Mary Kathleen Ernst, Clare Shore & Judith
There is something wonderful about the combination of low-tech & hi-tech, about participation that is open to all coupled with music made from the everyday world around us. Every time I conduct Tape Music∞, as I did last weekend during my portrait concert at the Bakehouse Arts Complex in Miami, I see a combination of concentration and joy on the faces and in the actions of the participants. I experience a strong connection with the performers and a unity of intent. I have never had this particular experience in conducting before composing this piece, and it is one I treasure. I look forward to adding more pieces to this genre of Everyday Music, combining live, communal performance using simple materials with intricately composed electronics based on activities of the world around us. It is a terrific way to introduce non-performers of any age to the joy of musical performance, and to invite those who are already expert to experience the sounding world in a new way. The performers on this occasion, including faculty composer Susan Epstein Garcia of the New World School of the Arts, and students both from NWSA and Florida International University, were a delight – ears and minds ready for a new experience. And, the Bakehouse Arts Complex had a fantastic exhibit of umbrellas, with art created by their resident artists. It is both a thriving artist colony, and an exciting new venue for music, and Juraj Kojs, who contributes so richly to the musical life of Miami as an inventive composer, teacher and organizer, is working to bring these elements together.
Bakehouse Sequence 1 from Judith Shatin on Vimeo.
