Tuesday Evening, April 17, 2018, 6:00 Please be advised:

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
DAVID M. RUBENSTEIN, Chairman
DEBORAH F. RUTTER, President
Presents
Patrons seated in this area may be filmed for the
broadcast of this event on the Kennedy Center’s
website.

From the Rich Dark Earth

Featuring SEATING IS ON A FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED
BASIS.
Abraham Brody
We regret that as the theater reaches capacity, seats
cannot be saved for patrons who have not arrived or are
Daiva Vyciniene not next in line.

Audra Zilinskiene Thank you for understanding.

Egle Sereicikiene Please refrain from using audio or video recording

equipment during the performance.
Rima Visackiene
Due to safety and security considerations, please refrain
from standing in the aisles during the performance. If
you have any questions, the uniformed ushers are
available to assist you.

Please silence all cell phones and electronic devices

during the performance.

Artist Liaison and Multimedia Broadcaster volunteers,

part of the Friends of the Kennedy Center volunteer
program, assist staff at the Millennium Stage every
night of the year.

Tonight at the Kennedy Center

8:00 PM Shear Madness Theater

Lab

Please visit the Box Office for information on ticket


About the Performance
This performance of ANCESTORS with Trys Keturiose
is conceptualized by National Sawdust Artist-in-
Residence Abraham Brody.
In our modern society, many of us have lost our
roots. Knocked off balance by the speed and
immediacy of modern technology, we have lost
touch with many of the traditions that both ground
us and orient us to the rhythms of life. First
premiered at the Barbican Centre in London,
ANCESTORS draws from both folk music and
ancient rituals of Baltic Culture, exploring the
connection to Brody’s roots through ritual, gesture,
and music. He will be joined by renowned
Lithuanian folk singing ensemble Trys Keturiose who
perform alongside him ancient polyphonic
Sutartinės, which mean in Lithuanian “to sound in
harmony, to agree,” bringing the performers and
the public deeper into the rich Baltic tradition and a
form of meditation in performance. Throughout the
performance, the artists will perform ancient rituals
that are directly related to the music. The rituals
and songs are based around themes inherent to
Lithuanian culture—the process of Linen works
(long considered a magical process), bees and
beekeeping, and rituals all connected to the word
“Teka,” which in Lithuanian represents the flowing
of time, the rising of the sun, the flowing of water,
and the flowing of a bride to her husband. The
music itself reflects the cyclical nature and eternal
flow of these rituals. The mythological threads
collected here intertwine like the music of the
polyphonic songs themselves as if weaving a
symbolic message.
About the Artists
Abraham Brody creates unique multidimensional
experiences for his audiences. Bringing together
music, performance art, and multimedia, he pushes
the boundaries between performer and public and
challenges the traditional notions of a performer in
the 21st century by uniting these three art forms
into one cohesive whole. For him, performance is a
vehicle to transform himself and his audiences.
Drawing inspiration from the roots, rituals, and
folklore of diverse backgrounds, he weaves them
into performances combining his own compositions,
improvisation, and multimedia works.
He has collaborated with renowned performance
artist Marina Abramovic, has travelled to far-eastern
Siberia in search of shamans, and also creates the
bulk of his solo works based on the folklore and
music of his Lithuanian roots. He has performed
and shown his works in such places as the Barbican
Centre London (month-long residency in 2015), The
Public Theater New York, Tate Modern, Southbank
Centre London, Pace Gallery, Fondation Beyeler
Basel, Sziget Festival Budapest, Solyanka VPA
Moscow, Vortex Jazz Club London, and Rich Mix
London, among others. In his residency at National
Sawdust, he presents a diverse mix of some of his
collaborative projects from across the globe, as well
as creates new solo work in the context of his
residency. During his residency, he will also show
video and performance works of his at
HappyLuckyno1 Gallery in Brooklyn, in partnership
with National Sawdust.

Since 1981, the group Trys Keturiose has

specialized in performing sutartinės, traditional
Lithuanian polyphonic songs. These are
distinguished by their numerous uses of seconds,
entwined voices, accentuated rhythmic patterns,
and the simultaneous sound of two different texts
(verse and refrain). All these qualities demand a
specific concord among the performers, the habit of
singing together (the word sutartinė is derived from
the verb sutarti, meaning “to agree, to reach
accord”). Nowadays, the tradition of singing
sutartinės in rural regions of Lithuania has died out;
however, various folk groups in the cities keep up
the tradition, including Trys Keturiose. The group
continues to develop its own sound and aims to
give a contemporary meaning to old songs,
collaborating with composers, electronic musicians,
and video artists, and presents interdisciplinary art
projects. The leader of Trys Keturiose is Daiva
Vyčinienė, an ethnomusicologist, professor, and
head of the Department of Ethnic Music at the
Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. The
ensemble has performed all over the world, most
notably at the Barbican Centre in London, World
Expo in Milan, Szezcin Philharmonic Hall in Poland,
Tokyo, Japan, among others.