This silent music

August 8, 2026

SkySpace • Philadelphia


Pre-concert talk • 6:30pm
performance • 7:00pm

Screaming into the void never felt so calm

Screaming into the void never felt so calm

A young woman with long, wavy, light brown hair and blue eyes smiling softly, sitting indoors near a wooden bookshelf filled with colorful books.
Katy Avery

CREATIVE DIRECTOR • PRODUCER • VOCALS

A woman with long, dark brown hair and red lipstick, wearing a blue floral top and a brown jacket, smiling at the camera.
LIZ LANG

CO-CREATOR • VOCALS

A smiling young Asian man sitting on a wooden bench outdoors, holding a golf club, wearing a black long-sleeve shirt, gray pants, and a black watch.
DARREN LIN

PERCUSSION

A smiling young man with short red hair, wearing a black t-shirt, standing indoors at night with blurred colorful city lights in the background.
LJ WHITE

COMPOSER

A young man with dark hair, wearing a short-sleeved, light-colored, striped button-up shirt, crosses his arms, and wears a watch on his left wrist, standing in front of a textured, multicolored background.
ALEX WAKIM

COMPOSER

A young woman with long curly brown hair and light skin stands in a dimly lit room with dark walls, wearing a navy blazer, a floral blouse, and beige pants.
MIEKE DOEZEMA

COMPOSER

Close-up view of an oval window set into a beige-colored wall with a blue sky and clouds visible through the window.

I know how hard it is
I Know
But Please
try to sing
The entire
song

The later verses,
I promise you,
are the most beautiful.

George Abud

The Project

This Silent Music is a contemplative performance experiment that invites artists and listeners to slow down, attend closely, and experience music as a shared act of presence. Conceived as an antidote to cultural numbness and disconnection, the work creates space for processing complex emotions through unconventional sound, silence, light, and community.

Featuring three world premiere commissions, the program reframes the impulse to scream into the void, offering instead an aural meditation – at once active and reflective – on what it means to witness a world that often obscures what is already known. Music unfolds not as spectacle, but as a way of listening: to each other, to the environment, and to what remains unresolved.

A discussion with the composers and collaborating artists will precede the performance, offering insight into the creative process and the questions that shaped the work.

The skyspace

The premiere of This Silent Music will take place at the Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting House in Philadelphia, home to one of approximately ninety SkySpace installations worldwide by contemporary light artist James Turrell. The SkySpace frames the open sky through a precisely calibrated architectural aperture, allowing audiences to experience the shifting light of sunset and nightfall as an active visual counterpart to the music.

Within this space, sound and light unfold simultaneously, inviting a heightened awareness of time, perception, and collective presence. Future performances at SkySpaces in Massachusetts, New York, and additional locations are planned following the premiere.

The music

AT THE END OF IT ALL
DUET • PERCUSSION • FIXED MEDIA

Transmasculine composer LJ White draws on a collaboration with astronomer Becka Phillipson, whose research on black holes informs the program’s central metaphor. Like black holes – and like people of marginalized identities – certain forces remain imperfectly understood, becoming visible only through their relationship to the surrounding world. The piece explores how presence, impact, and potential can exist even when comprehension is incomplete.

THIS SILENT MUSIC
SONG CYCLE • PERCUSSION • OUD

Based on texts by poet George Abud, Lebanese composer Alex Wakim crafts a song cycle that excavates questions of identity, belonging, and collective memory. Melding traditional Arabic tonality and instrumentation with Western technique, the work unfolds as an act of cultural uncovering – for performers and audience alike – using tension, resonance, and resolution to illuminate what emerges when dissonance becomes a central voice in the narrative.

BEFORE THE LIGHT
SONG CYCLE • PERCUSSION • MARIMBA

Composer Mieke Doezema contributes a song cycle for soprano, marimba, and auxiliary percussion, employing extended techniques inspired by natural soundscapes. Rooted in mindfulness and close listening, the work invites contemplation and stillness, encouraging an awareness of breath, texture, and the quiet architecture of sound.

Close-up view of a circular structure with a blue center, surrounded by colored lighting in blue, pink, and yellow hues.

This Silent Music is built slowly and intentionally. Donations support commissioning fees, rehearsal time, artist compensation, and the technical requirements of site-specific performance. Every contribution helps ensure this work is realized with care, integrity, and access. 

Donations & sponsorship

Fund us

Founded by soprano Katy Avery, the Katy Avery Commissioning Project (KACP) commissions genre-defying vocal works that bring together unexpected instrumentation, interdisciplinary artists, and contemporary social themes. KACP is sponsored by The International Foundation for Contemporary Music.