Falling Down the Same Exact Way Three Times
III. They Hear Your Violence, and They Rise (2019) – Michael Genese (United States)
Movement III starts post-fall, sitting at rock bottom with an uncomfortable sense of stasis. Anticipation builds and launches off, climbing wildly in persistent hope of undoing the fall that’s taken place. The music rises and plummets at varying degrees, grappling with the immense strength required for humanity to rise, and the inspiration of younger generations to ameliorate the mistakes made by those before us.
Ann adds: The climate crisis will bring (and is bringing) changes that affect the stability of society and human civilization as we know it. I include this powerful piece both as a reflection of potential consequences–violence–and as the strength and resilience to counter it.
MICHAEL GENESE dʒə-nis (he/they) is a composer, educator, tenor, and multi-instrumentalist.
Genese’s work asks how artistic, sonic, and educational mediums can best reveal new understandings of the self, and how the presence of intersectionality in our thinking can be fostered through our interactions with music.
Genese’s compositional work takes interest in how we may authentically utilize several sonic atmospheres at once, through mediums of electronics and multimedia. They hold degrees in Music Education, Vocal Performance, and Music Composition, having studied with Timo Andres, Hannah Lash, and Missy Mazzoli.
Genese is a founding member and head of communications for the internationally acclaimed social justice artist’s collective, VOICES 21C. They serve as a co-producer on The Choral Commons, and teach private violin, piano, and voice lessons in New York City.
Genese’s broad-reaching work, especially as an educator and multimedia artist, is rooted in frameworks of abolition and restorative justice. They are currently presenting a soundwalk in partnership with the New York Civil Liberties Union, based in locations where the New York City police department brutalized protestors in 2020-2021. The soundwalk aims to educate the public through artistic means not only about police (mis)conduct prevalent in our city, but what we can most strategically do within the scope of our immediate power to eradicate it. Genese echoes the sentiment that the arts and humanities can be invaluable tools for affecting states of consciousness and ignorance as art-makers and listeners, to further win the world we need.
Ann DuHamel 