Krannert Center has announced the dates and schedule for its 2017 version of the Sonified Sustainability Festival. The Fest will take place at KCPA starting on April 20th and go through the 28th, coinciding with Earth Day on the 22nd. The Fest focuses on celebrating sustainability and local sourcing as the theme. Events include a performance by a musician who plays on homemade instruments made with recycled materials; showings of environmentally themed movies; and “soundwalks” – guided nature walks meant to educate attendees on natural sound environments and the importance of their preservation. These walks will take place in the parks of Urbana.
All events are free, open to the public, and designed to be enjoyed by all ages. View the press release below for more information.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
Sonified Sustainability Festival
Jason Finkelman
Festival Celebrating Intersections of Music and Sustainability
Sonified Sustainability Festival Returns to Krannert Center to Celebrate Earth Day
Various Locations April 20-28
URBANA, IL—Global Arts Performance Initiatives, an engagement program of Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, is excited to announce the schedule of programming for the Sonified Sustainability Festival April 20-28, 2017
. Festivities kick off April 20 at 7:30pm with New York City-based instrument builder and jazz musician Cooper-Moore performing a Sudden Sound Concert at Krannert Art Museum. Sonified Sustainability Festival continues with an Earth Day Celebration, Saturday April 22 from 2pm-5pm at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. The celebration will feature New York City-based artists Terry Dame, who performs innovative electric music on homemade instruments made from recycled materials; Bradford Reed and his amazing pencilina, an electric board zither played by striking, bowing, and plucking the strings; and Geoff Gersh who pushes the sonic capabilities of electric guitar with and without the aid of electric devices and found objects. Along with the featured artists, there will be special guests from the community, environmentally-themed craft activities, and an information fair on sustainable organizations. On Sunday April 23, Reel Orchestrette, featuring Reed and Gersh, will provide live music accompaniment to the 1924 silent film The Epic of Everest directed by J. B. L. Noel at Spurlock Museum. On Tuesday, April 25, Sonified Sustainability Festival acknowledges the 35th Anniversary of the seminal environmental film Koyaanisqatsi directed by Godfrey Reggio featuring music by Phillip Glass with a screening of the film at Spurlock Museum. The festival concludes on April 27 and 28 with soundwalks scheduled in Urbana parks led by Chicago-based audio artist Eric Leonardson, co-chair of Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology, an organization dedicated to exploring the role of sound in natural habitats and human societies and promoting public dialogue concerning the identification, preservation, and restoration of natural and cultural sound environments. To register for soundwalks, see links below.
Sonified Sustainability events are open to the public free of admission and are suitable for all-ages. Supporting their educational mission, the festival is sponsored by the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with additional funding from Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and co-sponsoring support from Krannert Art Museum and Unit One at Allen Hall.
Sonified Sustainability Festival Schedule at a glance:
Th April 20 7:30 pm Cooper-Moore Sudden Sound Concert, Krannert Art Museum
Sa April 22 2-5pm Earth Day Celebration featuring Terry Dame, Bradford Reed, and Geoff Gersh, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
Su April 23 7:00 pm Reel Orchestrette, The Epic of Everest Spurlock Museum
Tu April 25 7:00 pm Koyaanisqatsi screening, Spurlock Museum
Th-Fr April 27-28 2:30, 4:30, 6:30 pm Eric Leonardson soundwalks, Urbana parks
Terry Dame is a New York City-based composer, multi-instrumentalist, instrument builder, circuit bender, and educator who performs on her original interactive sensor-driven instruments. Dame is on faculty in the MFA Computer Art and BFA Film Departments at Marymount Manhattan College. She tours nationally performing and teaching workshops on instrument building with recycled objects and interactive technologies to all ages.
Cooper-Moore is a New York City based multi-instrumentalist, jazz pianist, composer, and instrument builder/designer. His work is informed by Creative Improvised Music, jazz avant-garde, and the Gospel, Blues, and Bluegrass traditions of his roots in rural segregated Virginia. He has toured extensively in Europe and the United States sharing his music and his passion for engaging students.
Reel Orchestrette, a collaboration begun in 2012 by Geoff Gersh & Bradford Reed, is dedicated to the art of live musical accompaniment to silent films. Expanding the sonic capabilities of electric guitar through electronics and preparations, Gersh composes for film makers, painters, and choreographers, and performs in various bands in New York City. Reed’s original instrument, the pencilina, is an electric ten-stringed collision of the hammer dulcimer, slide guitar, koto, and fretless bass with six pickups of varied types.
Eric Leonardson is a Chicago-based audio artist who serves as the Executive Director of the World Listening Project, co-chair of the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology, and is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Sound at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Leonardson performs internationally with the Springboard, a self-built instrument made in 1994.
Jason Finkelman, is director of Global Arts Performance Initiatives, an outreach program of Krannert Center for the Performing Arts since 2012. As an artist, he focuses on improvised music, cross-cultural collaborative projects, and composition for dance, theatre, and film. A Philadelphia-born percussionist, Finkelman specializes in the berimbau, an Afro-Brazilian musical bow.
For more information about the upcoming events:
Visit: https://krannertcenter.com/
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To register for soundwalks:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/
soundwalk-with-eric- leonardson-tickets-33278534994 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/
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