We’re pleased to announce guests for our upcoming festival! The fifteenth annual festival, scheduled for Wednesday, March 4, to Sunday, March 8, at the historic Charter Oak Cultural Center, features Lisa Coons as composer-in-residence alongside guest artists Iktus Percussion and New England Guitar Quartet. Be sure to read up on our guests and upcoming activities.
Today’s recap takes a slightly different bent. With so much focus on our recent festival it seemed appropriate to take a step back. Here we have glimpses at Local Composers Concerts from years past. We’re proud of our tradition fostering regional music.
Kathryn Swanson-Ellis and Gale Gardiner chat after successful performances of their music at the 2010 festival.
Tawnie Olson introduces her work, À mon seul désir, during the 2011 Local Composers Concert.
Owen Weaver takes a much deserved bow after an incredible performance of Lisa Coon‘s Percussion Sculpture No. 1 at the 2012 festival.
Another shot of Owen Weaver performing Lisa Coons’s Percussion Sculpture No. 1, because it was just so cool! The metal sculpture was amplified, but no other electronics were added. The lights were dimmed for the piece, and Weaver was illuminated by lamp shown on the left. Toward the end of the piece, serendipity showed its face: the lamp began to flicker in time to the music (perhaps as a result of the vibrations from the sculpture), creating an unplanned but entirely appropriate addition to the atmosphere of the piece.
We’ll be uploading pictures from the 2012 Festival over the next couple of weeks, so check here for the Picture of the Day.
Our first picture features Owen Weaver as he performs Lisa Coons’s Percussion Sculpture No. 1.
The composer writes the following about her piece:
“Percussion Sculpture No. 1 was my first completed percussion sculpture. It was originally meant to be a realization of my frustration with our disposable nation. I imagined it to be an object of twisted scrap metal that moaned and screamed. The problem came when I started to make the sculpture…
I’m afraid that all of my anger and politics disappeared while spending the summer walking through the junkyard, hitting anything I could find to test the resonance and pitch, and dragging it back to the barn to weld. I ended up enjoying process more than ever before, while my dad patiently (and bravely) helped me re-learn the equipment of his shop. The whole experience became about the beautiful sounds we heard in the metal and the process of building something that sang. I have to thank my little sister for all the times I asked for her to listen, my dad for many, many hours spent helping me put this thing (and the several before it) together, and my mom for all of her aesthetic input and her first-aid knowledge (it healed nicely).”
More pictures (and video) from 2012 coming soon!
For more about Lisa Coons, visit www.lisarcoons.com/.
