11 February 2011
The Power of the Hall
by Corinne Ramey
original link
Curate is a popular term often bandied about these days. Clothing stores do it. So do bloggers, restaurants, flea markets and, or course, museums. This week, add new music ensemble eighth blackbird to the list. The group will curate the Park Avenue Amory's new Tune-In music festival, which takes place Feb. 16–20 in the Armory's 55,000-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall.
"It's like playing God," eighth blackbird flautist Tim Munro says, referring to the group's curating adventure. "You wave your magic wand and someone takes your irresponsible idea and runs with it."
The festival is a series of four concerts—three curated by eighth blackbird—and will also include several artist talks. Other groups performing at the festival include red fish blue fish, Argento Chamber Ensemble and Newspeak.
Although this is the first time the Drill Hall has been used for new music, the enormous space has actually been used for musical performances since 1881, according to Rebecca Robertson, president and executive producer at the Park Avenue Armory.
The Armory brought in acousticians to make the live, booming hall work for both live and amplified music. "We want to keep the richness of the space because we think that's really special," Robertson says. "So they've had a pretty light touch."
While curating, eighth blackbird has taken the space into consideration as well. "We were very cognizant of generating material that would be of a scope to match that ridiculously huge space," Munro explains. "So we tried to think big."
And they did. For the final concert, the festival will present the New York premiere of John Luther Adams' Inuksuit, which features over 70 percussionists.
Two of the concerts, titled PowerFUL and PowerLESS, explore a provocative statement made by Igor Stravinsky: "Music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all."
"This seemed a big enough festival to take on that kind of big idea," says Munro. The PowerFUL concert features music exploring various political beliefs, including Frederic Rzewski's "Coming Together," John Cage's "Credo in US," Matt Marks' "A Portrait of Glenn Beck" and Stefan Weisman's "I Would Prefer Not To."
The second concert, PowerLESS, presents so-called "absolute" music, without outside political meaning. Works include Steve Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians," Bach's "Chaconne," Kurt Schwitters' "UrSonate for solo speaker" and "in vain" by Georg Friedrich Haas.
"I'm like a kid in a candy shop," Munro says. "We got the best people in America to do the best music that exists—and then we get to play it."
