A work-in-progress screening and talk back for Kassia Revolution Friday March 1, 6:00-7:00 p.m. outside on the Arts Steps. Join Gluck Fellow MFA students Mariia Bakalo, experimental choreography and Noah Amir Arjomand, screenwriting with Brett Umlauf as they screen their film Kassia Revolution.

Kassia of Byzantium is the earliest woman composer with surviving works, yet few know her name. She founded a monastery in 9th-century Constantinople, where she wrote hymns and poetry.

A series of experimental films, KASSIA REVOLUTION brings her vibrant texts and music to new audiences. Gluck Fellows and UCR MFA students Noah Amir Arjomand (Director/DP) and Mariia Bakalo (Choreographer/Dancer) are joined by recent Fulbright Fellow Brett Umlauf (Music Director/Singer) in producing this work.

Friday’s event, held outdoors on the front steps of the Arts Building, will feature rough cuts of three short films of the series–The Cell, The Wheel, and The Hymn–and sounds from a fourth in pre-production: The Hate. The screening/listening session will be followed by a conversation about Kassia’s world and music and the KASSIA REVOLUTION project.

KASSIA REVOLUTION will shine a bright light on an important woman overshadowed in the patriarchal telling of medieval history and on a musical tradition long ignored in the Western musical canon.

Free parking in Lot 6