Composition Contrasts With Improvisation When Miranda Cuckson Meets Architeuthis Walks on Land at EMPAC
Amy Cimini and Katierine Young of the duo Architeuthis Walks on Land.
Violin soloist Miranda Cuckson is known for her graceful tone, technical refinement, and elegant interpretation of classical repertoire. Complementing Cuckson will be viola-bassoon duo Architeuthis Walks on Land, who have established a unique reputation for using these classical instruments toward free improvisation and experimentation. This concert will be all about showcasing the beauty of contrast. Measured composition will meet fierce expression, traversing the full sonic and emotional spectrum. Architeuthis Walks on Land were recently in residence at EMPAC to record new work, while Cuckson will draw on repertoire by Greek avant-garde composer Iannis Xenakis, American composer of “new complexity”-style music Brian Ferneyhough, and French “spectral” composer Georg Friedrich Haas.
The performance begins at 8 p.m. in the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) Studio 2. Admission is $6 for students.
“Media-Dance” Pioneer Charles Atlas To Speak at EMPAC
In the fall of 2015, Charles Atlas will premiere a newly commissioned dance piece—developed in residence at EMPAC—that will, for the first time, integrate choreography with 3-D film technology. To launch his residency and introduce his work to the Rensselaer community, Atlas will be delivering a talk in the EMPAC Theater on Thursday, April 23, where he will screen a selection of his past work. For more than 40 years, Atlas has been combining dance and cinema, pioneering a genre called “media-dance,” where movement is composed strictly for the camera. For a decade, he was videographer-in-residence with the famed Merce Cunningham Dance Company and has undertaken many collaborative projects with artists such as Marina Abramovic and Antony and the Johnsons. For his new work at EMPAC, he’ll be collaborating with Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener, two young dancers and choreographers.
The talk begins at 7 p.m. in the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) Theater. Admission is free.