Otherwhere: An Immersive Informational Gala

CRITIC’S PICK: Join Majid Araim at Gallery 992 in the West End on a journey to Otherwhere, an alternate dimension where opera, ballet and music meld into an expression of themes ranging from gender and cultural identity, classism, racism, fear and displacement to compassion, empathy, endurance, political extremism and climate change. An Iraqi-American multi-instrumentalist, composer, curator and researcher, Araim is a fixture on the Atlanta improvisational/new music scene as a soloist and collaborator. Earlier this year, as co-founder (with Benjamin Shirley) of the duo Whispers of Night, Araim participated in a PREMIER Performance Residency at Georgia Tech School of Music. Araim also produces Magic Lantern, a series of home-based performances. This special afternoon program at Gallery 992, funded in part by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, includes excerpts from performances interspersed with Q&A sessions and references to future works. Featured performances include “Extrapolations from Otherwhere” (2023), an opera for ensemble and vocalizations; “Transformations of a Reflection: Lament for Delilah” (2022), for solo soprano saxophone and tube, which features anthropomorphized trees mourning the self-sacrifice by a fairy atoning for past manipulations and dishonesty; and “Regarding Bullfrogs” (2019), a work for bass trombone, prepared mandolin, tuba, voice and Otherwhere inhabitants depicting the consequences of imbalance in political governance. — Doug DeLoach