World Premiere Performance of The New Immigrant Experience

Powerful Multi-media Production and Panel Discussion, Captures the Experiences of America’s Dreamers as Part of Guggenheim Fellowship

AMHERST, Mass. – On April 9, 2019, the University of Massachusetts Amherst will host the world premiere of The New Immigrant Experience, a multimedia piece featuring music and video projection created by Felipe Salles, associate professor of jazz studies with the university’s department of music and dance.

The event, which will be held in Old Chapel, includes a 6 p.m. panel discussion on immigrant rights activism featuring Salles and Tereza Lee — the original Dreamer who inspired Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) to write the Dream Act (the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act) — as well as the performance, which begins at 7:30 p.m.

The New Immigrant Experience is a powerful new work inspired by the lives of “Dreamers,” the more than 3.6 million individuals currently protected by DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Written by Salles and developed with the aid of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship, the work uses speech cadences and melodic motifs based on key words as its main source of musical material. The compelling and personal stories were collected through video interviews with a representative group of Dreamers during the summer of 2018. Their personal stories, experiences of growing up bilingual and undocumented, also informed musical choices.

This piece will be performed by the Felipe Salles Interconnections Ensemble, a New England–based, 18-piece jazz ensemble, giving full-throated voice to one of the most marginalized groups in the United States today.

Tickets for the performance and panel discussion are $10 for the general public, $5 for students and seniors and free for UMass students with ID. Tickets may be purchased at the Fine Arts Center Box Office, online at www.fineartscenter.com/musicanddance or by phone (413) 545-2511.

Media are encouraged to attend the panel discussion and performance. For additional details and to pre-register for press credentials, please contact:

Kirk Monroe
kmonroe@rasky.com
202/207-3646