Brouhaha: Shaped By Fire

“Brouhaha: Shaped by Fire” is a recording and performance project that combines music with anthropology to illuminate human connections to nature and our origins. From noisy, communal gatherings around a fire 800,000 years ago to virtual meetings via Zoom today, we humans have created and solved an astonishing range of problems. Even as we shape the world in unprecedented ways, we remain an integral part of nature, woven into its rhythms and cycles. Project founder and violinist Maiani da Silva has commissioned six stylistically diverse composers to write works for solo violin based on what fascinates them about our human nature and our place in the ecosystem. Furthermore, Maiani and the composers have collaborated with world-renowned scientists to gain insights into their chosen topics. The result is an imaginative collection of works that both transcends stylistic boundaries and incorporates intellectual inquiry. Maiani da Silva is a violinist, arranger, and instructor at Yale University. She is a member of the four-time Grammy-winning sextet Eighth Blackbird and frequently collaborates with well-known fellow musicians.