“Joy Guidry’s work has a cathartic power to it that condenses into heavy, affecting passages that spill into the air from every direction.” — Foxy Digitalis
Joy Guidry’s Five Prayers is an intuitive convergence of sound, spirit and radical self-expression. A celebrated voice in experimental and avant-garde music spaces, Guidry pushes sonic boundaries rooted in Black sonic traditions. With this breathtaking new album, she shifts away from free jazz and into a meditative, ambient realm. In live performance, Guidry blends bassoon with low rumbling synths, warm electronic sounds and poetry that reflect the artist’s lived experience as a Black trans woman from the South.
The evening opens with a set by Colloboh, a Nigerian-born, Los Angeles-based artist who creates progressive electronic music compositions through the guidance of intuition. A self-taught synthesist, Colloboh has toured and performed with revered acts such as Suzanne Cianni, Beach House, Richie Hawtin, Kim Gordon and others.
Thank you to the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA for organizing this incredible evening of vulnerable self-exploration and liberation and inviting our communities to share in such a profound and meaningful moment. Keep an eye out for our weekly newsletters that will have a 10% discount code for you!
Joy Guidry is a bassoonist, versatile improviser, performance artist, and composer of experimental, daring new works that embody a deep love of storytelling; her music channels her inner child in honor of their ancestors and predecessors.
Joy has presented original work at The The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum for American Art, Hauser & Wirth, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, The Kitchen, Redcat, among many other venues. She has been commissioned by National Sawdust, Long Beach Opera, JACK Quartet, Gaudeamus Festival, and the I&I Foundation. Joy has been featured in festivals like the La Biennale di Venezia, Banlieues Bleues festival, A'Larme Festival, Cologne Jazz Week, Spoleto Festival USA, Big Ears Festival, and many more.
Joy holds a bachelor’s degree in Bassoon Performance from the Peabody Conservatory and a Graduate Performance Diploma from the Mannes School of Music. In addition, Joy Guidry is the winner of the 2021 Berlin Prize for Young Artists. She is currently playing on a Heckel Bassoon number 6101.
Colloboh (a portmanteau of Collins Oboh) is a Nigerian-born, Los Angeles-based experimental producer and composer who has spent the past several years cultivating genre-spanning modular wizardry.
A self-taught synthesist, Colloboh’s DIY recording diaries quickly amassed a dedicated online following and since relocating to Los Angeles has quickly become a fixture of the city’s vibrant experimental scene.
Located near the UCLA campus on Westwood Boulevard, the UCLA Nimoy Theater is a modern renovation of the historic Crest Theatre (which was originally the 1940s-era UCLAN Theatre) as a flexible, state-of-the-art performance space.
Named for artist, actor, director and philanthropist Leonard Nimoy, The Nimoy immerses audiences in a profoundly engaging experience of live performance — while providing contemporary performing artists from Los Angeles and around the world expanded opportunities to develop and present new work.
The theater was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2008.