May 05, 2022
Two Philadelphia debuts at Ars Nova Workshop
Adam O’Farrill’s Stranger Days on May 6 and “Of Shadow and Substance” on May 8
Since 2000, Ars Nova Workshop has been presenting jazz and new music. They believe in the power of jazz and creative music to help us imagine and create the future. They have online or in-person programs, including:
Adam O’Farrill & Stranger Days
Friday, May 6, 8 PM, at Ruba Club.
Ars Nova Workshop is pleased to present Stranger Days, the acclaimed, adventurous quartet led by trumpeter Adam O’Farrill, a third-generation member of one of jazz’s most innovative family trees. Join us on Friday, May 6, 8pm, at Ruba Club.
Acclaimed as an “omnipresent, omnivorous young trumpeter” by The Atlantic, Adam O’Farrill has performed and recorded with artists such as Mary Halvorson, Vijay Iyer, Mulatu Astatke, and Onyx Collective. O’Farrill and his brother, Stranger Days drummer Zack O’Farrill, come from a rich musical background: their grandfather is the Afro-Cuban-Irish composer and arranger Chico O’Farrill; their father the cultural boundary-pushing composer and pianist Arturo O’Farrill. The Wall Street Journal praised his music as “refined and discreet; it integrates aspects of art rock and contemporary classical music and boasts a cinematic influence.”
Lea Bertucci’s “Of Shadow and Substance”
Sunday, May 8, at 8 PM
“Of Shadow and Substance” is inspired by a massive explosion that occurred June 2019 in Philadelphia, at the largest oil-processing plant on the East Coast. The facility, until recently owned by Philadelphia Energy Solutions, is located in a densely populated section of the city, and occupies an area of more than two square miles. The impact of the plant’s long history in the area — environmentally, economically, and catastrophically — reaches back to 1905. This most recent fire resulted in a tremendous explosion ejecting shattered metal fragments in all directions. One such fragment weighing 38,000 lbs., approximately the size of a fully loaded Greyhound bus, was thrown into the air and across the nearby Schuylkill River before landing on the opposite side. “Of Shadow and Substance” meditates on the looming physical presence of these large structures juxtaposed with the insidious, unseen effects of microscopic toxins that collide with us and each other.