The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) will take its audience on a journey of avant-garde programing at the intersection of music, technology, and audiovisual art. Taking place on Saturday, February 22, ElectroFest will traverse landmark historic compositions by composers John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Luigi Nono, and contemporary works by Carlos Guedes, João Menezes, Kristin Mueller, and Jonny Farrow.
Presented by the NYUAD Music Program, ElectroFest centers on two main themes: John Cage and Percussion. John Cage is one of the most influential 20th-century composers and conceptual thinkers, describing his work as “the contemporary transition from keyboard-influenced music to the all-sound music of the future.”
The Arts Center looks to connect with audiences by spotlighting new and historically significant approaches to music that support the advancement of creativity in the music world.
Lecturer of Music at NYUAD and Curator of ElectroFest Clare Lesser commented, “It’s a real honor to be able to showcase such a diverse range of electro-acoustic and multimedia works at NYUAD, from the very earliest examples to the most contemporary.”
ElectroFest will take place over three sessions:
In the first session Clare Lesser will perform Luigi Nono’s searing political soundscape La fabbrica illuminata (soprano and tape). This will be followed by the UAE premiere of Carlos Guedes’ Fragile Ecosystems, and live improvisation combining computer processing and prepared bass drum with João Dias. Cristina Ioan closes the set with works for flute and bass flute, including the world premiere of NYUAD alumnus Cristobál Mar Yan’s Life Lag – “B”.
The second session focuses on the works of John Cage. The program opens in the foyer with Radio Music and Music Walk, both of which demonstrate Cage’s exploration of the boundaries between theater, sound and its wider performance environment. The audience and performers then move into The Black Box theater for the futurist inspired Imaginary Landscape No. 1 and Cage’s iconic work for amplified plant percussion, including cacti, nuts, seeds, pods, and rattles, Branches. Session two continues with the keynote presentation by the distinguished Cage scholar, performer and associate of John Cage, Professor William Brooks (University of Illinois, University of York and Orpheus Institute, Ghent) focusing on Cage’s aesthetic of ‘machine’ performance practice. The session closes with a panel discussion exploring ElectroFest’s wider themes.
The third session features virtuoso French horn performances by Julian Faultless (University of Oxford) and Janet Beat’s Hunting Horns are Memories (horn and tape), which exploits mistakes and mishaps in live performance, making a virtue of these ‘accidents’, while Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Solo is one of the earliest explorations of the possibilities inherent in creating an extended piece of music in ‘real’ time
The session continues with the world premiere of Jonny Farrow and Kristin Mueller’s multimedia extravaganza The Fold. ElectroFest closes with a live multimedia set by João Menezes and VJ Tomas Krajhanzl (VJ Krajta).
Executive Artistic Director of The Arts Center at NYUAD Bill Bragin explains, “One of the goals of The Arts Center is to bring present vital contemporary performance expressions. At the same time, we seek to educate audiences who may not have encountered important historical antecedents that influence the kind of work people are creating today. ElectroFest, which our colleague Clare Lesser curated to showcase some of the many talented composers and musicians from NYUAD’s own music program, joined by key guest artists from abroad, helps to push the boundaries of how we think about music.”
For more information on the performance, please visit the website.
The Arts Center at NYUAD is a performing arts center that presents distinguished professional artists from around the world alongside student, faculty, and community productions.
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