Opening Weekend Concert with Wadada Leo Smith and Raven Chacon

As a student at CalArts in the early aughts, Raven Chacon studied with renowned composer-performer Wadada Leo Smith. The creative agency of Smith’s Ankhrasmation Symbolic Music Language inspired Chacon to develop compositions that give performers autonomy in choosing what they play. Twenty years later, the two artists share a joint concert at Arts and Letters, where each has a solo exhibition on view as part of our fall program.

The concert begins in the Arts and Letters Library with two compositions by Chacon, Journey of the Horizontal People (2016) and Double Weaving (2018), followed by Smith’s String Quartet No. 17 (2022–23), premiering in its complete string quartet version. It concludes in the North Gallery with a performance by Chacon on guitar and Smith on trumpet.

Smith’s RedKoral Quartet will perform the compositions by Smith and Chacon. It is the first time they will play the work of a composer other than Smith. The members of RedKoral are Andrew McIntosh (viola), Mona Tian (violin), Shalini Vijayan (violin), and Ashley Walters (cello).

Concert admission is $10, and reduced-price tickets are available for students and those who need them.