Responses

W.R. Johnson, foreword to Charm, Sextus Propertius, translated by Vincent Katz:

“… [Propertius] was part of [a] process of change in Latin words and Roman selves, and he is maybe its wildest and most vivid specimen: a mad lexicon joyously dismantling itself. That distinguished feat needed for its performance a showy, nervous style, part self-cartoon, part slam-bang irreverence, part sheer postmodern nerve. It needs for today the superb fusion of slang and elegance and esprit that Mr. Katz provides for it.”

Elaine Equi, poet, on Vincent Katz’s Broadway for Paul (Knopf, 2020):

"We need this book. At a time when the world’s cultures seem to be closing up on themselves, Vincent Katz emphasizes the pleasure of sharing spaces, ideas, and art. His vision is generous and panoramic, with an eye toward detail and the abstract compositional beauty of crowds in motion and at rest, his style a combination of classical elegance and casual grace. But what makes these poems especially powerful is their democratic ethic. This is a virtuoso collection—and we’re all part of it.”

Robert Creeley, poet, on Vincent Katz’s translation of Sextus Propertius:

“This work is a consummate labor of love, which has managed to translate the ageless sophistication of the Roman poet Propertius (50 to 16 BC) into the distracted dissonance of our own perilous times. Himself an accomplished poet, Vincent Katz has found both an idiom and a cadence specific to his master's art.”

W.R. Johnson, University of Chicago, on Vincent Katz’s translation of Sextus Propertius:

“Of all the great Roman poets, Propertius tends, as they say of wines, to travel least well. Where the others have frequently found themselves decently transcribed into English, Propertius — complex, insolent, heartbreaking, sardonic, brilliantly ambiguous, outrageously protean — has not. Until now. Vincent Katz has here devised for him a… style, one that evokes, with appropriate delicacy and power, his variety, his shifting tones and textures, his unique shimmers and shadows.”

Paul Pickering, author, on Sarah Sarhandi’s Found:

“When I went to see Found by Sarah Sarhandi at King's Place I was intrigued by the idea of music for the viola inspired by Karachi traffic noise, an anarchic city I love and where I had recently been researching a novel. Visuals of the city and ambient car noise are counterpointed with the seemingly simple notation of Sarah’s viola, playing that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. In every recapitulation of this lilting, haunting performance she separated out the soul of the people and the city, from the images and car horns. The music is so beautiful and transfixing and elegiac that I have heard her magic viola ever since, a pure ribbon of sound alone which vibrates in one’s bones. Found speaks directly to what it is to be human in the midst of chaos.”

Joe La Placa, Senior Director, Cardi Gallery, London, on Sarah Sarhandi:

“I watched the video of your performance Both Universe this morning ending with the final piece ‘Up in the Bowl of the Sky’. Your beautiful music, the dance and juxtaposition of images of East and West moved me profoundly. I recognised your soul and its journey and what it means to be rooted in two very different cultures and places, Pakistan and the UK. The wide spectrum of emotions the compositions evoked, from melancholy to excitement to joy, combined with the thought of how happy you must be to have found Aamir Zaki, the incredible guitar player you've always been looking for, simply overwhelmed me. Bravo!”

Southbank Centre on Sarah Sarhandi’s Both Universe:

“Sarah’s viola weaves its way through Karachi and London, complex teeming cities that are her inheritance. Her individual story, that of a person with joint British and Pakistani heritage and the experiences, stories, imaginings and impressions she has collected are expressed through music, dance and visuals. At times the worlds she inhabits meet seamlessly, at other times conflict - a dance between polarities, artists, masculine and feminine, dream and reality, light and dark, countries and cultures - a new and exhilarating energy.”

Anthea Eno on Sarah Sarhandi:

“Sarah makes new sounds whilst drawing on her classical inheritance. Her music is characterised by a layering of strong themes and rhythms, sounds that are both acoustic and programmed, vocals and the geometric shapes of her viola. The complexity of the composition offers a different experience each time they are heard, so that the listener explores new moods and emotions, different areas of time and space.”