Project - Four Ways to View a City

I am very excited about the new project with Chamber Music Now. Friday night I had the first meeting with one of four teams creating new works of art for me. All four pieces will be presented at the Annenberg Center in two performances on May 19, and they all have images of Philadelphia projected on a huge screen, and at least three of them have electronic music in the background.

Composer Andrea Clearfield presented me with about five pages of her new composition "Sonic Circuit," although according to her the title might be "Open Circuit." Chris Garvin, from the University of the Arts is coordinating a team that will "wire me" and connect my motions to images on a screen in the background. I will have several sensors attached to my arms and some under my behind. I asked the specialists: "no implants, please." I think I am safe. There will be a sound loop that I will trigger with my right foot. The evening was so exciting... Andrea's piece is haunting and rhythmically very edgy at times, and the images on the screen are generated by three computers mixing them and changing the pictures as the sensors will respond to what I do. The images are very poetic - here a corner of a historical building, there framing for new construction, and I understand there will be some slices of nature. You cannot miss this performance, not many people are doing this kind of art.

Later that evening I attended the second half of Marilyn Nonken's performance for Chamber Music Now. She is a spectacular pianist and the second half featured "the People United Will Never Be Defeated" by Frederic Rzewski. What an incredible performance of a monster of a piece. 50 minutes - 36 variations on a Chilean resistance song from the 60's. It goes from decadent melodies to cries of pain and gun shots, from sweet harmonies to clusters. Time ceased to exist, and it was all a tale of distant and exotic places. But then the reality of Ms. Nonken's performance would bring me back to the hall. You could see a lot of intensity on David Laganella's face; he was turning pages standing near the pianist, and just following the text was rather challenging, I am sure. I was not sure whether he was always watching for her nod to turn the page or just peaking at her decolletage.... difficult choice, I am sure.

After the concert: party at Ricky Belcastro and his fiance, Lily. Ricky is writing one of the other pieces for the May performance. He is composing a work about the bar scene in Philadelphia, and the cello plays the role of the drunkard. As the piece progresses, I will have to produce sounds that will mimic that perception of slight imbalance, exuberance, and whatever else happens after a beer (or two). I look forward to getting most of the work next week. The screen will have clips of the story and some animation. The "beer bathroom trip" is apparently suggested in some growling sounds on the cello - low register played sul ponticello.