I’ve been intersecting with Hadar’s live work for years at venues around New York City – she is so talented and an extremely generous collaborator. So when Tatyana, our director, approached me about this film she was making, it was an immediate and easy “YES” to hop on as composer. Not only because of my relationship to the content and the music, but also because this is my first opportunity to score a feature-length film!

The score will have three main components. First, I’ll be using the existing sounds I created for Hadar’s live shows as the thematic seed material for a full score. This music is highly textural and comes from the body, using layered and manipulated vocals with percussive elements as the main thrust in the storytelling. Next, I plan to add dimensionality with new instrumental layers – strings, guitar, dumbek and other percussion. And finally, I will sample and reimagine archival recordings of the folk tunes directly linked to the dances Tatyana and Hadar are working with. As with most folk movements, the music and the dances are inextricably linked and there is much to explore in the songs themselves being the source material for a new sonic world.

We’ll be using the Reel Change funds to pay artists directly. The money will help support my composition and recording work, but also go toward paying the collaborative musicians I’ll be working with. String players, A guitarist, a percussionist, and the LA-based interdisciplinary vocalist Odeya Nini.

Too often, artists need to forgo fair fees for our creativity and time in exchange for ‘exposure’ or to ‘pay our dues’ or because we ‘love the work.’ But New Music USA and the Reel Change Film Fund are defying this norm in order to center artists and our creative practices. There is no product without process. And there is no process without resources and encouragement. This grant has opened up worlds of possibility for me and the whole team and we are so grateful.