Dayenu

The word “Dayenu” means approximately, “it would have been enough for us” or “it would have sufficed.” At Passover, Jewish families the world over gather together to recount the epic story of how the Jewish exodus from Egypt. The Passover seder is a special event steeped in symbolism … The assembled group reads from a “haggadah” (ha-GAH-dah) retelling the story of Exodus. Certain symbolic foods are eaten. These traditions go back thousands of years. I looked through the haggadah her father left her and sings the song “dayenu” (die-EH-new) … Which translated means approximately “it would have been enough”. I consider that word…thinking about hardship, war and torture and whether we’ve had “enough.” I was thinking about food and water and natural resources and wondering if we’ll ever have “enough.” You can comment on the vimeo link to add your own ideas of what is enough.

1001 Voices: A Symphony for a New America excerpts

1001 Voices: A Symphony for a New America excerpts. from EarSay Inc on Vimeo.

MUSIC composed by Frank London, LIBRETTO/LYRICS by Judith Sloan, VISUALS by Warren Lehrer.

This multi-media orchestral and choral work, inspired by the multi-ethnic America found in Queens, New York—the most ethnically diverse locality in the United States—is about migration, transformation, and the search for home. It is a 21st century, musical/poetic expression of the challenges and aspirations of so many of today’s American cities and their inhabitants who hail from many different parts of the globe. Originally commissioned and premiered by the Queens Symphony Orchestra in 2012, re-orchestrated and revised in 2017, 1001 Voices has new resonance as a moving counter-narrative to the poisonous and flattening rhetoric about immigrants, refugees and diversity currently infecting the USA (and parts of the world) today.

This reel of excerpts filmed and recorded December 14 & 16, 2017 at the Kupferberg Center for the Arts, Queens College. Music Director: James Johns, Queens College Choral Society + a 30 piece orchestra. Featured soloists: tabla – Deep Singh; erhu – Feifei Yang; mezzo-soprano: Linda Collazo, soprano: Elizabeth Muñoz, tenor: Deepak Marwah, baritone: DeAndre Simmons. Spoken word: Judith Sloan, Francis Madi Cerrada, Monna Sabouri, Alicia Waller, Kai Liu, Krussia.

Art Direction, Video, Photography: Warren Lehrer. Animation assistance: Brandon Campbell. Orchestrations: Constantine Kitsopoulos. Andrew Griffin. Original commission and premiere: Queens Symphony Orchestra. Video documentation: Robert Winn, ManSee Kong. Video editing: Robert Winn, Warren Lehrer, Judith Sloan.

Funding for this project, concert, and production made possible with generous support from: New Music USA, The Mellon Foundation, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, The Center for Ethnic, Racial and Religious Understanding (CERRU), The Taft Institute for Government, The Queens College Foundation, Kupferberg Center for the Arts, Aaron Copland School of Music.

A production of EarSay. For booking and other information, contact [email protected]

Five Oceans In a Teaspoon Animations

Five oceans in a teaspoon animations.mov from EarSay Inc on Vimeo.

No More Mrs. Nice Guy

Warren Lehrer’s A-LIFE-IN-BOOKS — Book 41: No More Mrs. Niceguy: Confessions of a Nice Catholic Girl from EarSay Inc on Vimeo.

written by Warren Lehrer
performed by Caridad de La Luz

Listen to Me: EarSay Youth Voices

EarSay Youth Voices: Listen to Me: a multi-lingual song.

Song lyrics developed in storytelling workshops with immigrant youth. Audio produced from various collaborative rehearsals. In the Fall of 2016, a group of NYU students collaborated with Immigrant Youth in EarSay’s partnership with the International High School at LaGuardia Community College. We translated a simple song into multiple languages adding verses as the months went along. Sung and translated by: Emily Wexler, and NYU Students Cheryle Chong, Salomé Egas, Clay Fejes, Chloe Troast, and Eugenie Thompson. International High School Students including Luis Miguel Acero, Sarmistha Das, Gabriela Cruz, Milagros Duran Baez, Trneem Esmail, Juan Guitierrez Perez, Julio Hernandez, Mukarrambon Kasimova, Kenya Lopez, Jermain Mercado, Tamara Morales, Masud Rana, David Reyeg, Iosifina Rutledge, Abdul Sami, Emelin Santana, Gabriela Snitko.

photos by Joannie Troast, David Reyeg, Judith Sloan. Video by Malkiel Asher.

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From A LIFE IN BOOKS: The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobley: Precipice

Warren Lehrer’s A-LIFE-IN-BOOKS — Book 14: PRECIPICE from EarSay Inc on Vimeo.

Globalization: Preventing the Sameness of the World Eugene Hütz of Gogol Bordello

an animation from Warren Lehrer and Judith Sloan’s Crossing the BLVD project.

Watch the Video CLICK HERE 

This video, directed and animated by Warren Lehrer with Brandon Campbell, features the words of Eugene Hütz—leader of the gypsy-punk-cabaret band Gogol Bordello—sharing his views on ‘globalization’ and putting forward an alternative vision of what he calls “multi-kontra-culture.” This animation, with sound production and arrangement by Judith Sloan, is the newest manifestation of Lehrer/Sloan’s multi-media project, Crossing the BLVD: strangers, neighbors, aliens in a new America, which documents and portrays new immigrants and refugees in the United States.

Warren and Judith were hanging out on a Lower East Side rooftop one hot summer evening, drinking vodka and sharing stories with members of Gogol Bordello, when Eugene came out with his critique of multi-culturalism, and offered up a kind of extemporaneous manifesto of multi-kontra-culture. They liked his vision so much, they ended their 400 page, 4-color book with it (W.W. Norton). Judith mixed it with some street noise and the accordion of Yuri Lemeshev, also from Gogol Bordello, and made it the last cut on the Crossing the BLVD CD. That cut called “Globalization” is the soundtrack of this 4 minute 15 second animation, which Warren recently completed in collaboration with artist/animator Brandon Campbell.