Ximena Borges

Project Description

Biography

Ximena Borges founded Cirque Parallel in 2011 in order to search for a total art form. This company brings together artists, friends, and collaborators from all fields to create shows that renew the old paradigms and make classical music relevant for current society. The latest project was called LA TEMPESTAD and it was shown at Teatro Chacao, Caracas July 2012 with profound success. It has since been invited to the 2014 Bogota International Theater Festival.

In August, Ximena will attend The Field’s Artward Bound Artist Residency to continue her research and at Stella Adler Studio of Acting. Currently performs in New York, Venezuela and Italy. In December she will be launching her new album called “A Toda Voz”, comprised of tracks sung entirely by her voice, devoid of instruments.

Ximena Borges was born in Caracas, Venezuela. Daughter of the renown painter Jacobo Borges, she spent her youth in museums and different countries where she was exposed to languages, cultures and artists who made her who she is today. She received her Bachelors Degree at Manhattan School of Music, New York, studying voice with Marlena Malas. Later on studied with Bill Schuman from the Academy of Vocal Arts. She became part of the Young Artist Program at the Teatro Stabile di Torino, the Caramoor Festival with Maestro Will Crutchfield, Knowlton Festival with Maestro Kent Nagano, SommerAkademie Mozarteum Salzburg with Barabara Bonney and Anna Tomowa-Sintow, and Accademia di Santa Cecilia Opera Studio with Renata Scotto.

In Italy she won two first prizes at the Concorso Internazionale di Canto Lirico, Barroco y Clasico “L’Opera Rinata” di Torino: Best Interpretation for Soprano Coloratura and role of Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore , Donizetti, performed at Teatro Araldo, Torino. In New York she has accompanied Buglisi Dance Theatre as soloist at the Whitney Museum of Art and the Joyce Theatre.

In Venezuela she has performed as soloist with the Sinfónica Juvenil Simon Bolívar at the Centro de Acción Social under the baton of Maestro Pablo Castellanos. At the Spain/Venezuela Festival she sang Mahler’s Symphony no.4 with the Joven Orquesta de España and Maestro Pablo Mielgo. With the Camerata de Caracas she performed in Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine, Haydn’s Die Schopfung, Handel’s Messias, and recently was Amore in L’Incoronazione di Poppea. In Barquisimeto she was Adina in Elisir d’Amore de Donizetti, directed by Aquiles Machado. In Caracas at Banesco “Palabras para Venezuela” with special guests Mikhail Gorbachev y Oscar Arias Sánchez she sang Faure’s Requiem.

Artist Statement

Since earning my BM in Classical Voice from Manhattan School of Music in 2006, I have performed extensively as a soprano in the United States, Europe, and Latin America, singing operatic, concert, and solo repertoire from the Renaissance through the twenty-first century. I have observed, though, that classical music in the United States and abroad remains disconnected from our current society. In response to this, I began to write, produce, and direct my own interdisciplinary shows that present classical music in vibrant, varied, and contemporary contexts.

I am interested in performance as a sound-space. The center of my research is to attempt to transform sound from an abstract, intangible presence into a solid authority that surrounds the audience and obliges them to follow its lead. I will use the power of sound to create a situation where unexpected occurrences frustrate the audience’s expectations, pushing them to adjust their perception of the performance. The sound-space will be constructed and deconstructed in front of the audience and the performer-spectator distance will be minimized to drive audience involvement and sense of responsibility. By revealing structures and unlocking the theatricality of the moment, the spectator grasps how his/her presence participates in the creation of the event. The observer changes the observed. The sound will be represented by music of any genre, noises, and spoken word; there will be prerecorded sound, live instruments, composed music, improvised music, music played on random objects, music produced by professionals, and music produced by amateurs. My search is for the sound-space between the formality of opera, the audacity of experimental performance art, the storytelling appeal of theater, and the visceral gestural language of dance. My goal is to reinterpret all these concepts through sound.

Contact

Ximena Borges 118 East 25th Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10010 917-9819427

ximenaborges@gmail.com |  www.ximenaborges.com