A Collaboration with Ensemble Télémaque

A new international collaboration comes to life this season as Ensemble Télémaque, the Marseille‑based ensemble led by Raoul Lay, partners for the first time with four American composers- Yu‑Hui Chang, David Dominique, Kate Soper, and John Aylward. The commissioning project, Sounds, Tears & Skins, draws inspiration from four twentieth‑century writers whose lives bridged Marseille and the United States: Claude McKay, Mary Jayne Gold, Franz Werfel, and Antonin Artaud. Each writer’s experience of displacement, discrimination, and the search for belonging resonates today.

Among them is Aylward’s Between Heaven and Earth, a piece that reflects on how members of the European literary and artistic community survived the upheavals of World War II. Across the program, spoken and sung voices intertwine with Ensemble Télémaque’s vivid instrumental textures, creating a space where literature and sound meet and where the voices of these writers are heard as sometimes fragile, sometimes defiant.

The project will tour the United States in spring 2026 before traveling to Marseille in the fall. Its world premiere event, sponsored by Clark University, takes place April 12 at the Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity in Florence, Massachusetts. The event is free and open to the public!