Peralta Hacienda and Dohee Lee

“MU巫: 9 Goddesses,” a mythological musical performance ritual

Peralta Hacienda Historical Park is commissioning Dohee Lee to create “MU/巫: 9 Goddesses,” a 90-minute musical composition in which ancestral traditions are transmitted through singing and drumming, as well as a three-dimensional motion-tracking wearable sound-controller system.

This will create an electronic soundscape and the composition will follow the form of a traditional Korean shamanic healing ritual. Dohee Lee will transform into nine goddess characters from the past, present and future based on Korean mythology. The music will contain elements of traditional singing and drumming as well as samples and electronic soundscapes that are created, manipulated, and/or triggered live by the SensorPlay system designed by Donald Swearingen, enabling Dohee’s entire body to become a musical instrument. MU will develop over the course of two years through a series of nine community rituals, leading up to the final performances in spring 2020. Each goddess character will lead one of nine seasonal ritual workshops.

Peralta Hacienda and Dohee Lee will partner with eight Fruitvale-neighborhood based community groups as audience members and co-creators of the work through the workshops. A key focus of the project will be the multilingual outreach necessary to make the performances accessible to communities that rarely attend contemporary performances. The work will premiere in summer 2020 at Peralta Hacienda Historial Park in Oakland and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, with a tentative world tour beginning in winter 2020.