“Harry was a metal man. When Harry was making furniture, he was making metal comfortable for the human body. When Harry was making sound sculpture, he was making metal comfortable for the human mind.” – Val Bertoia

Over the last several years, CAGE has developed a relationship with the Johnson Museum of Art with performances their with guest artists Pauline Oliveros (Deep Listening Workshop and concert), Jessika Kenney, and Peni Candrarini as well as solo and ensemble performances by CAGE and CAGE members.

That relationship continues on October 28th, 2012 at 3pm with the invitation to perform on the museum’s stunning collection of Harry Bertoia’s “sonambient” scultures, referred to as “tonals”. More details at the Johnson >>

During the last decade of his life, Bertoia recorded several of his own symphonic performances with dozens of these “tonals” he assembled in a converted barn at his home in Bartow, Pennsylvania. The recordings fill eleven vinyl LPs, collectively titled Sonambient.

Harry Bertoia: Unfolding (from Sonambient):

Fred Frith by Heike Liss

Planned and executed by Annie Lewandowski:

Fred Frith Festival poster attached.

Films

Rivers & Tides  - (2001, dir. T. Riedelsheimer)
Friday, Feb. 3, 9:15pm
Cinemapolis (Gallery Night—$7)
Sunday, Feb. 5, 4:30pm
Willard Straight Theatre ($4 all)

Step Across the Border - (1990, dir. N. Humbert and W. Penzel)
Saturday, Feb. 25, 7:30pm
Willard Straight Theatre ($7 general/
$5.50 seniors/$4.50 & $4 students)
Sunday, Feb. 26, 7:15pm
Willard Straight Theatre ($7 general/
$5.50 seniors/$4.50 & $4 students)

Public Lecture

Composing Music for Film
Wednesday, Feb. 29, 4:30pm
Guerlac Room, A.D. White House (free)

Concert

Fred Frith with Annie Lewandowski
Wednesday, Feb. 29, 8:00pm
Barnes Hall (free)

Masterclass

Improvisation Masterclass (open rehearsal with Cornell Avant‐Garde Ensemble)
Thursday, Mar. 1, 9:30am
B20, Lincoln Hall (free)

This festival is made possible by the generous support of Cornell Cinema, the Cornell Electroacoustic Music Center, the Cornell Composers’ Forum, and the Cornell University Department of Music.

The performance was recently reviewed in the Cornell Daily Sun, a article by Justin Zupnick titled Musical and Spiritual Wonders With the CAGE, found here.

“Kevin Ernste: “It is the nature of our group to be responsive, to be always listening. We thrive on the unknown, which is why working with guests like Theresa [Wong]…is such a pleasure and yields such interesting results.”

Excerpt (last 5 minutes):

Carriage_House-2-13-12-excerpt-last5min

Complete set:

Carriage House 2-13-12

Theresa Wong

Theresa Wong is a cellist, vocalist, composer and improviser whose work encompasses music, theater and the visual arts. Her training in classical music and design fused during a fellowship at Fabrica Center in Treviso, Italy where she recognized the possibility of creative performance through encounters with Lawrence Weiner, Koichi Makigami and Alexander Balanescu. Bridging areas of musical and visual expression, Wong seeks to find the opportunity for transformation in each work for both the artist and receiver alike. Her current projects include: O Sleep, a multi-faceted improvised opera which explores the conundrum of sleep and dream life and The Unlearning, a collection of songs for cello, violin and two voices inspired by Francisco Goya’s Disasters of War etchings. Her compositions include Castings performed by sfSound, Meet Me at the Future Garden performed with the Magikmagik* Orchestra for Performa 09′s Music for 16 Futurist Noise Intoners, What Orbs! premiered by Luciano Chessa at the San Francisco Conservatory and Call It Culture a duo for two cellos performed by Joan Jeanrenaud and herself. Wong was invited by dance visionary Anna Halprin to perform a leading vocal role in Spirit of Place, a site-specific performance honoring Stern Grove. She is also a cast member on cello, voice and piano in Carla Kihlstedt’s Necessary Monsters theater project. In addition, she has collaborated with such artists as Fred Frith, Kanoko Nishi, Joelle Leandre, Gianni Gebbia, Ellen Fullman and ROVA Saxophone Quartet. Her performances have been included at the Fondation Cartier in Paris, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Festival Internacional de Puebla, Mexico, Unlimited 21 Festival in Wels, Austria, Other Minds Brink series in San Francisco, Radio France broadcast, A L’improviste and at The Stone in New York City. Wong currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The performance spanned three separate spaces over an our and a half, beginning as a full ensemble in the main Bartel gallery space, moving as individuals and in duos and dynamically forming trios to the passage hallway between the original and new wings, and ending with gamelan instruments in front of the museum’s beautiful Japanese garden.

Special thanks to Hannah Ryan and Cathy Klimaszewski at the Johnson Museum for their openness and support for this wonderful project.

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Johnson Museum, Sun Setting (excerpt)

One striking aspect of the Johnson Museum is the inclusion of Ithaca itself in its design, in particular the panoramic views of the city but also the use of natural light. Tonight’s performance seeks to “set” the Johnson’s westward view of Ithaca at sunset (officially scheduled for 6:03pm) and the resulting changes of light as a dynamic work of art.