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Roger Kalia: This will be your third time performing with Orchestra Santa Monica. Additionally, you are OSM’s first-ever Artistic Advisor. What draws you back to collaborate with this ensemble?
Jubilant Sykes: I must say I love performing with orchestra. It’s such a collaborative effort. OSM is such a fine ensemble of musicians. Their musicality and their instincts as artists with a fine conductor at the helm makes for a truly wonderful, satisfying, aesthetic experience. And having you as maestro makes it a joy to return! As Artistic Advisor I’m looking forward to creating not only a beautiful and unique sonic experience, but also a visual one as well that will give the audience and artists an opportunity to reach each other in an intimate way.
Roger: Potentia combines narration, singing, and orchestral music. How do you approach performing a work that blends these elements?
Jubilant: I see Potentia predominantly as a narration of the poem by the wonderful American poet Anne Carmack. The orchestra is painting the emotions and thoughts of the narrator composed so beautifully by Jason Gomez. The moments of singing in the work are brief, yet they are an expression of longing and a groaning of something too deep for only words. The poem speaks to so many things: life, death, birth, rejection, brutality, love, pain, loneliness, fear, and hope - all the different aspects of being human. It changes with every reading, which makes for an extraordinary poem.
Roger: How does Anne Carmack’s poetry resonate with you as both a narrator and a singer?
Jubilant: As an American and a man of color this work resonates with me because it speaks to the uniqueness of the place I’ve been given as an artist, as a husband, as a father, and as a son in the realm of the arts. It expresses the joy and pain of blending the world of my culture, our environment, and my art form in a true and hopefully transparent expression in which everyone can relate.
Roger: What has been your experience working with Jason Anthony Gomez’s music? How does his composition bring the poem Potentia to life?
Jubilant: Simply put, Jason Gomez's music is beautiful. I love working with him. He’s bright, extraordinarily talented, and on top of that, he’s kind. That’s often a rare commodity.
Roger: How do you prepare for a world premiere of a new work? Does it differ from your process with more familiar repertoire?
Jubilant: Preparing a new work for its world premiere is always exciting. You are honored to be asked of course, but it’s more personal because you are working directly with a composer. Your goal is to share his thoughts and emotions much like sharing Mozart or Bach. It’s revealing your individual self, but not allowing your personality to overtake it so much so that you lose the intent of the composer. It’s a challenge and again very personal because the composer is living and you have a sweet calling to render something that he or she is offering.
Roger: What do you hope the audience will take away from experiencing Potentia?
Jubilant: I hope the audience will be moved to see themselves and the world around them with more tenderness and hope.
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