Lisa Coons:The Space Between
(2019)
with director and choreographer Mark DeChiazza
(West Coast Premiere; second performance of the work)
Composer Lisa Coons uses her own experience of social silencing
as a springboard for The Space Between, a fully staged,
choreographed work for Spektral Quartet that unravels the social
hierarchies of human interaction, and ultimately, invites
musicians to explore the roots and motives of communication
through the spectacle of music and theatre. Choreographed by
director and designer Mark DeChiazza, the work is seamlessly
interwoven in a style unique to Coons, and organically mixes
moments of improvisation with written material: a musical gesture
might be the start of a conversation between musicians that is
mirrored through physical movement. Or, a physical movement might
disrupt, provoke, or engage the music of another player. The
simple act of watching the violist of a string quartet cradle the
head of the cellist, or of one violinist muting the performance
of their fellow violinist is also shocking, and through the
unexpected drama created by physical interaction, Coons and
DeChiazza compel both the performers and the audience to consider
the ways in which we navigate communication, conflict, and
connection.
The ZOFO-MOMA Live Concert Experience unfolds as an aurally
and visually stunning walking tour through a virtual museum
of modern art. Against an ever-changing backdrop of contemporary
paintings, 15 new ZOFO-commissioned duet compositions are
revealed throughout the 72-minute continuous performance. And in
a nod to Mussorgsky, this twenty-first-century Pictures at an
Exhibition leads viewers from one gallery to the next
accompanied by a new “Promenade” Theme arranged by ZOFO’s Keisuke
Nakagoshi.
For this cutting-edge project, ZOFO solicited new works from
top composers around the globe—including UC Davis’s own
professor of music Pablo Ortiz—and requested
each to select a painting representative of his or her culture
as a springboard to the creative process. The result is a
rich tapestry of sights and sounds reflecting the cultural,
musical, and artistic diversity of our world community.
* The program runs 75 minutes and is presented without an
intermission. *
Barnabé Janin, tenor and director
Lise Viricel, soprano
Josquin Gest, countertenor
Benjamin Ingrao, tenor
Eric Chopin, bass-baritone
L’ensemble Coclico, founded in 2014, brings
together professional singers who specialize in
Renaissance and medieval music and improvisation. In concert, the
ensemble revives the improvised polyphonies of the
Middle Ages and the Renaissance, restoring to life the
organa, hymns, French chansons from the court of
Burgundy, motets, psalms, songs of the Renaissance, Italian
lauds, English carols, and more.
In a spirit musical and playful, as well as pedagogical,
the members of the ensemble share their enjoyment of
improvisation through concerts, spectacles and lectures with
musical illustrations.
At the boundary between any two ecosystems there exists an
abundance and variety of life. This holds true in art, where
the zone between two mediums contains great potential for
invention and expression.
