For her debut solo album, violinist Maiani da Silva wanted to find a way to intertwine her art with a perhaps unexpected interest: anthropology.
A lecturer in the Department of Music, in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), da Silva asked six composers to consider an anthropological theme of their own choosing and write a work inspired by that theme.
Some of the composers even consulted with two Yale anthropological experts: Jessica Thompson, an assistant professor of anthropology, and Catherine Panter-Brick, the Bruce A. and Davi-Ellen Chabner Professor of Anthropology, Health, and Global Affairs, both in FAS.
The result is "Brouhaha: Shaped by Fire," to be released on April 17 in both compact disc and digital formats. The CD features extensive liner notes that include descriptions, written by the composers, of each of the six thematic works. (Two of the composers - Ian Gottlieb '15 M.M. and Fjóla Evans '18 M.M.A.- are Yale School of Music alums.)
"I created 'Brouhaha' essentially as an opportunity to talk to these composers about what interests them in anthropology, which is my interest," da Silva said. "Anthropology is such a broad umbrella, and these composers were like, 'I guess I've always wondered about X, I'd love to learn more about that.' And that little nugget of curiosity became the inspiration for each of these works."
