URSA

An imagined night sky of words and music: LA Signal Lab presents URSA: an interstellar cantata. Featuring new music by Erika Oba, Nick DePinna, Dan Marschak, Noah Meites, and Hitomi Oba, with a libretto by Sarah Thompson, URSA is a suite of fourteen works linked by the enigmatic mythos of the Ursa Major/Minor constellation. Over the course of this continuous evening length work, audiences follow a path of interrelated musical and literary reference points ranging from Greek mythology, chamber music, and Mark Twain, to Inuit legend, jazz improvisation, and NASA technical data.

 

Personnel/Instrumentation

• Nick DePinna – trombone, digital effects, synthesizer,
  concertina, percussion
• Dan Marschak – piano, electric piano, synthesizer,
  melodica, percussion
• Noah Meites – trumpet, melodica, conducting, percussion
• Erika Oba – flute, piano, electric piano, vocals,
  conducting, percussion
• Hitomi Oba – tenor and soprano saxophones, vocals,
  percussion, semaphore, projection artwork
• Sarah Thompson – vocals, semaphore, percussion
• Scott Worthington – contrabass, percussion