Down The Rabbit Hole was a workshop performance of a new piece created in residence by Phyllis Chen (toy pianist/composer) and Rob Dietz (video artist/electronic musician). A multimedia work for toy pianos, music boxes, live electronics, live and edited video, and amplified objects, Down the Rabbit Hole was inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice stories; rather than a re-telling of a beloved tale, it drew upon objects and themes from the novels: the ticking of a pocket watch, the shuffling of a deck of cards, and the clattering of a tea set were reinvented in visual and sonic terms. With the use of microphones, a magnifying glass, and live video feeds, commonplace objects were brought to life, and a miniature stage was set in motion inside a toy piano. 

Chen creates original multimedia compositions using toy pianos, music boxes, electronics, and video, presented in concert alongside works by prominent 20th century composers such as John Cage and Julia Wolfe. Dietz is a multimedia artist, VJ, and electroacoustic musician with an interest in generative audiovisual systems.

Down The Rabbit Hole was a workshop performance of a new piece created in residence by Phyllis Chen (toy pianist/composer) and Rob Dietz (video artist/electronic musician). A multimedia work for toy pianos, music boxes, live electronics, live and edited video, and amplified objects, Down the Rabbit Hole was inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice stories; rather than a re-telling of a beloved tale, it drew upon objects and themes from the novels: the ticking of a pocket watch, the shuffling of a deck of cards, and the clattering of a tea set were reinvented in visual and sonic terms. With the use of microphones, a magnifying glass, and live video feeds, commonplace objects were brought to life, and a miniature stage was set in motion inside a toy piano.

Chen creates original multimedia compositions using toy pianos, music boxes, electronics, and video, presented in concert alongside works by prominent 20th century composers such as John Cage and Julia Wolfe. Dietz is a multimedia artist, VJ, and electroacoustic musician with an interest in generative audiovisual systems.

Radio signals emitted by two pulsars from a distant place in the universe become part of a work played on six percussion stations that surround the audience. This piece was commissioned from Gérard Grisey by the French ensemble Les Percussions de Strasbourg, which will perform at EMPAC. Grisey has been called one of the founders of so-called spectral music (a label he later disowned). In this piece, the evolution of timbres played by instruments, and of sound colors as they expand, explore the great complexities of what our ears can hear, and take the audience on a journey inside the sound of music. Not only is the space "out there" brought into the Concert Hall, the hall itself is made part of the experience by placing the performers, instruments, and loudspeakers around the audience.

Jean-Pierre Luminet: The Harmony of the Spheres, from Antiquity to Contemporary Music

Jean-Pierre Luminet is a French astrophysicist. He is the research director for the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and is a member of the Laboratoire Univers et Théories (LUTH) of the observatory of Paris-Meudon. He was awarded the 2006 Great Prize of the French Academy of Sciences for science communication, and the 1999 International Georges Lemaitre Prize for his original contributions to cosmology and astrophysics. He has published in journals such as Nature, Astrophysical Journal, and Astronomy and Astrophysics, among others. He has also published three acclaimed novels and several poetry books.

Singer/songwriter Suzanne Vega, composer Duncan Sheik and director Kay Matschullat are in residence at EMPAC in January to explore the sound challenges provided by a music-theater piece that combines songs with conversation. Designers Louisa Thompson and Lenore Doxsee will also work with the director to experiment with set and light elements, creating a piece that floats in time and moves between forms. The informal work-in-progress showing will include songs and text from the show, with a chance for discussion with the artists. In Carson McCullers Sings About Love, Suzanne Vega, in the role of Southern writer Carson McCullers, presents her theory of love, divulging the secrets of the human heart. McCullers often repeated “Nothing human is alien to me” – a quote from the ancient Roman playwright Terence; her own story, as well as the stories of her characters, run the gamut from touching to terrifying. As she speaks and sings her way through this labyrinth of love, we experience the comedic Carson, the pained Carson and the provocateur she became. Accompanied by a guitarist and pianist who also take on characters, Vega moves seamlessly from spoken word to song and back again. She channels McCullers in a way that reveals the meeting of two souls through a work of art. Carson McCullers Sings About Love will premier at New York’s Rattlestick Theater, David Van Asselt, Artistic Director, in April of 2011.

Singer/songwriter Suzanne Vega, composer Duncan Sheik, and director Kay Matschullat were in residence at EMPAC to work on a music theater piece that combined songs with conversation. Designers Louisa Thompson and Lenore Doxsee also worked with the director on set and light elements, creating a piece that floats in time and moves between forms. An informal work-in-progress showing included songs and text from the piece followed by a discussion with the artists. Moving from spoken word to song and back again, Vega took on the role of Carson McCullers, who often quoted the ancient Roman playwright Terence: “Nothing human is alien to me.” Accompanied by a guitarist and pianist who also portrayed characters from the author’s work, Vega revealed various facets of the Southern writer: comic, pained, and provocative.

Vega is a renowned singer-songwriter; Duncan Sheik’s theater credits include Spring Awakening; and Kay Matschullat directed the world premiere of Prize-wining Derek Walcott’s To Die For Grenada, the world premiere of Ariel Dorfman’s Widows, and the English language premiere of Vaclav Havel’s The Conspirators, among other works.

French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot developed two sound installations while in residence—untitled (Series #3) and index (v.4)—which were then presented as a single exhibition over three floors in EMPAC’s public spaces. Together, the pieces reflect on music composition’s relation to nature and technology as well as our perception of complexity, control, and authorship in time-based art. untitled (Series #3) was comprised of three wading pools filled with bowls and wine glasses; by calibrating the temperature of the water to increase the resonance of the floating objects, and by controlling the direction of the water flow with a small pump, ongoing, resonant collisions are created. The result is a chaotic, atmospheric music with a variety of small sounds surrounding the listener. For index (v.4) software designed by the artist was installed on computers throughout EMPAC, capturing typed letters, words, and punctuation into dynamics, pitch, and chords played by two mechanically actuated grand pianos. The real-time data stream became the chaotic generator of an ongoing score, in constant performance. Like untitled, this work conflated empirical, technological gestures with chaotic “natural” elements. 

A native of France, Boursier-Mougenot’s works have been exhibited worldwide.

Cold Spring is a battering ram for stage created by the Los Angeles-based composer Sean Griffin. A diversity of musicians, actors and dancers from all over the United States and Canada turn the EMPAC theater into a high-energy collision of charged musical and theatrical particles and their underlying ideologies. Among these is the Eugenics Archive in Cold Spring Harbor NY. This archive represents the breeding-ground research for the eugenics-based social policies that resulted in mass sterilization of undesirables, forced lobotomies and, ultimately, with support from the Carnegie Foundation, Nazi Germany’s master race policies. In Cold Spring materials from this archive intersect unexpectedly with the early 20th century spiritualism-meets-pop-supernaturalism of the 1970s. Through an operatic rendition of the 1961 Betty and Barney Hill alien abduction hypnosis tapes we follow the embattled, mixed-race couple as they navigate social complications through the hyper-vigilant sanctimony of their pre-civil rights world. Cold Spring is propelled by a collection of iconic musical and theatrical snap-shots, several performed by actors familiar to Capitol Region theater-goers. Ideas best forgotten and good intentions gone awry unfold onto one another, turning the theater into a crippled ceremonious procession.

Sean Griffin lives and works in Los Angeles.

Encompassing many languages, styles, media and forms, Griffin’s unusual compositional works rely on interdisciplinary incongruities positioned at the intersection of sound, image, performance, and the archive.

Manifesting as large and small-scale operatic works, collaborative sound and video installations, complex numeric choreographies, or historically weighted political works that defy categorization, Griffin’s works obsessively instrumentalize embedded cultures of injustice, racism, and wars of the recent past disturbingly mixed with dated-pop fantasies about self worth and class. Animated by rhythmic regimentation and improvisation, his compositions can be viewed as platforms for the performer's unique talents with whom he collaborates extensively.

A contrast of light and dark, harmony and dissonance, In Vain startles and captivates the senses. Performed by a 24-member chamber orchestra, much of this intense 75-minute composition takes place in total darkness. In this state, the musicians must perform from memory, communicating with each other and the audience only through sound. The cycles between light and darkness are accompanied by dramatic microtonal deviations in the musical plane, which underscore a desire for perfect harmony, while understanding the futility of achieving a perfect harmonic co-existence, both musically and in the world.

Returning to EMPAC for a second residency, Hans Tutschku workshopped and recorded material for Irrgärten, a piece for two pianos and live electronics. The electronics were realized with two iPhones or two iPods running custom software, one for each pianist. The built-in microphone was used to detect piano notes and to synchronize the electronic sounds to the live part. The composer described the work as being about memory and comparable to a walk through different mazes (irrgärten). As the composition progresses, material is repeated, though the electronics alter the piano parts. As when walking through a maze and trying to get a picture of the path—certain places look similar but in reality are different—one gets trapped. Irrgärten premiered in 2011 at the Klub Katarakt Festival in Hamburg, Germany. Hans Tutschku is a German composer who has also taught at Harvard since 2004.

A contrast of light and dark, harmony and dissonance, composer Georg Friedrich Haas’ in vain startles and captivates the senses. Haas is an internationally known composer of spectral music whose style focuses on micropolyphony, microintervals, and exploitation of the overtone series. Performed by a 24-member chamber orchestra, much of this intense 75-minute composition takes place in total darkness. In this state, the musicians must perform from memory, communicating with each other and the audience only through sound. Accompanied by dramatic microtonal deviations, the cycles between light and darkness express both the desire for perfect harmony and the futility of achieving such a harmonic co-existence, musically or in the world. During their residency, the Argento Chamber Ensemble recorded their performance of in vain over several days, in both audio and video.

Founded in 2000, Argento consists of nine core members and regularly expands to up to 30 musicians. Argento has toured widely in the US and abroad, and has worked closely with leading contemporary composers including Pierre Boulez, Beat Furrer, Georg Friedrich Haas, Bernhard Lang, Fred Lerdahl, Fabien Lévy, Tristan Murail, and others.