Dear Philadelphia – Doug Hirlinger Percussionist & Composer

Dear Philadelphia is an ensemble born from a 10 part suite of music of the same name that I wrote in collaboration with four stellar Philadelphia-based artists. Those artists are Tim Motzer, Ursula Rucker, M’Balia Singley, and John Swana. The suite is an offering of sound and words to the city of Philadelphia that celebrate the city’s grit, uniqueness, and musical legacy, but it also takes a hard and honest look at gentrification and inequality. The piece features a variety of sounds, styles, and forms, from R’n’B and hip hop to twelve-tone rows, electronic minimalism, and free improvisation. For this piece, I employ computer applications interfaced with drums that I’ve been making with Max/MSP to create some of the sounds. John Swana and Tim Motzer explore acoustic and electronic sounds. Poet Ursula Rucker explores her singing voice and performance artist M’Balia Singley works in the realms of song, improvisation, poetry, and theatre, during the performances. Dear Philadelphia was born during my residency at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in 2017-2018. Dear Philadelphia most recently performed at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia in February of 2019 and is currently seeking future bookings.

Resource List:

The process of completing the suite, for the most part, revolved around individual conversations between myself and my collaborators and the subsequent processes that took place. Inspired by a desire to include our audience in the process and development of the suite between workshops and performances and by ideas of conceptual artists Sol Lewitt and Adrian Piper, M’Balia Singley and I developed a Resource List. This list documents various influences and materials used during the creation of the suite. Check out the Resource List Page here. The list is also available as a PDF.