Odeya Nini, ODE Featuring MMOONN (Odeya Nini, Nicolas Snyder, and Max Jaffe)

Odeya Nini works to reclaim the voice as an instrument that can exist between the physical self and that which is beyond our senses. Her work extends the scope and expression of the voice and body, dynamically playing with spatial acoustics and magnifying sound’s capacity to touch all it encounters in tender, heartbreaking, and ecstatic ways.

ODE is a solo interdisciplinary vocal performance at the intersection of resonance, consciousness, soma, intuition, and human experience. A sonic dance centered in deeply felt non-material, the performance pulls the audience into the poetic frequencies of love, transformation, and gratitude.

The evening concludes with a set by MMOONN – Odeya Nini (voice), Nicolas Snyder (voice + synthesizer), and Max Jaffe (drums + sensory percussion). Developed over the past year, this project has come together during late night sessions where unformed ideas evolved into structured transmissions of a lived moment. MMOONN will perform songs and lush cosmic soundscapes to amplify all that needs to rise to the surface and be released.

Odeya Nini is a Los Angeles based interdisciplinary vocalist, composer, vocal embodiment coach, and sound meditation practitioner. Her work has been performed in diverse venues from concert halls to galleries, tunnels, and caves and has been presented at US venues including The LA Phil, Merkin Concert Hall, The Broad Museum, and MONA, as well as internationally in Australia, Mongolia, Madagascar, and Vietnam. She is a member of the three time Grammy nominated ensemble Wild Up. Odeya's solo album ODE was recognized by The New Yorker as a notable recording of 2022 . She is the founder of Free The Voice and leads vocal sound meditations, workshops, and retreats exploring the transformative and healing qualities of embodying the voice. www.odeyanini.com

Nicolas Snyder is a composer, film maker, and visual artist from rural southwestern Pennsylvania. His work has a wide range of expression, from cinematic animation, scoring Scavenger’s Reign, 2023 and Common Side Effects, 2024 for HBO Max, to sobering yet magical documentary filmmaking, Song of Salt, 2021, to primitive and abstract furniture making. Though music composition is his main focus he considers all aspects of his art to be symbiotic and informative of each other. He currently lives and works in Pasadena, California. nicolassnyder.com

Max Jaffe is a drummer, producer, composer, educator, and technologist based in Los Angeles, CA. His work expands the possibilities of composition and collaboration through the drum set. He is on the cutting edge of drummers that have embraced SUNHOUSE and their Sensory Percussion technology. He has performed and toured with many artists including Dave Harrington, Patrick Shiroishi, Amirtha Kidambi, Jeff Parker, Marta Tiesenga, JOBS, EDEN, Chrome Sparks, among many others.

Wonmi’s WAREHOUSE Programs is organized by Alex Sloane, Associate Curator, and is produced by Amelia Charter, Producer of Performance and Programs with Michele Huizar, Performance Coordinator, The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles.

This performance is made possible by generous endowment support from Wonmi & Kihong Kwon and Family.

Performances at MOCA are supported by the MOCA Fund for Performance with generous funding provided by Betsy Greenberg and The Lenore S. and Bernard A. Greenberg Fund.

Wonmi's WAREHOUSE Programs is founded by Wonmi & Kihong Kwon and Family.

A Q&A with Odeya Nini

Your work explores voice, body, and consciousness in such an intimate way. How did you first discover the voice as a pathway for creative and emotional expression?

I first began my journey in theater as a young person. I took pleasure in embodying characters, letting their stories be mine and being in an indifferent body and mind through that art form. My desire to embody began there. Eventually, I ended up studying jazz vocal performance and became interested in free improvisation. It was really the extended techniques and play of free improv that allowed for a massive opening and agency for my creative expression. During that time, I was also studying to be a yoga teacher and practicing a lot of movement meditation and awareness practices, which opened a pathway to my heart and higher states of consciousness.  The breath, being such a strong conduit for mental transformation, I quickly realized that breath made audible is the voice—and that was the pathway to a deeper experience. 

Described as a “sonic dance”, what inspired ODE, and what can we expect to experience during the performance?

I think of this “dance” as both a physical movement of my body and also a meeting of elements that move gracefully together, giving, and taking. The energy of my voice meets the vibration of the space, the sound meets and touches the room, my expression meets the energy of the audience, my mind dances with my body, and my spirit dances with my experience. I think of many layers of various types of meeting points that reach towards each other to create a dance. 

Your performances often feel like shared experiences rather than traditional concerts. How do you think about connecting with audiences through sound and presence?

I strive for the audience to be grateful to have been in the room at the end of a performance. No matter what dynamic expression is being shared, my intention, as I am performing, is to hold a loving space that people can feel safe and held in. I feel that the stronger my intention to care for the audience along the journey, the more my voice can deeply connect and be received. I know that a spectrum of sonic textures and experiences can be received in the space of care, and ultimately it feels very shared. We are both performers and audience members.

The evening will also feature MMOONN, your collaboration with Nicolas Snyder and Max Jaffe. How did this project come together, and how would you describe the kind of energy the three of you create onstage?

MMOONN is a project that Nic Snyder and I have been working on in the studio for about a year and a half. Nic is a brilliant film composer and recorded me for the scores of Common Side Effects and Scavengers Reign. We have been in each other's musical orbit for about 4 years now, and once we came together and started working on this project, it felt easy tapping into a shared flow state. Nic’s musical sentiment does not shy away from leaning into drama and big emotion, in addition to sounds that feel other planetary. I think his quality of not being afraid to musically express things, and not editing down to appease, but at the same time greatly caring for the audience’s whole sonic experience, is what I feel relates very much to my creative practice. MMOONN is a dense and soulful journey: partly ancient, partly alien, all current. We recently invited Max to join us on drums and sensory percussion to complete the vision. This will be our first performance all together. 

Sound and emotion are closely linked in your work. How do you approach the cultivation of these reflective, cathartic sonic environments?

I allow myself to be open in the moment and there is so much that comes through. I don't think of how I want to feel before I feel it, I just allow myself space to feel and enjoy the ride. I am always taken to exactly where I need to be and what I need to give. 

Many of your projects seem guided by natural rhythms: breath, intuition, cycles of change. What practices in your own life help you stay grounded and inspired?

I have a regular practice that incorporates yoga, breathing, and meditation. I need to spend time in nature, and a healthy amount of time staring out into space and wondering. To be honest, being a mother to 2 amazing children has kept me the most inspired, and a student of love, compassion and humanity. 

As you prepare to perform at MOCA, what do you hope audiences will take away from this evening?

I truly hope they are grateful to have been there. I hope their minds and bodies feel a shift, even if they can't name it at the moment, maybe better that they can't name it in the moment, but that it is deeply felt, beyond words.