CONDUIT (2014)
FOR FLUTE, CLARINET, VIOLIN, CELLO, PERCUSSION, AND PIANO
15 minutes
Program Notes
Composed for Hand Eye, Sleeping Giant’s evening length collaboration with eighth blackbird, Conduit takes its cue from an interactive sculpture by digital artists Zigelbaum and Coelho. In their 640 by 480 the human body merges with computational process, facilitating simple copy/paste operations between sculptural elements. Set in three movements— Touch, Pulse, Send—Conduit evokes this man/machine synthesis. As bright waves of color explode from repeated sonic bursts, Touch compulsively repeats the gesture so fundamental to how we interact with our devices. In Pulse long lines in the flute and cello move through a cloud of asynchronous repeated notes, evoking that instantaneous moment when data passes from finger to screen. Finally, Send completes the transfer. Action follows as the music energizes and accelerates, moving briskly to a wild conclusion.
Conduit was commissioned by the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation for the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival and by Carnegie Hall, with visual arts production elements made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Texas Performing Arts at The University of Texas at Austin. It was premiered June 25, 2015 by Eighth Blackbird at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Seligman Performing Arts Center, Bloomfield Hills, MI.
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Recent Performances
November 19, 2022 Temecula Theater, Temecula, CA. Backhausdance.
November 4-5, 2022 Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Alberta Ballet.
October 27-29, 2023 Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, Calgary Alberta, Canada. Alberta Ballet.
March 9-13, 2022 Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto, Canada. The National Ballet of Canada, Alyssa Pires.
April 1, 2021 Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville, TN. Catchfire Collective.
December 12, 2020 Greensboro, NC. Catchfire Collective.
February 1, 2020 UC Santa Barbara, Stockton, CA. 28/78.
May 25, 2019 First Baptist Church, Greensboro, NC. Catchfire Collective.
May 23, 2019 Cary School of Music, NC. Catchfire Collective.
April 10, 2019 University of Memphis, TN. Contemporary Chamber Players.