Greetings All,
Well…I just returned from a lovely week in Spain, engaging in the one activity that I am least proficient in: taking a break…but, I am happy to say that even with my lack of skill and experience in this realm, the week was successful, and I was in fact able to relax somewhat before this next week of craziness begins.
This week is centered around the TransCultural Exchange International Conference on the Arts, which will be held in Boston from April 7 to April 10. This conference is considered the international forum for emerging and established artists, cultural administrators, residency directors, teachers, critics and curators providing a unique cross-disciplinary platform to network, showcase, support and promote artists’ work.
I am one of the featured artists at this conference, and am engaged in two collaborations:
The first is with Laura Evans and is part of her exhibition, entitled White Noise, at the Boston Sculptors Gallery. This exhibition will feature our sound/sculpture collaboration Corpus Apparatus, which opened officially on March 19; my music was created with the support of the CAP Grant from the American Music Center. This is a featured work at the conference; in fact, it was the director of TransCultural Exchange–Mary Sherman–who connected us and suggested that we collaborate. This will be up through April 17.
You can hear the music of Corpus Apparatus on my homepage at American Music Center. I will post it here on my website after the conference weekend.
The other collaboration is with the Beijing-based TIMI Modern Music Ensemble, under the direction of Benoit Granier. TIMI mixes western classical and Chinese folk musicians with live/interactive computer. We will be performing music written by Mr. Granier (a new work entitled It will Snow Tomorrow), as well as the premier of a new version of my piece Gymnopaedia.
Now, some of you may remember that Gymnopaedia was originally written for clarinet and piano and was premiered by myself and Susanne Kessel at Beethovenhaus in Bonn, Germany on April 20, 2008. Benoit asked me to adapt this piece for his ensemble (two violins, clarinet (with me playing), guzheng, dizi, pipa, and erhu)–we will perform it in Boston on April 7 at Northeastern University’s Fenway Center and on April 8 at the Berklee College of Music, and in New Jersey on April 11 at Rutgers University. We will also play NYC concert on April 10 (the day the conference ends, mind you–back on an early Amtrak…) at (Le) Poisson Rouge that will be a grand computer-processed improvisation between TIMI, myself, Mari Kimura, and DJ Spooky.
Benoit and I began working together in 2009 in projects that culminated at the Musicacoustica Festival in Beijing. Our current collaborations are gearing towards a festival of contemporary music and cultures also in Beijing in 2012.
There will be another newsworthy event happening this week, but that is the topic for the next blog…yes, I know, I’m a tease…
But here is a hint.
Until then!
Demetrius