The Journey to Life Returns

Witness a yearlong time-lapse musical performance of an original work by composer and saxophonist Matthew Evan Taylor.

MetLiveArts, the performance series at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Metropolis Ensemble present a monthly video series featuring composer and performer Matthew Evan Taylor in collaboration with musicians from Metropolis Ensemble and RAJAS.

Witness a time-lapse musical performance of an original work by composer and saxophonist Matthew Evan Taylor and his collaborators in this unique, yearlong MetLiveArts commission produced and developed by Metropolis Ensemble. Taylor will spark the process by drafting the first layer of the composition.

Each month, working remotely, musicians from Metropolis Ensemble and the South Asian jazz collective RAJAS (“unlike any other on the scene,” New York Times) led by mridangam artist Rajna Swaminathan will either respond to or build on that foundation. Over the course of the year, these elements will form the creative inspiration for an evening-length work, culminating in a live performance of the completed composition on March 24, 2022.

This twelve-part series—presented on IGTV on The Met’s Instagram account and Metropolis Ensemble’s website—offers an intimate, real-time view as Taylor and his partners explore African American, South Indian, and Western European musical practices.

Postcards to The Met is commissioned and produced by MetLiveArts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of Live Arts, bringing the Museum into conversation with contemporary creators and encouraging the discovery of untested modes of performance. This program is made possible by the Adrienne Arsht Fund for Resilience through Art. Artwork by Juniper Creative LLC.

About Matthew Evan Taylor

Composer and saxophonist Matthew Evan Taylor (1980) has been hailed as “a promising new voice” (Miami Herald) and a “risk taker” (Huffington Post) whose music is “insistent and defiant ... envelopingly hypnotic” (Lucid Culture). His most recent project, New Century | New Voices, is a concert series in Middlebury, Vermont celebrating the continued contributions of women and composers of color to the classical music canon. The inaugural season, which began in January 2019, included collaborations with composers Carlos Simon, Marcos Balter, and Gabriela Lena Frank and the Vermont- based new music ensemble TURNmusic. Matthew is Assistant Professor of Music at Middlebury College in Vermont. More »

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