Symbiosis: a multimedia concert performance
April 10, 2025 | Boston Conservatory at Berklee
feat. music by Ryan Suleiman, theatrical design by C. Neil Parsons, performances by The Fourth Wall Ensemble, Sakura & Rose Duo, & David Russell
Symbiosis was a collaboration at Boston Conservatory at Berklee between composer Ryan Suleiman, performance artist C. Neil Parsons, and his colleagues from the Fourth Wall Ensemble. Also included in the project were soprano Rose Hegele, pianist Sakurako Kanemitsu, and cellist David Russell. The concert featured all original works by Suleiman, including two world premieres - Meditations and fireflies gather. In a collaboration which acknowledges and embraces the inherent theatricality of musical performance, Parsons and the Fourth Wall Ensemble served as performers and theatrical directors in an otherwise “concert-music” program—a talent they’ve developed in their own work for well over a decade.
Suleiman’s body of work, while engaging with a variety of issues, has been particularly focused on the simultaneity of beauty and dread in our times and the ways in which art can engage with nature (and by extension, the climate crisis) in a serious and rigorous manner. Processing complex feelings, promoting listening, creating spaces for quiet contemplation, and exploring philosophical / existential questions about nature are some of the ways in which the program aims to promote healing and action through music and theater.
The project was supported by the Berklee Faculty Fellowship 2024-25.