So AtlantaMusicCritic (AMC) drove up to the Kennesaw State Festival
of New Music 2013 http://www.kennesaw.edu/newmusicfestival/. It was raining hard
but Georgia's highways are so nice that it was not a challenging drive. But AMC did notice that Kennesaw State University,
like Georgia Tech, has signs that are useful for only those who already know
the campus. AMC would like to encourage
the great minds at KSU to think about making signs for those not familiar with
the campus, especially providing direction to venues that might actually
attract the public, such as the Bailey Performance Center. Clayton State does it well for Spivey Hall so
it certainly is possible!
The New Music Festival provided an opportunity for student
composers and instrumentalists to collaborate in performance of the former's
new music. AMC has a policy not to
review nonprofessional performances, but suffice it to say that the
compositions were quite good.
The reason AMC journeyed to Kennesaw was to see gloATL and
Sonic Generator perform "The Child Project", a collaboration between
Composer David Lang and choreographer Lauri Stallings (http://gloatl.org/upcoming/). AMC admired the energy of the dancers and
their ability to remember choreography that seemingly never repeated a move. The dancers performed in the front of the
stage, with sonic Generator arrayed behind them in a semi-circle. The dancers were dressed in black and there
was there was only white light. AMC
would have liked a bit more color but am sure that Ms. Stallings chose this
bleak setting on purpose.
David Lang (http://davidlangmusic.com/about/bio)
is a contemporary American composer and Pulitzer Prize winner. AMC likes his music greatly. It has a minimalist quality but also contains
sections that are a bit more traditional (e.g., the section where Brad Ritchie
played what reminded AMC of Bach's Suites for Solo Cello). The music is hypnotic and compelling. The finale includes several members of the
ensemble circling a metal tube with a wand to make almost a high pitched
drone. The effect was far better than
AMC's description. As usual, Sonic Generator
provided a challenging and interesting program, especially with the addition of
the gloATL artists.
A final word- AMC often finds a composer's/choreographer's descriptions of what they are attempting to achieve a bit perplexing, probably because AMC is a bit concrete!
No comments:
Post a Comment