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“Music Off the Walls,” the Brooklyn Philharmonic’s series at the Brooklyn Museum, presents the world premiere of Susan Oetgen’s “Bazm-o-Razm” on Sunday, March 30
“It’s a cycle of six songs that I have composed, with my band Likeness to Lily, with the addition of the cello, violin and flute players from the Brooklyn Philharmonic,” Oetgen, a Kensington resident, told GO Brooklyn. “[‘Bazm-o-Razm’] also involves projections and choreography.”
The program is presented in conjunction with the museum’s Middle Eastern and Islamic collections — “Bazm-o-Razm” is Farsi for “feasting and fighting” — and the Philharmonic is playing a piece called “Homage to Iran.”
“[‘Bazm-o-Razm’] is inspired by some of the miniatures in the [museum’s] collection,” said Oetgen.
“I would like the audience to be curious about the artwork in the museum,” she continued. “And also to invite questions about the relationship between contemporary American culture and the musical, artistic culture of Persia.”
Susan Oetgen’s “Bazm-o-Razm” will be performed at 2 pm on March 30 at the Brooklyn Museum (200 Eastern Pkwy. at Washington Avenue in Prospect Heights). Tickets are $15 and $10. For information, call (718) 488-5913 or visit www.brooklynphilharmonic.org.
- By Adam RATHE - The Brooklyn Paper
Discography
Farewell, Recruit (12 track CD) 2008
Solitude's Dollhouse (12 track CD) 2006
Don't You Know Me? (4 track EP) 2004
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Bio
If 'pretty' and 'singer-songwriter' are going to survive in Brooklyn, they better be packing 'edgy' and 'street-smart' in an inner jacket pocket. Not that Likeness to Lily has anything against beauty for beauty's sake. We're just saying that if you can't help being a poet while the banks are burning, you better know how to keep it real for your audience. Do you like happy endings, but don't necessarily trust them? Same with us. That’s why Likeness to Lily’s music is made from 100% natural blood, sweat, and tears, discipline, training, faith, hope, heart and soul. Now that is hard-core. And we bring it every time! Because we know it's not easy to believe in a dream with New York City breathing down your neck. Whether it's a dream about romance, success or just plain escape from reality, Likeness to Lily feels your pain and turns it into music that hits you where you live. So why aren't you listening, already? You got a problem with us? Yeah, we thought not.
Likeness to Lily is a Brooklyn-based indie post-pop band featuring vocalist/founder Susan Oetgen, pianist Tony Melone, drummer Evan Pazner and bassist Ian M. Riggs. Since forming in 2003, Likeness to Lily has performed regularly in the downtown music clubs of New York City, and on concert series along the East Coast, notably on the Vermont Arts Exchange's Basement Music Series in N. Bennington, VT, and the Hump Day Groovz Series at Washington, DC's Busboys & Poets.
Likeness to Lily independently recorded and released their debut record, Solitude's Dollhouse, which features the song 'Jewelia', as heard on A&E Television's prime-time reality show, Random 1, in 2005. In March 2008, Likeness to Lily premiered an original multimedia song-cycle entitled Bazm-o-Razm on the Brooklyn Philharmonic's Music off the Walls series at the Brooklyn Museum. A meditation on the romance of war and the conflict of love, woven into a series of six original Likeness to Lily songs, Bazm-o-Razm is framed by artist Justin Waldstein's dreamscape visual storytelling, Iraq War photos by Pulitzer Prize-nominee Alan Chin, and choreography by Sahar Javedani. Bazm-o-Razm was reprised at The Performance Project @ University Settlement in May 2008, and performed again on December 5, 2008 at Galapagos Art Space, for the occasion of Likeness to Lily's Farewell, Recruit record release.
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