The American Mirror Project
Photo Credit: Sam Zauscher
The American Mirror Project by the Formosa Quartet is a collaborative initiative that holds up mirrors to America and highlights personal reflections on the history, identity, and meaning of "America.” What does your America look like? What comes to mind when you think of America? What aspects of America reveal themselves to you through your lens? Centered around dynamic musical performances with the potential for cross-disciplinary collaboration, our project seeks to showcase diverse points of view and investigate complex socio-cultural issues in a thought-provoking exploration of American music. Join us in a dialogue which may take us in interesting directions, highlights of which will be incorporated as text narration into our music.
Our Origins
Initially conceived in 2021 as a Formosa Quartet program offering, the American Mirror Project seeks to examine perceptions and assumptions about American culture through the lens of music and the performing arts, and has expanded to include dialogue and collaborations across the country. The project’s inspiration and namesake is “American Mirror” by composer Derrick Skye, a piece that, in Derrick’s words, “reflects on the coming together of cultures in our society, which consists of many generations and descendants of refugees, immigrants, and enslaved people, and how intercultural collaborations are essential to the well-being of American society.”
The murder of George Floyd and countless other Black men and women by US Police violence and the steep rise of hate-crimes against people of Asian descent during the COVID-19 pandemic served as an awakening and catalyst to reflect upon our choices as musicians and performers, to understand the power we hold as sponsors of new works, to think more critically about the way we curate programs, and to trust our audiences to take that journey with us.
Since 2021, we have presented the American Mirror Project at a number of venues including the Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Freer Gallery of Art at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art in Washington D.C., the San Diego Museum of Art presented by Art of Élan, the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, and the Moores Opera House in Houston.
Inviting the Community
During the 2023-2024 season, the American Mirror Project took on a larger format and invited others across the country to join us in this process.
Does a program mirroring America only include composers widely identified as American, such as Gershwin or Copland? What about Art Tatum? Whitney Houston? Awkwafina? Supaman? Or J25? What does American music really sound like – or, for that matter, what does “American” mean?
While this program concept certainly makes for a meaningful selection of quartet music, an attempt to mirror America is, by definition, incomplete without the inclusion of other voices and communities in America. With inclusivity at the core of our undertaking, it doesn’t seem enough for us to be the only ones doing the mirroring.
In 2023-2024, we were named the M. Thelma McAndless Distinguished Professors in the Humanities at Eastern Michigan University where collaborated with a community of over 14,000 members. During our yearlong residency, we collaborated across the University and Humanities, engaging their students and faculty in a thoughtful exploration of our project. In January 2024, our first residency visit culminated in a specially curated performance mirroring the past, present, and future of the city of Ypsilanti and Eastern Michigan University including the world premiere of Dana Wilson’s Mirror for String Quartet and Narration featuring statements contributed and spoken by EMU students and faculty.
Our residency in April 2024 included collaborative workshops where Music Therapy students arranged and composed their own Mirrors culminating in a Symposium featuring 20 new compositions on April 6, 2024; conversations with scholars about the power of mirrors and how the project's mindset can impact music education, open rehearsals around our American Mirror Project programming, and much more.
Our Invitation to You
The American Mirror Project is an invitation for you to join us in this process, to share with us what you see when YOU hold a mirror up to America — a dialogue which may take us in interesting and unexpected directions in our programming.
Our methodology responds to these probing questions and demonstrates our eagerness to share this project with communities across the country. Simultaneously, this is a “living” project that is evolving in real time and has begun to include new musical commissions and creative residencies. This project is an opportunity for us to share our reflections on these questions while creating a platform to mirror others and the places in which these performances happen.