Cedar Commissions
Friday, February 9th & Saturday, February 10th, 2024
The Cedar Cultural Center presents the thirteenth annual Cedar Commissions, on February 9th and 10th, 2024, featuring new works by McKain Lakey, Lady Xøk / Rebekah Crisanta de Ybarra, RZ Shahid, Sarah Larsson, Tri Vo, and Yev Rosso.
Each night, three lead artists will debut their brand new works on The Cedar stage:
Friday, February 9th features RZ Shahid, McKain Lakey, and YEV, and Saturday, February 10th features Sarah Larsson, Lady Xøk / Rebekah Crisanta de Ybarra, and Tri Vo.
Tickets are on sale now! Buy tickets for Friday, Saturday, and Two-Show Passes below:
ABOUT THE CEDAR COMMISSIONS
The Cedar Commissions is a flagship program for local emerging artists made possible with a grant from the Jerome Foundation. Since the program began in 2011, the Commissions have showcased new work by over 75 Minnesotan emerging composers and musicians, including Dessa, Aby Wolf, Adam Levy, Maria Isa, Joe Horton, Joey Van Phillips, Gao Hong, Dameun Strange, Vie Boheme, and many more.
“We’re grateful to continue supporting early-career artists from our varied communities. Every year, I love how each artist digs deep within to create new works from the heart - they really commit,” says Robert Lehmann, Community and Grant-Funded Programs Manager and program lead for The Cedar Commissions. “One of our priorities as a nonprofit is to support emerging artists, and we’re grateful for the Jerome Foundation’s support of the program all these years. This year, we’re particularly focusing on amping up mentorship from individual mentors within our local and national circles, Cedar staff, and the artists themselves sharing from their various levels of experience. Each performance will be strikingly different from the others, but I love that - there’s a magic in the high contrast of the genres, sounds, and subjects explored across the two evenings.”
The 2023-24 round of artists was selected by a diverse committee of Minnesota-based musicians, music industry professionals, and one Cedar staff. The 6 commissioned artists, each receive $5,000 plus $500 for performance costs to compose at least 30 minutes of new musical work to debut at The Cedar in February 2024. In addition, the cohort receives mentoring through Cedar staff, a designated mentor, and other guest artists. To date, the Commissions have supported the creation of new music by more than 75 local artists across genres.
About the artists
McKain Lakey (they/them)
“Bodies”
McKain Lakey is an award-winning multi-instrumentalist and songwriter who comes to Minnesota from Washington state, by way of the mountains of north central Arkansas. Their piece, “Bodies”, is an exploration of the embodied experiences that inform our outward identities. Through a suite of country songs and a collaboration with Minneapolis-based aerial silks artist Bailey Shatz, Lakey weaves threads of personal experience through a fabric of stories from their home community in the rural northwest, creating a series of vignettes that work to interrogate the intersection of queerness, class, and rural identity. “Bodies” is a collective love letter to our ever-evolving relationships with our own bodies, acknowledging pain and celebrating connectedness.
Image by Drew Arrieta.
Lady Xøk / Rebekah Crisanta de Ybarra (she/her)
“Olonguayu Toni Mulauna” (I Still Have Medicine)
In “Olonguayu toni mulauna” (a working title translating to ‘I still have medicine’), Lady Xøk a.k.a. Rebekah Crisanta de Ybarra (Maya-Lenca Nation) explores new music in a fusion of afro-indigenous beat and blues. Interested in experimental and noise jazz with natural soundscape and building on past work and anthropological research of at-risk Pre-Columbian instruments, she is building instruments such as a sacabuche resist drum to reflect the natural soundscapes of Central America in new compositions with guitar, keys, bass, vocals, and her interdisciplinary immersive visual storytelling techniques.
Image by Drew Arrieta.
RZ Shahid (he/him)
“I’ve Got Something to Say”
RZ Shahid, a burgeoning artist hailing from Saint Louis Park, MN, has found his creative sanctuary amidst the vibrant city of Minneapolis, MN. "I've Got Something to Say," serves as a profound outlet for his innermost thoughts and emotions that have been brewing since the tumultuous year of 2020. With an uncanny ability to channel his experiences into resonant verses and captivating melodies, RZ Shahid confronts pressing issues such as oppression, heartbreak, and the enigmatic facets of the contemporary world. The essence of "I've Got Something to Say" lies in RZ's desire to provide a window into his perspective. Through his lyrical prowess and musical ingenuity, he paints a vivid panorama that reflects his introspections, observations, and revelations. The infusion of R&B and jazz elements into his hip-hop foundation adds layers of depth and complexity to his sound, creating a sonic landscape that is as rich as it is emotionally charged. "I've Got Something to Say" isn't just a project; it's a sonic confessional. It's RZ's unfiltered perspective on a world undergoing rapid transformations in the wake of the protests, uprising, and mutual aid of summer 2020. Through his melodies and thought-provoking lyrics, RZ invites us to see the world through his eyes, inviting empathy, understanding, and connection. As he pours his soul into each track, listeners are bound to find pieces of their own experiences mirrored in his words, fostering a profound sense of unity through shared emotions.
Image by Drew Arrieta.
Sarah Larsson (she/her)
“Kholemen In Zikh Arayn” (Dreaming into ourselves)
Sarah (Jagoda/O’Brien/Goldstein) Larsson will compose a suite of new folksongs in Yiddish, her mother’s family’s mothertongue. Setting poems written by Canadian and Minnesotan Yiddish poets, Sarah takes her first foray into writing music as though there hadn’t been a broken line of culture in her lineage. Music for harmony, group singing, and dancing — songs in a mothertongue that are meant to bring groups of people together; inspired by her growing community of klezmorim and Yiddish-lovers in the Twin Cities and beyond, Sarah hopes to make more spaces where people hold hands with strangers and imagine themselves fully into an integrated past and future.
Image by Drew Arrieta.
Tri Vo (he / "anh")
“My Own Worst Frenemy: A Gook Punk Puts His Feelings First”
“Rock and Roll is a tentacle of the Western capitalist world order – destroy it and any vessels for its degenerate consumerist expression!” 50 years ago, Tri Vo would have been counterrevolutionary roadkill under the militarized nationalist movements that were seizing control of wartorn, mainland Southeast Asian nation-states. Today, Tri is just some poorly pruned gook raised by leafy suburbs and pop punk tunes. And now, he has some tunes for you to groove to! Tunes about being trapped by the same Western neoliberal world order that Vietnam was subsumed by, feeling trivialized by how few examples of radical punk Mekong Asians in whose footsteps he can follow, and how he’ll have to practice more artistic entitlement to making Punk Rock music for just himself if he ever wants to be more than a secondhand White dude living in a firsthand White dude’s world. (Or at least more than an Asian first-child defect in a class ascendant, liberal assimilationist Asian world). No guarantees Tri will deliver an unprecedented Viet-punk ethnographic experience that gives you an NPR-type, feel-good appreciation for Vietnamese people, punk music, and their overlap to critical political theories and praxes. For his show, Tri is a punk rock lecher first, and a representation of his ethnic heritage and poli-sonic affinities second. Jump along to Tri’s punk rock tunes of self-celebration and firsthand observations as a undeniable punk gook filth machine who’s putting himself first, for once.
Image by Drew Arrieta.
Yev Rosso (he/him)
"Echoes of Resilience: A Ukrainian Tapestry of War and Hope"
Embark on a journey with YEV, where the vibrant tapestry of Ukraine comes alive in a fusion of Eastern European and Western melody and rhythm. As a first-generation Ukrainian-American artist, YEV delves into the heart of war-torn narratives, shining a light on defining moments in the lives of those both scarred and strengthened by conflict. A blend of music and raw, firsthand accounts from the front lines, YEV plunges into the tumultuous depths of despair and unyielding courage. The performance aims to unveil the humanity of those who stand defiant in the face of oppression, transforming struggle into a testament of resilience.
“This project has profoundly transformed my life, and I invite you to join us on this exploration of hope, melody and the relentless spirit of valor.” - YEV
Image by Drew Arrieta.
Artist Interviews
LEARN ABOUT THE 2022-23 CEDAR COMMISSIONS ARTISTS HERE.
All photos courtesy of Christopher Ludtke
The Cedar Commissions is made possible in part by a grant from the Jerome Foundation.