Any Place But Here
A Song Cycle in 12 Poems
"Letter from a Wife" featuring Helen Newby, cello. 2016 Premiere Performance, Oakland Museum of California
Tiny Telephone, SF - 2016 recording session with Jacob Winik, engineer.
In collaboration with dancer/choreographer Chris Emile - LAX festival, Bootleg Theatre & CAAM, Los Angeles.
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Any Place But Here, a song cycle composed by Bay Area artist Amie Cota for voice and string quartet, explores the themes of home and identity as reflected through the Great Migration, a 60-year span during which nearly 6 million African-Americans moved from the South to cities in the North and West.
All songs in the cycle are composed using 20th century African-American poetry as lyric. The music, arranged for chamber ensemble, is influenced by the American roots traditions of blues, soul, folk, and jazz. All featured poetry was selected from American Negro Poetry edited by Arna Bontemps and The Poetry of the Negro: 1746-1970 edited by Arna Bontemps and Langston Hughes. Listen to select tracks on Soundcloud.
Thanks to a generous grant from the Sparkplug Foundation and the backing of a mighty team of Kickstarter supporters,
Any Place But Here was recorded by Jacob Winik at Tiny Telephone, SF and mastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering. Listen to select tracks on Soundcloud. 
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