Musicians Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith to Perform on April 12

March 16, 2023

Submitted By: Office of Marketing and Communication

Acclaimed musicians Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith will perform together in a performance on April 12. The event, Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith: Prism 1965 will also feature a visual backdrop by the Hartford Art School Artist-in-Residence Chiraag Bhakta.

Prism 1965 is a new work of live music and visuals focusing on America in 1965. This pivotal year was marked by the assassination of Malcolm X the marches in Selma led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the US invasion of Vietnam and subsequent protests the Watts Uprising and the passage of two key pieces of legislation- the Voting Rights Act and the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Composer-performers Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet) and Vijay Iyer (piano, Fender Rhodes, electronics) together with Whitney Artist-in-Residence Chiraag Bhakta (visuals) will offer a sonic and visual meditation on the relevance of those past events to our present moment creating possibilities for meaning that language cannot touch.

The musicians have numerous accolades and are renowned beyond their individual musical languages. The New York Times has described Iyer as “a social conscious…historical thinker and multicultural gateway.” Iyer has received a MacArthur Fellowship, a Grammy nomination, and was voted Downbeat Magazine’s Jazz Artist of the Year four times in the last decade. Smith has been a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in Music, has a long list of awards including National Endowment for the Arts grants, and earned wide praise such as ‘Artist of the Year,’ and ‘Trumpeter of the Year’ in various media outlets.

The event is also collaborative and innovative, as it integrates HAS Whitney Artist-in-Residence Chiraag Bhakta’s visual designs. A multidisciplinary artist, Bhakta’s involvement in the performance stems from his own connections with the musicians, forged during his career that involves cross-over in a variety of disciplines in the arts (and performing arts) worlds. A graduate of HAS (’99), his work has been shown at the Whitney Museum, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and the Brooklyn Museum. His current solo show, Designing the Dream State is on view at the Joseloff Gallery (through March 25).

The performance will be held on Wednesday, April 12,at 7:30 p.m., in Millard Auditorium. To reserve your tickets, please visit the Box Office. University of Hartford faculty, staff, and students can get one free ticket by logging in with their UHart email address. All other seats are $25.

This program was made possible by a grant from the Richard P. Garmany Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving. The HAS Whitney Artist in Residency is made possible through funds held by Hartford Art School Endowment, Inc.(HASE, Inc.).