Alexandro Segade

Star Choir

In this cosmic opera by artists Malik Gaines and Alexandro Segade, a starship crew seeks refuge on the hostile planet 85K: Aurora. As the planet defends itself from the crew’s invasive presence, the humans evolve to become a part of a queerly multi-species organism that covers the entire world.

Produced by The Industry, an experimental company that expands the operatic form in Los Angeles, this film chronicles Star Choir’s live premiere in fall 2023 at the historic Mt. Wilson Observatory, where an ensemble cast and orchestra performed inside the 100-inch telescope.

Star Choir was performed by vocalists Sarah Beaty, Carmen Edano, Mikaela Elson, Kelci Hahn, Shyheim Selvan Hinnant, Jon Lee Keenan, Ben Lin and Gregório Taniguchi with instrumentalists Guillermo E. Brown, Elizabeth Huston, Marlon Martinez, Ethan Philbrick, Malik Taylor and Lucy Yates, conducted by Marc Lowenstein.

Q&A

Fellowship Cohort: Fall 2022

Why did you choose this project?
"Star Choir" has been screened at the Suraj Israni Center for Cinematic Arts, the Hammer Museum, Leitner Observatory at Yale University and Museum of Modern Art, NYC.

How was this fellowship meaningful or impactful to you?
I used the fellowship to film the performance.

What future plans do you have related to this work, if any?
It continues to screen (see above) and allows the work's reach to continue to be extended.

Alexandro Segade is an interdisciplinary artist and assistant professor in the Department of Visual Arts whose queer world-building projects propose speculative group identities. Often working in collectives, Segade makes spaces for critical play, using collaboration to complicate utopian impulses with radical ambivalence.