The Halprin Landscape Conservancy and Cascadia Composers present
In This Together
A performance bearing witness to change, protest, revolution and the power of rebirth in the 50th year of the historic Keller Fountain
DATE: Sunday, October 25th, 2020
VENUE: Keller Fountain Park, SW 3rd Ave. & Clay St., Portland OR
TIMES: 2 shows! 12 noon & 1:30 PM (PDT)
This one-hour, socially-distanced concert honors renewal and connection in a time of uncertainty and turbulence. Join us for a celebration of beauty, storytelling, healing and catharsis!
Watch the 1:30PM livestream on the Cascadia Composers Facebook page.
Complete program information just as if you were there and got the print version.
“IN THIS TOGETHER” celebrates the 50th birthday of the world-renowned Keller Fountain, a groundbreaking urban landmark that opened in a time of revolution and sees its half-century pass in another. Narratives of movement and music speak to the power of environment in the self-definition of a city and its people.
The program features acoustic and electroacoustic music by Portland composer/performers Jennifer Wright and Daniel Brugh for piano, handpan drum, fixed media, synthesizers, toy piano, and a few surprises. The movement artistry of special guests Jordie Campbell (aerial artist) and Akela Jaffi (poetry/dance) will invigorate the space!
The concert features the world premieres of two pieces composed specifically in honor of the Keller Fountain’s 50th anniversary: “Wild and Varied Empires Have Inhabited This Place” for solo handpan drum by Jennifer Wright, and “Waterfall” for fixed media and synthesizer by Daniel Brugh.
Wright’s “The Whispered Counsel of Past Lives” for toy piano and music boxes will feature aerial artist Jordie Campbell performing on a freestanding rig arrayed in the fountain.
Portland poet/dancer Akela Jaffi, currently based in Washington D.C., returns to Portland to lend her powerful poetry and choreography to a new adaptation of Wright’s “Never Have I Wished So Hard For Rain: Elegy for Eagle Creek”, originally written in 2017 to commemorate the burning of the Columbia River Gorge.
Daniel Brugh will unveil two new works for fixed media, live synthesizer, and Roli Seaboard: “Grayling Lane” and the adorably-titled “The Angry Magical Bumblebee”.
The grand finale gives the audience a special chance to release any frustrations they might have with the current political situation by actively participating in Wright’s “One Hot Mess” for fixed media, piano and infantile percussion, which reconstructs Trump’s presidential nomination acceptance speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention into an entirely new, fictitious narrative with an appropriately obtuse soundtrack.
Socially distanced / masks required
Admission is free!
Seating is limited; RSVP to reserve your spot at jenniferawright@yahoo.com
or wander by for an ambulatory experience.
Additional info available at: https://www.facebook.com/events/4010628652285920?active_tab=about
For information on Daniel Brugh, please check out https://oregoncomposerswatch.blogspot.com/2019/08/daniel-brugh.html
For information on Jennifer Wright, please check out http://jenniferwrightpianostudio.com/bio.html and http://skeletonpiano.com/