Still Stars in the Sky: Women, Life, Freedom

Still Stars in the Sky is a powerful collaboration between the Artemis Musicians’ Society—a performing ensemble composed entirely of professional musicians who are survivors of sexual violence—and Persian musicians Saina Khaledi, Marjan Alekhamis, and Bardia Sadeghi.

Through the fusion of Western and Persian instruments and musical traditions, this concert expresses solidarity, grief, and joyful defiance in the face of regimes that seek to silence the spirit of a people. It is a meeting of sound worlds—both ancient and new—coming together in a powerful united front, serving a shared goal and expressing deep love and respect for one another.

As Women, Life, Freedom has already shown the world, the fight for true dignity and liberation for women is inseparable from the fight for freedom for all people.
Join us for an evening of community, music, and shared witness: to sing, to remember, and to affirm that the struggle for a free Iran is everybody’s struggle.

Program:

• Unbound from the Cage by Mohammad Amini
  (Farsi: از قفس رها | Improvisation by our Persian musicians)

• This Breath Between Us by Jennifer Butler
  (for oboe and bassoon)

• For Mahsa
  (Music by Hildegard von Bingen, Abolhasan Saba, and Mohammad-Reza Shajarian; arranged by Katelin Coleman)

• NAH by Keyan Emami
  (Arranged by Katelin Coleman and Keyan Emami)

• Still Stars in the Sky
  (Music by Abolhasan Saba and Richard Strauss; arranged by Katelin Coleman)

• Blooming in Murk by Saman Shahi
  i. Incursion
  ii. Chanting
  iii. Re-incursion
  iv. Celebration