THURSDAY JANUARY 24, 2013, 8:00 PM, Admission by contribution
‘This is my country, this really is my country, and I need to know what my country is.’
Eve Beglarian: Excerpts from The River Project
The Old Stone House
336 Third Street, bet. 4th/5th Avenues
Park Slope, Brooklyn
718-768-3195 – http://www.theoldstonehouse.org
Musical Ecologies is a new monthly symposium on music and sound held every 2nd Thursday (except where noted) at the Old Stone House in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Curated and hosted by composer Dan Joseph, each event focuses on a single artist who presents a work or project either in the form of a talk or lecture, a multimedia presentation, a performance, or combination thereof. Each presentation is preceded by a 30-minute conversation with the curator and audience. Admission is by contribution and a reception follows.
The first Musical Ecologies event of 2013 will feature New York-based composer Eve Beglarian in an evening of conversation and music centered around her ambitious RiverProject. Beginning in August 2009, the composer began a four-month journey by kayak down the entire length of the Mississippi river, collecting stories, images, impressions and encounters all in search of a greater understanding of the role the river has played in American culture. In the months that followed her journey, Ms. Beglarian developed BRIM: Songs from Eve Beglarian’s RiverProject, a music and performance project inspired by her voyage. Comprising original compositions, adventurous arrangements of river-related songs, images, videos, and spoken-word readings, BRIM is personal response to the U.S. economic meltdown which she describes as “my own, unofficial WPA project.” Joined by violinist Mary Rowell, the evening will include excerpts from the RiverProject as well as new works.
About the artist:
Eve Beglarian“is a humane, idealistic rebel and a musical sensualist.” (Los Angeles Times) “One of new music’s truly free spirits,”(The Village Voice) and a “remarkable experimentalist,” (New York Times) she is a composer, performer, and audio producer whose music is “an eclectic and wide-open series of enticements.” (Los Angeles Times)
Her chamber, choral, and orchestral music has been commissioned and widely performed by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the American Composers Orchestra, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the California EAR Unit, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Relâche, the Paul Dresher Ensemble, Sequitur, loadbang, the Guidonian Hand, Newspeak, the Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble and individual performers including Maya Beiser, Sarah Cahill, Lauren Flanigan, Marya Martin, and Mary Rowell.
Highlights of Beglarian’s work in music theater includes music for Mabou Mines’ Obie-winning Dollhouse, Animal Magnetism, Ecco Porco, and Choephorai, all directed by Lee Breuer; Forgiveness, a collaboration with Chen Shi-Zheng and Noh master Akira Matsui; and the China National Beijing Opera Theater’s production of The Bacchae, also directed by Chen Shi-Zheng. She has collaborated with choreographers including Ann Carlson, Robert LaFosse, Victoria Marks, Susan Marshall, and David Neumann, and with visual and video artists including Cory Arcangel, Anne Bray, Vittoria Chierici, Barbara Hammer, Kevork Mourad, Shirin Neshat, and Judson Wright. More: http://evbvd.com/
Upcoming on Musical Ecologies: Michael Schumacher 2/14; Andrea Williams 3/21; Zach Layton 4/11; Jason Cady 5/16. More dates to be announced.
Facebook event page: facebook.com/events/213366695466662/