Everett ‘Asis’ Saunders
Everett Saunders is a Composer, Sound Designer, and sonic alchemist. Born from the rooted vines of Black American Soul, Gospel, and Blues storytelling and the radical dawning of Bebop and Hip Hop experimentation, Everett specializes in collaborative processes, score and soundscape development for live performance and film. Saunders operates the design and recording studio ASIS SOUND and is the founder and creative director of former multi-media consulting services company Flux Innovations.
Everett is the composer and thought partner behind the award-winning and internationally touring production, Memoirs of a.. Unicorn. His work can be found as composer/sound designer on Jaamil Kosoko’s Chameleon, Edgar Arcenaux’s Boney Manili, Mayfield Brooks Whale Fall, and Urban Bush Women’s Hair & Other Stories (2018). His ongoing work in the production Memoirs of a… Unicorn, received a 2018 Bessie Award for Outstanding Production, with international touring debuts in Brussels, Belgium and Berlin, Germany.
Saunders was awarded two different New Music USA grants in 2017 to develop a 3-Dimensional Binaural Soundscape and Score for the performance work being Here…/This Time, and later featured as 1 of 5 artists exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Art (Brooklyn, NY), funded by the SURDNA Foundation Thriving Cultures Grantas part of the being Here… In Memory 3 month installation.
As a community organizer and teaching artist, Saunders formerly served as an interim Director of Operations and Programs at the Alkebulan Cultural Center, instituting new programs and projects for artists, youth, and adults- focused on galvanizing and transforming community through the arts.
Anchored in a steady collaboration with partner and choreographer Marjani Forté-Saunders, they have emerged as 7NMS| Everett Saunders & Marjani Forte. The duo’s latest work, Prophet: The Order The Lyricist is a multi-tiered project centering Everett’s evolution as an EMCEE turned Sound Designer/Composer. In addition to a heralded, touring performance work, PROPHET’s storytelling has manifested as a 5-track LP, a 12 minute film, directed by indie documentarian and filmmaker Meena Murugesan, a podcast with hip-hop musicologist Rahaman Kilpatrick, and an Ethnographic Memoir with literary coaching and contributions from award-winning playwright Sharon Bridgforth and professor Emeritus and scholar Omi Osun Jones ph.D.
As a performance work, PROPHET was awarded a 2020 New Music USA grant for Everett’s lyric and sonic design, and a 2021 National Dance Project Touring & Presentation award. Including an early post-COVID premiere at Abrons Arts Center in 2022, the project has presented at the Experimental Media & Performing Arts Center at Rennsselaer Polytechnic University (EMPAC), Kelly Strayhorn Theater, REDCAT Los Angeles, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
Performances & Residencies
Composer, Sound Designer, May 2024 / “Prophet - The Order of the Lyricist” - Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago: by 7NMS
Composer, Sound Designer, Dec 2023 / Haint Blu -University of California, Berkeley: Urban Bush Women by Chanon Judson & Mame Diarra Speis
Composer/Sound Designer / Untitled - University of Tampa, Dec 2023: by Holly Johnston, choreographer
Composer / “Boney Manilli” - Roy and Edna Disney (REDCAT) CALARTS Theater, Oct 2023: by Edgar Arcenaux, Director
Composer/Sound Designer / “Hair and Other Stories” - MASS MoCa. Urban Bush Women by Chanon Judson & Mame Diarra Speis Apr 2023
Composer/Sound Designer, Mar. 2023 “In place of Catastrophe …” - St. Mark’s Church, Danspace, by Iele Paloumpis
Composer/Sound Designer Feb. 2023 / Haint Blu - Historic Hampton House, Urban Bush Women by Chanon Judson & Mame Diarra Speis
Composer/Sound Designer Feb. 2023, Haint Blu - Historic Hampton House,Urban Bush Women by Chanon Judson & Mame Diarra Speis
Composer/Sound Designer Jan. 2023, Haint Blu - André Callioux Center for Performing Arts and Cultural Justice, Urban Bush Women by Chanon Judson & Mame Diarra Speis
Composer/Sound Designer Jan. 2023, Black Body Amnesia - New York Live Arts, Anonymous Bodies /Jaamil Olawale Kosoko,
Composer/Sound Designer/Performer Oct. 2022, “Prophet: The Order of the Lyricist” - Abrons Arts Center, 7NMS | Marjani Forté & Everett Saunders
Composer/Sound Designer Oct 2022, Garden of Unicorns - The Getty Museum, Marjani Forté-Saunders
Composer/Sound Designer Sept. 2022, The HOLD - Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Anonymous Bodies/ Jaamil Olawale Kosoko Composer/Sound Designer
Composer/Sound Designer/Performer Sept. 2022, Prophet: The Order of the Lyricist - Kelly Strayhorn Theater, 7NMS | Marjani Forté & Everett Saunders
Composer/Sound Designer/Performer Aug 2022, Prophet: The Order of the Lyricist - Experimental Media & Performing Arts Center at Rennsselaer Polytechnic University (EMPAC)
7NMS | Marjani Forté & Everett Saunders, Composer/Sound Designer June 2022, The HOLD - Wexner Center for the Arts Anonymous Bodies/ Jaamil Olawale Kosoko Composer/Sound Designer
Composer/Sound Designer Nov 2022, Memoirs of a Unicorn - ODC Dance, Marjani Forté-Saunders
Composer/Sound Designer Feb. 2022, Black Body Amnesia - Experimental Media & Performing Arts Center at Rennsselaer Poly-technic University (EMPAC),Anonymous Bodies /Jaamil Olawale Kosoko
Composer/Sound Designer Jan. 2022, Prophet: The Order of the Lyricist- Experimental Media & Performing Arts Center at Rennsselaer Polytechnic University (EMPAC), Anonymous Bodies /Jaamil Olawale Kosoko
Composer/Sound Designer Nov 2021, Black Body Amnesia - Wexner Center for the Arts, Anonymous Bodies /Jaamil Olawale Kosoko
Composer/Sound Designer Oct 2021, Memoirs of a Unicorn - Sophiensaele, Marjani Forté-Saunders
Composer/Sound Designer Jun 2021, The Syllabus for Black Love - Mt. Tremper Arts, Anonymous Bodies /Jaamil Olawale Kosoko
Composer/Sound Designer Jan 2019 - July 2020 (virtual), Chameleon - Gibney Dance Center, Anonymous Bodies /Jaamil Olawale Kosoko
Composer, Sound Designer Mar 2019, Boney Manilli- A Noise Within, Edgar Arcenaux
Composer, Sound Designer Jun 2018, Boney Manilli- Ford Theatres, Score development and Sound Design for play written and directed by Edgar Arcenaux
Composer/Sound Designer/Performer October 2019, (A Prophet’s Tale) Prophet: The Order of the Lyricist- Petronio Residency Center, 7NMS | Marjani & Everett Saunders
AWARDS
Grants
NY Dance & Performance/Bessie Awards for Outstanding Production (2017
Memoirs of a… Unicorn)
New England Foundation for the Arts - National Dance Project Production &
Touring Award (2021 - 2024)
New Music USA “A Prophet’s Tale”/Prophet: The Order of The Lyricist Original
Score development, Performance, and Sound Design (2020)
MAP Fund “A Prophet’s Tale”/Prophet: The Order of The Lyricist” - Original
Score development, Performance, and Sound Design(2020)
New York Dance & Performance/Bessie Award- Outstanding Production “Mem-
oirs of a… Unicorn”- Original Score development/Sound Design (2018)
New Music USA “being Here…/this time” - 3-D Audio Score composed for live
performance. (2015)