The Portraits Project is a multi-media “opera lingua”, approximately 95 minutes in duration, scored for multi-track audio and a variety of soloists and chamber ensembles with dramatic staging, lighting and video projections. The work was conceived to portray an overall picture of the face of homelessness in New York City as expressed by homeless people themselves and as it can be experienced only in the environment that surrounds them.

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The audio material is a continuous collage consisting of sampled sounds from the experience and environments of homeless people in New York. These samplings were drawn from an extensive series of sight-specific interviews conducted with over 700 homeless people over the course of 14 months.

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The Portraits Project consists of nine movements, each eight to twelve minutes in duration and drawing on specific themes that arose in the interview process, i.e. addictions, hygiene and money. It is to be performed without intermission. Each or any combination of these movements can be played separately from the whole if desired. The order of movements presented in this score is preferred for a full production.

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Kevin composed The Portraits Project in partnership with The Kitchen Center for Video, Music, Dance, Performance, Film and Literature, Coalition for the Homeless, Quintet of the Americas and the Sirius String Quartet as part of a three-year residency sponsored by Meet the Composer’s national New Residencies program.