Commission to Nasim Khorassani

Supported by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, composer Nasim Khorassani has been commissioned by Project [BLANK] to create HOME, a site-specific opera installation premiering at Bread & Salt Gallery in San Diego, California. The venue—a former bread factory just miles from the U.S.-Mexico border—sits in a region shaped by immigrant histories and artistic activism. Bread & Salt’s industrial layout offers a unique acoustic environment: a large open interior, a courtyard, and a 10-meter grain silo that creates a long, natural acoustic delay. The opera will unfold across these varied spaces, with audiences moving through the performance as it progresses.

HOME is rooted in Khorassani’s personal experience as an Iranian immigrant in the U.S., particularly shaped by the impact of the 2016 “Muslim Travel Ban.” The work reflects themes of grief, isolation, and healing. Scored for mezzo-soprano, baritone, oboe, violin, percussion, shruti box, and a small chorus, the opera centers on a couple living through the routines of “normal” daily life. The characters inhabit a projected home—its illustrated “rooms” designed by the composer’s sister and inspired by 16th-century Persian miniatures. The libretto draws from a Persian poem on loneliness, set within a musical landscape of suspended tones, drones, and silence. This stillness is eventually interrupted by bass drum and oboe motifs referencing Ashura, the Iranian-Islamic ritual of mourning. Over time, sounds from a hidden violinist—symbolizing the protagonist’s inner voice—emerge from the grain silo, indicating the beginning of healing. In Khorassani’s words, HOME invites the audience to “become immigrants in a domestic space that is simultaneously familiar and unknown.”

Further Information:
projectblanksd.org

Dates

May 21-23, 2027
Bread & Salt, San Diego