art performance at the University of California, but a teenage walk on the wild side would help to inspire and inform her later work. Her post-graduate work took her to Europe where she made her first live performance at the Festival d'Avignon in France in 1979, performing the lead in the opera, "Un Jour Comme un Autre," by composer Vinko Globokar, based on Amnesty International documentation of the arrest and torture of a Turkish woman for alleged treason. Releasing her first recorded work in 1982, Galás' numerous musical and theatrical works include the pivotal "Plague Mass" (1990), a haunting requiem for the victims of AIDS dementia and clinical depression, "Vena Cava" (1993), "Schrei 27" (1996), and the concerts/recordings of "Malediction and Prayer," (1998), "Judgement Day," and "The Mask of the Red Death" (1988/1993). Galás is currently working on the composition of the opera "Nekropolis." Tickets to "Defixiones, Will and Testament" are available for $40, $30, $25 and $14 (for UCLA students with a full-time ID) at the UCLA Central Ticket Office located at the southwest corner of the James West Alumni Center, online at www.performingarts.ucla.edu and at all Ticketmaster outlets. For more information or to charge by phone, call (310) 825-2101. ********* An internationally acclaimed producer and presenter of music, dance and theater, UCLA Performing Arts' dynamic program-UCLA Live-brings hundreds of outstanding and provocative artists to Los Angeles each year. Committed to supporting the development of new work, UCLA Performing Arts has commissioned pieces by major artists including Pina Bausch, the Kronos Quartet, Bill T. Jones, Philip Glass and Robert Wilson. Lectures, residencies, and extensive outreach programs expand the impact of its unparalleled performances that include a lively mix of distinguished masters and innovators from around the world.

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defixiones reviews

For Immediate Release

Krista Fleischner (kristaf@ucla.edu)
(310) 794-4044
Renee Johnson (reneej@ucla.edu)
(310) 825-5202
Nicole Cavazos (ncavazos@ucla.edu)
(310) 206-5305

Dark Diva Diamanda Galás brings U.S. Premiere of "Defixiones: Will and Testament: Orders from the Dead" to UCLA's Royce Hall, Nov. 29

"Galás is one of music's most passionately beloved cult artists and one of its most daunting." -The New York Times

UCLA Live presents internationally acclaimed vocalist, pianist, composer and poet, Diamanda Galás in the U.S. premiere of "Defixiones, Will and Testament," her latest work for solo voice and piano. The performance is an angry meditation on genocide and the politically cooperative denial of it, in particular the Turkish and American denial of the Armenian, Assyrian, and Anatolian Greek genocides from 1914 to 1923. It will take place at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 29 at UCLA's Royce Hall.

The program "Defixiones, Will and Testament" features selections of work that address man's inhumanity to man, and is concerned with material written by those living in exile: "The Dance," a poem by Armenian poet Siamanto; "The Desert," by Syrian poet Adonis; "Epistle to the Transients," by Peruvian poet Cesar Vallejo; "Ain't No Grave Can Hold Me Down," by American Bosie Stuyvesant; "Todesfuge," by Rumanian-Jewish poet Paul Celan; Greek and Armenian rembetika (a form of music brought by Asia Minor refugees from Smyrna down into Greece) and amanedhes (an Asia Minor style of improvisation), including "If I Die on the Boat," by Sotiria Bellou and "Anoixe," by Papaiannou; "Hastayim Yasiyorum," by Udi Hrant; "Artémis," by Gérard Nerval; work by Assyrian poet-martyr Dr. Freidoun Bet-Oraham and the music of American artists Ornette Coleman, John Lee Hooker, and Blind Lemon Jefferson.

"Defixiones" refers to the warnings engraved in lead that were placed by relatives of the deceased on the graves of the dead in Greece and Asia Minor. These warnings cautioned against moving or desecrating the corpses under the threat of extreme harm. "Will and Testament" refers to the last wishes of the dead who have been taken to their graves under unnatural circumstances. Concerned with the poet/author living in exile, either from his homeland or within his homeland, "Defixiones, Will and Testament" speaks for individuals who have had to live as outlaws, and for those who have had to create houses out of rock.

One of the most startling artists of our time, Galás creates haunting gospels of despair, desolation and redemption that leave the audience shaken and transformed. For some, the things of which she sings are too much to bear; for Galás, it would be unbearable to remain silent about them.

Galás treats her piercingly beautiful multi-octave voice as an instrument whose sound defies description, penetrating like wind to the bone, resurrecting the dead in the living. She stands alone by virtue of her extraordinary technical accomplishment and her passionate commitment to the principle that the personal is the political.

The themes she addresses are universal-a ferocious grieving of real and immediate loss-taking material from a wide variety of cultures and eras. The sorrow of which she sings addresses in chilling recollection, man's inhumanity to man, songs of life and death, redemption and damnation, of human pain and suffering which is experienced directly by the audience.

Raised in San Diego, Calif., Galás was born to Greek Orthodox parents, who always encouraged her gift for piano. Galás studied a wide range of musical forms, as well as visual-art performance at the University of California, but a teenage walk on the wild side would help to inspire and inform her later work. Her post-graduate work took her to Europe where she made her first live performance at the Festival d'Avignon in France in 1979, performing the lead in the opera, "Un Jour Comme un Autre," by composer Vinko Globokar, based on Amnesty International documentation of the arrest and torture of a Turkish woman for alleged treason.

Releasing her first recorded work in 1982, Galás' numerous musical and theatrical works include the pivotal "Plague Mass" (1990), a haunting requiem for the victims of AIDS dementia and clinical depression, "Vena Cava" (1993), "Schrei 27" (1996), and the concerts/recordings of "Malediction and Prayer," (1998), "Judgement Day," and "The Mask of the Red Death" (1988/1993). Galás is currently working on the composition of the opera "Nekropolis."

Tickets to "Defixiones, Will and Testament" are available for $40, $30, $25 and $14 (for UCLA students with a full-time ID) at the UCLA Central Ticket Office located at the southwest corner of the James West Alumni Center, online at www.performingarts.ucla.edu and at all Ticketmaster outlets. For more information or to charge by phone, call (310) 825-2101.

*********
An internationally acclaimed producer and presenter of music, dance and theater, UCLA Performing Arts' dynamic program-UCLA Live-brings hundreds of outstanding and provocative artists to Los Angeles each year. Committed to supporting the development of new work, UCLA Performing Arts has commissioned pieces by major artists including Pina Bausch, the Kronos Quartet, Bill T. Jones, Philip Glass and Robert Wilson. Lectures, residencies, and extensive outreach programs expand the impact of its unparalleled performances that include a lively mix of distinguished masters and innovators from around the world.