Darian Donovan Thomas / Jiji
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About
Skyrocketing experimental pop violinist Darian Donovan Thomas (Moses Sumney, Arooj Aftab) and our own virtuoso guitarist / composer Jiji, bring new pieces to LA.
Artists
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Jiji
Praised by The Washington Post for her “mesmerizing” and “stirring” performances, JIJI is an adventurous guitarist known for her virtuosity and command of diverse repertoire. Equally at home with both acoustic and electric guitar, her concert programs range from traditional and contemporary classical to free improvisation.
In recent seasons, JIJI has presented solo recitals at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall; Lincoln Center; 92nd Street Y; Caramoor; Green Music Center; and the National Art Gallery, among other distinguished venues. A committed champion of new music and contemporary composers, JIJI has premiered three new concertos over the past five years alone, and she continues to expand the classical guitar repertoire by commissioning new works. In 2023, JIJI will release UNBOUND, the culmination of a multiyear commissioning and recording project that aims to expand the classical guitar repertoire and redefine virtuosity.
JIJI joined the Arizona State University’s School of Music, Dance and Theater faculty as Assistant Professor of Guitar in 2018. She is also a visiting artist and adjunct faculty member at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she will begin as Associate Professor of Music in Guitar in August 2023.
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Darian Donovan Thomas
Composer, multi-instrumentalist, and interdisciplinary artist Darian Donovan Thomas was born in San Antonio, Texas and is currently based in Brooklyn, New York. He is interested in combining genres and mediums into a singular vocabulary that can express ideas about intersectionality (of medium and identity). Necessarily, he is interested in redacting all barriers to entry that have existed at the gates of any genre – this vocabulary of multiplicity will be intersectional, and therefore all-inclusive.
Darian has been commissioned by YOSA (the Youth Orchestras of San Antonio), Bang on a Can’s summer festival Banglewood, percussionists at Bard College Conservatory, Sam Houston State University, among others. His music has been premiered by So Percussion, YOSA, Bang on a Can Banglewood Fellows, SoSI Fellows, and performed in Iceland, Switzerland, Canada, and all around the United States.
About Endless Season
Art in LA has long been about freedom and a rich rejection of history. With intersecting methods and intentions, it is humble yet aspirational, creating a city that appeals to the aesthete and mystic in all its citizens. Here, famous artists also double as street-side sign painters, our finest restaurants are located in strip malls, and our landmarks are more geographical than architectural or fleetingly experiential rather than permanent monuments to their lineages. Here, our religious and secular musics sound the same.
Endless Season revolves around these distinct West Coast traits. These programs mark a new chapter, focusing on sustainability and place, and investing in the artists and audiences who make our city vibrant. Together, we encourage, question, reinterpret, and challenge the past, modality, and genre. We hold a space for intersectionality and dialogue surrounding every aspect of our work.
More about Endless SeasonEndless Season 2022-2023
Note: this is an archive of the first edition of Wild Up’s Endless Season
Wild Up in Los Angeles
For years we’ve been on the road, and now, at long last, we’re overjoyed to announce our Endless Season.
Art in LA has been about freedom and an abundant eschewing of history. With intersecting methods and intentions, humble, aspiring, a city appealing to the aesthete and the mystic in all of her citizens. Here famous artists are also street-side sign painters, our best restaurants drive or live in strip malls, our landmarks are geographical before architectural or fleetingly experiential instead of permanent monuments to their own lineages. Here our religious and secular musics sound the same.
We want our musical community to gather around all of these uniquely West Coast traits. Questioning and reinterpreting the past. Challenging modality. Living totally outside notions of the genre but existing in that outsider place drenched in a blazing pathos — a sect of the calm and humble, inquisitive builders of something gossamer unknown. We want to hit drums loudly. To improvise. To create monuments to chaos and ecstasy that shimmer in a room. We will use natural light reflected by mirrors. We will sit in contemplation, awash in wailing sound. We will hold a space of intersectionality and dialogue surrounding every aspect of our work. And we will do all of it together.
Get ready, LA we’re coming home!