Production Details

Composed by Kian Ravaei and choreographed by Annie Kahane, The Four Seasons of Hamadan is a duet for live violinist and dancer that interweaves Persian and Jewish music and dance traditions to express intercultural harmony. This project blends folkloric forms from the artists’ respective heritages and re-imagines that material through a contemporary lens. The piece will be performed by Yvette Holzwarth (violin) and Kate Myers (dancer.) This project was funded by a grant from New Music USA; it premiered in Los Angeles, February 2025.

Artist Biographies

Annie Kahane / Alive & Well Productions
Annie Kahane is a Los Angeles-based performer and maker working in performance poetry, dance, song, and theater. She founded Alive & Well Productions in 2014 to unify these disciplines under a single creative umbrella. Her performance works have been supported by the the Hollywood Fringe Festival, San Francisco International Arts Festival, New Music USA, the Zellerbach Family Foundation, ODC Theater and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. Her poetry has been featured on KQED San Francisco Public Radio and WBEZ Chicago Public Radio. She has collaborated with composer Kian Ravaei since 2022.

Kian Ravaei
Kian Ravaei is a composer whose work often fuses Iranian classical music with Western traditions. He has collaborated with artists such as Tessa Lark and Lara Downes, and his compositions have been commissioned by Chamber Music Northwest, Seattle Chamber Music Society, and others.

Yvette Cornelia Holzwarth
Yvette Cornelia Holzwarth is a versatile violinist, vocalist, and composer based in Los Angeles. Her artistry incorporates a variety of musical influences including Western classical, Eastern European folk, Arabic, Americana, jazz, experimental, popular, and improvised music. As a violinist, she has performed and recorded with a wide array of artists such as Ariana Grande, Kamasi Washington, Van Dyke Parks, Gaby Moreno, and Homayoun Shajarian. Her duo project with guitarist Miroslav Tadić received critical acclaim for their debut album Luka and has performed extensively in Eastern Europe. She also enjoys writing and producing original songs under the moniker Yvette Cornelia.

Kate Myers
Kate Myer is a Los Angeles based contemporary choreographer, dancer, and Pilates instructor exploring the intersection of dance, science, psychology, and athleticism. She holds a B.F.A. in Choreography and Modern from Marymount Manhattan College, where she received the Gold Key for Choreography. Her work has been commissioned by Art Bath (NYC), the OhioDance Festival, YDI (Michigan), and IWDF 2025 (LA). Myers has performed works by Peter Chu, Alexandra Damiani, Riley Watts, Sonya Tayeh, Andrew Winghart, Will Rawls, Annie Kahane, and Paul Taylor. Currently, she is pursuing an MFA in Choreographic Inquiry at UCLA, focusing on ecosomatic contemporary choreography.