Around 2005 after I finished my orchestral work Trade Routes commissioned and premiered by the Oakland Symphony orchestra I started re-imagining concepts behind the late 20th century art and music of artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Beuys, Yoko Ono, Eva Hesse and composers such as John Cage, Cornelius Cardew, and Karlheinz Stockhausen among others. Inspired by Latin American artists Tarsila do Amaral, Enrique Chagoya, Guillermo Gomez Peña and Alejandro Jodorowsky, I was looking for a way to create a musical counterpart to the colonialist hegemonic and rationalist Western art aesthetics prevalent in art and within contemporary art and music composition. Incorporating my knowledge of pre-Colombian and non-Western ritualistic practices, I could approach conceptual art from alternative cultural perspectives and my performance practices in a horizontal manner, as opposed to the the traditional top to bottom (proscenium) approach. I wanted to create my own, alternative way to the interact with my audiences, bringing them with me into a less passive and more participative experience. 

My role in this project is composer, visual, costume and stage designer, art director and instrument inventor. 

The Living Earth Show will be the instrumental soloists in this project. The organization has been working with Guillermo to create the instruments, workshop the music, and realize his score. 

Celebrating ten years of “outstanding” (San Francisco Chronicle), “transcendent” (Charleston City Paper) and “awesome” performances, (I Care If You Listen), The Living Earth Show (guitarist Travis Andrews and percussionist Andy Meyerson) is a megaphone and canvas for some of the world’s most progressive artists. One of the premiere contemporary chamber arts ensembles in the United States, The Living Earth Show received the grand prize in the SAVVY Chamber Arts Competition and runner-up in the open division of the M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition, has commissioned and premiered over 60 new works by some of the most vital composers in the world, released four critically acclaimed albums, and has performed, lectured, and given masterclasses across the country in the service of presenting music that reflects and responds to our world. 

Memorizing every work it performs, The Living Earth Show thrives on pushing the boundaries of technical and artistic possibility. It has presented seasons of commissioned multimedia productions since 2011, working with dance companies, visual artists, sculptors, poets, and other musicians to craft compelling, immersive, San Francisco-centric work. Many of these commissions can be found on the group’s critically acclaimed albums “High Art” (Innova Records, 2013), “Dance Music” (New Amsterdam Records, 2016), and “Lordship & Bondage: The Birth of the Negro Superman” (Negrogothic Records, 2019). 

Committed to supporting the next generation of musicians, The Living Earth Show has recently been ensemble in residence at Stanford University (2019), University of Michigan (2019), University of California Davis (2018), and University of South Carolina (2018). 

Its most recent live season (2019-20) included featured performances at the Spoleto Festival USA, Sutro Baths (a collaboration with the National Parks Service), Davies Symphony Hall (a collaboration with the San Francisco Girls’ Chorus), The Met Cloisters (a collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art), and ODC Theater: a presentation of a festival in honor of The Living Earth Show’s 10th anniversary.