OZ ARTS PRESENTS ‘LOVE SONG TO THE SUN’ COMPOSED AND PERFORMED BY ELECTRIC VIOLINIST TRACY SILVERMAN WITH THE VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY ORCHESTRA ON OCT. 5
New, Multimedia Performance for Six-String Electric Violin and Orchestra Part of OZ Arts’ TNT Local Spotlight Series.
NASHVILLE, TENN. – August 10, 2017 – Redefining the role of the violin in contemporary music, Nashville-based composer/violinist Tracy Silverman has contributed significantly to the development and repertoire for the electric six-string violin and what he calls “21st century violin playing.” He composed and performs Love Song to the Sun, a new multimedia work for six-string electric violin and orchestra, with constructed media design by Todd Winkler. The performance utilizes interactive projections to tell a dramatic story of survival and surrender. It is a fusion of audio and visual technologies containing symphonic breadth and cinematic dimension, where the performer himself morphs into the abstract. In a departure from traditional concert surrounds, Tracy Silverman and the Vanderbilt University Orchestra, led by Robin Fountain, reimagine the traditional classical orchestral performance practice for both performers and audience inside OZ Arts’ non-traditional warehouse space. This performance, a TN premiere, is part of OZ Arts’ popular TNT Local Spotlight Series.
Love Song to the Sun will be performed by Tracy Silverman and the Vanderbilt University Orchestra conducted by Robin Fountain [with Blair School of Music] on October 5, at 7:30 pm (Doors open at 6:30pm). Tickets go on sale September 6, 2017 are $20 and can be purchased at www.ozartsnashville.org.
BBC Radio calls Silverman “the greatest living exponent of the electric violin,” and The Chicago Tribune praises his “blazing virtuosity,” adding, “You’ll be astonished that anyone can play the violin like that.” The New York Times praised Silverman’s “fleet agility and tangy expressivity, with wailing hints of Jimi Hendrix”.
“String playing must reflect our popular musical culture or risk becoming [old-fashioned and] irrelevant,” says Silverman. “I’m so thrilled to be working with the innovative conductor Robin Fountain and the very creative people at OZ Arts to reinvent the traditional violin concerto in an exciting and meaningful way that reflects the richness of our contemporary American musical culture, working outside the classical box to create a vibrant orchestral experience.”
“We are excited to present yet another first in OZ Arts’ TNT series – a performance with 77 undergraduate musicians!” says Lauren Snelling, Artistic Director at OZ Arts Nashville. “Tracy, Robin and Rus [OZ Arts’ Production Manager & Lighting Designer] have devised and designed an immersive concert environment that offers the undergraduate players a unique performance experience and provides the audience with a visual and sonic landscape that is customized to enhance the story behind the music.”
Well known as an innovative, electric violin virtuoso, Silverman’s repertoire includes concertos written specifically for him by renowned composers John Adams, Terry Riley, Nico Muhly, and Kenji Bunch. Silverman was formerly first violinist with the groundbreaking Turtle Island String Quartet. He tours internationally as a soloist with orchestras including the LA Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Montreal Symphony and the Adelaide Festival Orchestra, and under the baton of esteemed conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Marin Alsop, Neeme Jarvi, Giancarlo Guerrero and Leon Botstein, among many others, with his solo performances and as a collaborator with other artists and ensembles. Recent highlights include performances of Silverman’s 2nd electric violin concerto, “Between the Kiss and the Chaos,” and a return to Carnegie Hall to premier Nico Muhly’s Seeing Is Believing with the American Symphony Orchestra as well as the publication of his instructional method, Strum Bowing. A long-standing advocate for music education, Silverman is an in-demand clinician and on faculty at Belmont University in Nashville.
Todd Winkler is a composer and multimedia artist on the faculty at Brown University, where he is Co-Director of MEME (Multimedia and Electronic Music Experiments). His work explores ways in which human actions can affect sound and images produced by computers in multimedia dance/theatre productions, interactive video installations, and concert pieces for computers and instruments. He is the author of Composing Interactive Music (MIT Press, 1998), as well as papers that bridge the fields of music, video art, cognitive science and dance/theatre. Recent commissions include the “Entaglemet Witness” created with Cindy Cummings for the Kilkenny Arts Festival in Ireland, and “Glint,” shown at the Bell Gallery at Brown University and at the Perth Institute for Contemporary Art, Australia.
Love Song to the Sun is co-commissioned by the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra, the Rogue Valley Symphony, the Brown University Orchestra and the Vanderbilt University Orchestra.
About OZ Arts Nashville
Since opening in 2014, OZ Arts Nashville, a 501(c)(3) contemporary arts center, has changed the cultural landscape of the city. Housed in the former C.A.O. cigar warehouse owned by Nashville’s Ozgener family, OZ Arts, under the artistic leadership of Lauren Snelling, brings world-class performances and art installations to the city, and gives ambitious local artists opportunities to work on a grand scale. The flexible 10,000 square-foot, column-free venue, nestled amidst five acres of artfully landscaped grounds, is continually reconfigured to serve artists’ imaginations, and to challenge and inspire a diverse range of curious audiences. TNT is a curated series of newly created artworks by Tennessee-based artists. The TNT series is supported in part by the Tennessee Arts Commission and the Danner Foundation.
For more information, please visit http://www.ozartsnashville.org/.
Media Contact
Amy A. Atkinson at Amy Atkinson Communications, call/text at 615-305-8118, or email amy@amyacommunications.com. Photos are available upon request.