You Begin Elsewhere

Date: October 15–16, 2020
Price: Watch for FREE online

On October 15 and 16, be transfixed by genre-defying musical artists who blend cultural influences, sounds, and styles of storytelling to thrilling effect.

You Begin Elsewhere is a two-day series of free-to-watch online performances and talks celebrating musical discovery and ideas of tradition, identity, belonging, safe haven, and self-expression.

Review the listings below to find out when to tune in. Return to this page to watch these extraordinary presentations live.

REPLAY: Kaie Kellough and Jason Sharp — October 15, 2020 at 7 pm ET — Presented by the Aga Khan Museum in collaboration with the Music Gallery 

Fusing music and spoken-word poetry, Kaie Kellough and Jason Sharp will wield their percussive avant-jazz sound in a new performance piece they have dreamed up specially for the Aga Khan Museum.

Tying into themes from the Museum exhibitions Sanctuary and Don't Ask Me Where I'm From, UBGNLSWRE is a mixed-media performance that combines literature, electronic and acoustic sound, and graphic design by artist Kevin Yuen Kit Lo. It is an extended meditation on the present moment. It considers individual and collective selfhood in a world whose future appears increasingly vulnerable, and whose past is prologue. It seeks possibility by asking, "Where do we begin, and how do we continue?" 

UBGNLSWRE was originally set to premiere in the Museum's Auditorium in April, but that performance had to be cancelled due to COVID-19 lockdowns. Now, Kellough and Sharp have re-envisioned their new work for online audiences, drawing on their own creative resilience to turn unforeseen challenges into new artistic opportunities.

REPLAY: In Conversation: Du Yun and Olivia Shortt — October 16, 2020 at 2 pm ET — Presented by the Aga Khan Museum in collaboration with the Music Gallery

Explore the outer limits of musical performance and creativity in this one-on-one conversation featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, musician, and performance artist Du Yun and X Avant XV festival co-organizer and Music Gallery artistic associate Olivia Shortt.

This wide-ranging discussion touches upon projects old and new, including Du Yun’s Future Traditions initiative, the relationship between collaboration and creativity, and the importance of mentorship.

Born in Shanghai and now based in New York City, Du Yun has applied her distinctive artistic lens and fearsome creativity to genres as disparate as opera, chamber music, rock ‘n’ roll, and experimental electro.

A recent artistic associate with the Music Gallery, Olivia Shortt is a performer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, improviser, composer, sound designer, theatre artist, teacher, activist, curator, and producer based in Tkarón:to (Toronto). This conversation took place just hours before the presentation of Du Yun & OK Miss: Day 198, a film about her chamber-music-meets-rock outfit OK Miss.

Du Yun & OK Miss: Day 198, a film by Du Yun and Nicholas Houfec, and Classic Roots — October 16, 2020 at 7 pm ET — Presented by the Music Gallery in collaboration with the Aga Khan Museum for the X Avant XV festival

Sorry you missed it! We do time-limited programming for select projects. We’re working on having this program back in the future, so please make sure to sign up for our newsletter and follow us on social media so you are the first to know when it returns.

Tune in for a presentation of Du Yun & OK Miss: Day 198, a film by Du Yun and Nicholas Houfek. Originally envisioned as a one-off project by Pulitzer Prize-winning musician Du Yun, OK Miss exists as both a rock band and chamber ensemble, while fostering all that exists in-between. The group has appeared in many assorted holes and halls, sites and museums, ranging from punk shows to live-scoring silent films and sold-out musicals.

Following the screening will be the pulsating presence of Classic Roots. Drawing inspiration from his life and culture, Classic Roots developed his original sound through his integration of traditional Anishinaabe drumming and singing imbued with the bass culture of techno/house to establish a sense of cultural freedom and experimentation.