In 2022, Devonté Hynes collaborated with Mati Diop and Manon Lutanie on a commission by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Liquid Music. He composed a symphonic work, while Diop and Lutanie directed a short film—both titled
Naked Blue.
The collaboration premiered the same year at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, with an 80-piece orchestra conducted by Matthias Pintscher. It was presented alongside two other works resulting from collaborations between composers and filmmakers:
On Blue, by Rafiq Bhatia and
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and
Rise, Again, by Daniel Wohl, Arooj Aftab and Josephine Decker.
Naked Blue features the young French actress and dancer, Oumy Bruni Garrel, then aged 13. The fragile, ambiguous nature of the images evokes archival footage of rehearsals for a school play or film shoot.
In 2024, the score was recorded in a studio, performed by the Budapest Scoring Orchestra. This version gave the film its first complete form outside the live context. It premiered at MoMA later that year.
The score of
Naked Blue was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra (Barbican, London, 2023), the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (Sydney Opera House, 2024), and the National Orchestra of Île-de-France (La Seine Musicale, Paris, 2024).
This publication presents the full orchestral score, alongside film stills. It is published on the occasion of the presentation of
Naked Blue at the Menuhin Festival, Gstaad, on August 2, 2026, under the artistic direction of Daniel Hope.
