Dorian Wood: Canto de Todes + Roco Córdova

Dorian Wood at The Lab

Weaving together chamber classical, folk, torch song, and experimental music, Dorian Wood’s Canto de Todes is a 70-minute distillation born from Wood’s acclaimed 12-hour composition and installation. The title—Spanish for “Song of Everyone”—is inspired by a lyric of the late Chilean singer and songwriter Violeta Parra. Canto de Todes emphasizes the urgency of music as a vessel for social change, and honors the ancestral trajectory of Wood’s Costa Rican-Nicaraguan family and their experience in the U.S.

Dorian Wood (b. 1975, pronouns: she/her/they/them) is an anti-disciplinary artist based in the U.S., whose practice seeks to “infect” spaces and ideologies in order to challenge traditions and systems of marginalization. Her performances, films and visual works have been presented worldwide. From 2019–2020, Wood toured internationally with XAVELA LUX AETERNA, a chamber orchestra tribute to Chavela Vargas. Subsequent works Mares Ocultos (2022), a compositional series centering on deconstructing male heterosexuality.

Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Roco Córdova is a vocalist, composer, producer and improviser based in the San Francisco Bay Area. They possess a B.Mus. in Composition from the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music and an M.A. in Composition from Mills College in Oakland, California. They have studied under the guidance of Carlos Carrillo, Manuel Ceide, Roscoe Mitchell, Zeena Parkins and James Fei.