THE CEDAR COMMISSIONS Night Two: John Jamison II, May Klug, Yeej Moua

The Cedar Presents 

THE CEDAR COMMISSIONS Night ​Two: ​John Jamison II, May Klug, Yeej Moua

Saturday, February 1, 2025 / Doors: 7:00 PM / Show: 7:30 PM

All Ages

Seated

$15 General Admission, $25 Two-Show Pass

This is a seated show with general admission, first-come-first-served seating. The Cedar is happy to reserve seats for patrons who require special seating accommodations. To request seating or other access accommodations, please go to our

General Admission tickets are available online.

Two-Show Pass admits you to both Friday, January 31st and Saturday, February 1st, 2025 Cedar Commissions concerts at The Cedar at a discount! You can find those,

The Cedar Cultural Center presents the fourteenth annual Cedar Commissions, on January 31 and February 1, 2025 featuring all new works by A.P. Looze, Hibah Hassan, John Jamison ll, May Klug, Phillip Saint John, Yeej.

Each evening, three artists of the 2024-25 cohort will present their commissioned work on The Cedar stage:

Friday, January 31 features A.P. Looze, Hibah Hassan, and Phillip Saint. John

Saturday, February 1 features John Jamison ll, May Klug and Yeej.

The Cedar Commissions is a celebrated program for local emerging artists made possible by a grant from Jerome Foundation as well as support from New Music USA. Since 2011, the Commissions have showcased new work by over 80 Minnesota-based emerging composers and musicians, including Dessa, Aby Wolf, Ritika Ganguly, Maria Isa, deVon Russell Gray, Joey Van Phillips, Gao Hong, Dameun Strange, Vie Boheme, and many more.The 2024-25 cohort of artists was selected by a diverse committee of Minnesota-based artists, industry professionals, and Cedar staff. The 6 commissioned artists each receive $5,000 to compose at least 30 minutes of new musical work to debut at The Cedar in 2025. Additionally, the cohort receives support from Cedar staff, a designated mentor of their choice, and other guest artists. This year’s cohort embodies what lies at the core of this program: an unwavering commitment to experimentation, artistic growth, and self-expression.

John Jamison II is a Minneapolis based Thespian, Teaching Artist, and Blues Singer. John will be playing with the range of performance based expression through a theatrical exploration of Afro-American folklore with a bluesy subtext. Our oral literature brought to life with the intention to deepen the relationship between literature and flesh. Musical storytelling geared towards the alchemical celebration of the people of African descent in America.

May Klug is an experimental electronic composer/performer whose deep relationships with pieces of audio equipment and electronic instruments are a bridge through which she explores the networks of technological development, industry, and modern social life. Her performances blend electroacoustic experimentalism with the theater of pop, queer performance art, and high-femme fashion. 

May’s primary instrument, and electronic collaborator, is the Casio CZ-101 synthesizer. By allowing the synth’s digital memory to decay, she generates sounds that capture the natural process of memory loss in a volatile RAM circuit with no electricity.

“May and the Ladies” is an avant-pop song cycle that will orchestrate these rich textures and complex synth voices with a live band to create catchy, danceable electronic music. The cycle’s lyrics will explore themes of assumed identity, misinformation, camp, and radical feminist politics. This work seeks to explore the role of female pop artists as innovators and early adopters of electronic instruments and experimental techniques, and to examine the archetype of the pop star as an unattainable fantasy of beauty, wealth, hyperfemininity, and virtuosity. 

A multi-hyphenate artist originally from Missoula, Montana, YEEJ now resides in the Twin Cities. “PINES” will be a cinematic musical journey mirroring his life. The songs will embody various genres such as pop, alternative, and traditional Hmong music through the exploration of Montana folk and country sounds. This is a love letter to his family, friends and culture. It will reflect on his time living in both Montana and Minnesota; the place that fostered his upbringing with the place that he found himself flourish as an artist and every bit in between.

To learn more about YEEJ:

• Listen to his music here

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Cedar Cultural Center, 416 Cedar Avenue South, Minneapolis, United States