First generation Russian-American pianist, singer, composer, improviser, and former Roulette Resident Artist Sonya Belaya presents the world premiere of her new work, Yazik.

Yazik centers the world of the immigrant mother—
where language slips and fractures
under the weight of a Western world.

American English offers her only transactional prose –

The antidote becomes memory, gesture, and silence.

Through the reverse life cycle,
it moves gently back—
toward the first sacrifices,
the lost dreams,
the words that can’t be translated.

A sonic temple rises
from cultural collapse,
built with echoes of home,
the intellect of the mother tongue,
and the deep ache of nostalgia.

Yazik builds a metaphysical dreamscape of her old and new, to imagine a world where the immigrant mother does not vanish.

In honor of Katerina Belaya.

Sonya Belaya vocals, gusli, sound design, accordion
Nandi Rose Levine vocals
Zubin Hensler electronics
Zosha Warpeha hardanger fiddle
Stephen Boegehold drums
Jiangan Hou projection mapping
Weijing Xiao costume design
TBA cello