Jump N Funk is an immersive multimedia experience honoring the sonic legacy of Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer and activist, Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti. This celebration captures the essence of Fela’s groundbreaking fusion of traditional Nigerian rhythms and American Funk, a sound that continues to resonate globally across generations.
Since 2001, international DJ, producer, and scholar Rich Medina has served as the main conduit for connecting this rich Pan-African sound to dance floors worldwide. His passion and expertise have kept Fela’s legacy alive, bringing the Afrobeat movement into new cultural spaces.
This San Diego debut is presented in partnership with Professor King Britt through his Blacktronika course at UC San Diego, which honors the contributions of innovators of color in electronic and dance music. This collaboration creates a powerful bridge between history, education, and dance floor energy, celebrating Fela’s enduring influence on global music culture.
DJ
Rich Medina
King Britt
UC San Diego Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor, composer Lei Liang has been collaborating with Scripps oceanographers John Hildebrand and Joshua Jones in exploring the sound of the Chukchi Sea in the Arctic—one of the most inaccessible places to humans on earth. The resulting composition, Six Seasons, combines the sound of the ambient environment (ice, waves, wind), its inhabitants (beluga whales, bowhead whales, bearded seals)—captured by hydrophones deployed at the sea floor—and creative response from one of the world’s leading contemporary music string quartets, Mivos Quartet.
Inheritance is a timely multimedia chamber opera about gun violence in America, based on the true story of Sarah Winchester, heir to the Winchester rifle fortune. An eccentric widow self-imprisoned in her labyrinthine mansion, Winchester was haunted by the spirits of the thousands killed by Winchester weapons.
With music by Lei Liang and libretto by Matt Donovan, Inheritance interweaves Winchester’s story with events from contemporary American life, asking complex questions about complicity, atonement, and gun violence in our society. Led by music director Steven Schick and directed by Cara Consilvio, the performance also features Grammy Award–winning soprano Susan Narucki.
Learn more at inheritance-opera.com.
