Marking the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, The Odyssey–from Vietnam to America explores the personal and spiritual journeys of the Vietnamese refugees known as “Boat People.”

The Odyssey musically contextualizes them in larger terms of human struggle for survival in the face of conflict and political upheaval. The work, created by composer-performer Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ in partnership with Yerba Buena Center for Performing Arts (YBCA), Creative Work Fund (CWF), and Asia Society Texas Center (ASTC), combines Vietnamese instruments, electronic sounds and Western instruments. Vietnamese folk songs, especially lullabies, are a key compositional element.

Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ and the Blood Moon Orchestra perform with the Arneis Quartet in a special performance at the College of the Holy Cross.