Film Screening: “Opus Cope” by Jae Shim

Filmmaker Jae Shim strives to tell the truth no matter how challenging, uncomfortable, or unpopular it is to do so. As part of Recomposing America, ACF will host public screenings and community conversations around Jae’s film “Opus Cope” prior to its release on PBS in Fall 2026.

Jae attributes his first encounter with the groundbreaking work of composer David Cope to a Radiolab episode titled “Musical DNA.” Jae immediately resonated with Cope’s defiant spirit, challenging longstanding conventions of what classical music should look or sound like. Convinced there was more to the story, he made repeated trips with his camera to the Santa Cruz-based composer. The resulting documentary takes viewers on a musical exploration of creativity according to Cope, drawing from a lifetime at the intersection of art and technology.

About the Film

David Cope was commissioned to write an opera in the 1980s when he suffered a major composer’s block, sparking interest in a computing partner named EMI, Experiments in Musical Intelligence, that could generate compelling works in the style of classical music composers. The subject of great controversy, EMI could compose Bach chorales, Mozart sonatas, and Chopin mazurkas at the stroke of a key, challenging audiences to reimagine what it means to be creative. Featuring excerpts from the completed opera, the documentary focuses on the algorithmic composer as he shares his lifelong findings on the nature of creativity.

Recomposing America is a multi-year initiative led by American Composers Forum that highlights artistic perspectives unique to the United States and the broader Americas through direct commissions, institutional collaborations, and public dialogue. Timed with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Recomposing America aims to refresh and reimagine the “who,” “what,” and “why” of the United States, and the stories therein.