JJJJJerome Ellis: THREE PSALMS at REDCAT

From left to right: JJJJJerome Ellis, James Harrison Monaco, Haruna Lee, and Ronald Peet. Photo: Marcus Middleton.

On Saturday (April 3), composer, performer, and writer JJJJJerome Ellis will present THREE PSALMS at REDCAT. The virtual event includes a screening of TWO PSALMS, a film Ellis created in 2018, featuring musicians Catherine Brookman, Starr Busby, Haruna Lee, James Harrison Monaco, Ronald Peet, and Shu Wang,

The film is composed of three movements, which are settings of Psalm 42 and Psalm 23 from the Hebrew Bible, in both English and Latin translations, with spoken interludes. Ellis will also present a new commissioned psalm setting during the evening. 

Ellis, who has a stutter, focuses on oral storytelling, improvisation, and the interrelations between speech, silence, disability, and religion. A highly collaborative artist, he has worked with choreographers, rappers, playwrights, typographers, podcasters, and filmmakers. 

Monaco and Ellis also make up the music-storytelling duo James & Jerome. They have performed their live-music story performances at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center Education, La MaMa, the Under The Radar Festival, Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater, Ars Nova, and The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, among others. 

Ellis is a 2019 MacDowell Colony Fellow, a writer in residence at Lincoln Center Theater, and a 2015 Fulbright Fellow.

Check out Ellis’ recent video Responsory; or, when shall we Walk clumsy into the Snow of now below: