“Concerts
Without Walls”
by Nina Colosi, Producer, The Project Room @
Chelsea art Museum
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Entering
the 21st century with the ever-increasing high spectacle and
bombardment of the senses that we are accustomed to, the traditionally
oriented concert world and conservatories may be beginning to
react and show signs of change. There is growing excitement
among the classical musicians who are getting positive feedback
when they take daring leaps and embrace new technologies and
staging techniques. The new classical concert formats do not
follow the standard formulas of how to dress, move or sit on
stage, and do not require the audience to be seated in symmetrical
rows. The performing artists are not only musicians, but also
lighting designers, digital technology experts, visual artists,
dancers, actors and more. And the symmetrical rows are now set
in limitless configurations or completely eliminated so people
can move freely.
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Sounds
like an expensive rock show, but no, this is serious music.
This is the “new orchestra.” Classically trained
musicians are becoming enamored with the new possibilities of
“plugging in” to technology and making the audience’s,
and their own experience more sensual. They are using technology
as a creative tool and in combination with a professional level
of technique and musical sophistication, the results are startling.
A solo violinist can sound like another instrument, or multiple
instruments playing simultaneously. The performer can improvise
over lines previously played, and control his staging, lighting
and visuals directly from his instrument. The next generation
of masterworks are being created for this “new orchestra”
in parallel with the powerful, constantly evolving technology
that engineers are creating, which is pushing the boundaries
of musical expression. Although much acoustic/electronic music
has been written during the last century, and ensembles such
as Kronos Quartet and others have been performing in non-traditional
ways, the general public has not been given much opportunity
to experience it in traditional concert hall venues.
For the new breed of interdisciplinary composers, staging and
performance are not final touches but rather part of the composition
itself. One of the most interesting composers in this movement/philosophy
is Israeli composer Keren Rosenbaum, who, since moving to New
York last year has been making waves in the local contemporary
music and art scene. |
A
formally-trained composer and flautist, Rosenbaum employs unorthodox
compositional, notation and conducting techniques that she has
explored over the past 10 years which have been performed by
diverse international organizations including the Dutch “Maarten
Altena Ensemble” and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra,
Ostrova. Using click-tracks as a means of triggering reactions
in sound and movement, she keeps the performers constantly on
the edge of their seats. The electrifying intensity and the
underlying wit in her pieces radiates to the audience, provoking
passionate, and even physical, reactions. |
Rosenbaum
founded the Reflex ensemble in 1998 - a collective of international
collaborators from diverse art forms and genres who share the
“Reflex” vision. It is the epitome of the ‘new
orchestra.’ The musicians on stage, as well as the off-stage
lighting, sound and visual artists, are all ‘performers’.
The visual experience is no less breathtaking than the music.
Reflex performances are most fascinating when presented in non-concert
hall venues, which gives the opportunity to allow the space
to become an important element in the performance, and eliminates
the barrier between the audience and the performers. The ensemble’s
use of innovative technologies and staging concepts with boundless
energy continue to receive rave reviews throughout Europe. |
Reflex
will make its US debut in the Project Room Special Concert Series
at Chelsea Art Museum in March 2005, in collaboration with the
Electronic Music Foundation (EMF), an organization founded as
an educational resource for avant-garde electronic and electro-acoustic
music. Educational master workshops will give students from
New York City conservatories an opportunity to work with Rosenbaum
and Reflex members and guest artists such as Mari Kimura. Kimura,
a world-renowned violinist/composer and teacher at Juilliard,
has been a leading force in promoting the enhanced creativity
technology allows when combined with acoustic instruments. |
Rosenbaum
states, “In the workshops we want students to experience
the sensibility of the ‘new orchestra’ as a truly
interdisciplinary performing body, and to understand the aesthetic
responsibility that comes with higher degrees of freedom.” |
Rosenbaum
was artistic designer and also composed music for a solo concert
by Swiss bassist Christin Wildbolz, recently produced by the
EMF at the Chelsea Art Museum in April. Set against a background
of enormous colorful canvases in the Informal abstract style
by the French painter Jean Miotte, Rosenbaum’s startling
staging of Wildbolz’ acoustic/electronic performance was
as much theater as technically and emotionally moving. In a
minimalist style, Wildbolz changed the architecture of the performance
space by hanging chains, arranging music stands and changing
clothes. The cleaver use of lighting transformed the large loft-like
gallery into a magical, intimate space, and showcased her in
a different location for each piece. It was an unexpected and
at times disarming experience. “You have to see this to
believe it,” one attendee remarked, “I think every
concert of serious music should be choreographed like this.”
556
West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011
tel 212.255.0719 contact@chelseaartmuseum.org
www.chelseaartmuseum.org
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