Project Created: Sanctuary City
Quote: “Sanctuary City brings together some of the best musicians in the city along with award winning poet and laureate of Philadelphia, Raquel Salas Rivera, to tell a story about what it means to call a place home, the commonalities between music and language, and to celebrate Philadelphia as a multicultural safe haven for migrants, immigrants and refugees from around the world. The project integrates spoken word with composed and improvised music that reflects recent developments in the evolution of the jazz idiom.” – David Allen
Bio: David Allen, composer, guitarist, and educator, will “develop a series of jazz compositions that incorporate poetry and spoken-word to tell a story of Philadelphia as a multi-cultural safe-haven” and to “represent the diversity of Philadelphia in both music and language.” This new work is focused on multi-culturalism and the idea of what people think of as “home”. It will explore Philadelphia as a safe-haven and sanctuary city for immigrants and migrants alike. Pulling inspiration from his firsthand experience, Allen is enlisting the help of 2018-19 poet laureate of Philadelphia Raquel Sala Rivera, violinist Diane Monroe, drummer Matt Scarano, and bassist Madison Rast to develop the project and tell the story.
Allen has traveled and lived around the world: growing up in Philadelphia before moving to New York City, and then relocating to Istanbul, Turkey in 2013. In 2016 he moved his family back to Philadelphia, as they needed a safe environment after the deterioration of the situation in Turkey. “We were living in Turkey during a very turbulent time and witnessed a military coup first hand. Af¬ter witnessing such chaos and hostility, we needed a safe haven where we could begin again and we chose Philadelphia.”
Project Description: David Allen, composer, guitarist, and educator, developed “ a series of jazz compositions that incorporate poetry and spoken-word to tell a story of Philadelphia as a multi-cultural safe-haven” and to “represent the diversity of Philadelphia in both music and language.” This new work focused on multi-culturalism and the idea of what people think of as "home". It explored Philadelphia as a safe-haven and sanctuary city for immigrants and migrants alike. Pulling inspiration from his firsthand experience, Allen enlisted the help of 2018-19 poet laureate of Philadelphia Raquel Sala Rivera, violinist Diane Monroe, drummer Matt Scarano, and bassist Madison Rast to develop the project and tell the story.
Credits:
Artists
David Allen: lead composer, guitar
Raquel Salas Rivera: poet
Diane Monroe: violin
Matt Scarano: drums
Madison Rast: bass
Performance Dates: David Allen, Raquel Salas Rivera, and Diane Monroe were in residence at the Kimmel Center from November 2018 – June 2019. Their residency kick off was held on January 17, their student workshop on February 26, their public workshop on March 8, their work-in-progress on April 26, and their world premiere was held on June 7, 2019.