Join us for this special performance of Great Integration: A Chamber Hip-Hop Opera on the night of the apocalypse as prophesied by the Mayans. The performance will begin at 10 PM, December 21, 2012 and end after 12 AM the next day, thus marking the end and new beginning of the world.

The story of Great Integration depicts the malevolent 5 Material Lords who control the physical world and an assassin chosen by gods who slays them with the help of Mik Nawooj, the Water Bearer. After all the heavenly gates open, the Great Celestial King descends to the current world, wipes out the entire universe, and starts a new world with a brand new paradigm.

The music of Great Integration incorporates elements from hip-hop and classical, creating a unique hybrid that sounds like something Wu-Tang Clan producer The RZA might conjure up if he got his hands on the Kronos Quartet (SF Weekly).

Great Integration “defies such categories as jazz, classical, and hip-hop” (Oakland Tribune), is “ambitious” (The New Yorker), and “breaks established boundaries between genres and styles” (SF Examiner). MTV praised it by saying “Mik Nawooj is thirsty to change the name of the game”.

For this truly unique event, Ensemble Mik Nawooj augments its regular octet to a 13 piece chamber orchestra with 2 flutes, 2 clarinets, 3 violins, 3 cellos, a piano, a drum set, and, a contrabass. Also featured are the Bay Area underground hip-hop icons The Attik & Rico Pabón.  With Ensemble Mik Nawooj, composer and pianist JooWan Kim has succeeded in creating a new kind of music by combining genres that are seemingly incompatible with each other.

The concert is presented by Ensemble Mik Nawooj and La Pena Cultural Center.