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The Daedalus Quartet, Penn’s internationally renowned string-quartet-in-residence, creates an immersive evening of suspenseful, demonic, and hauntingly beautiful soundscapes, looming shadows, and world-class new music in a site-specific, multi-media concert at the Penn Museum of Anthropology & Archaeology.
Promo video from Christopher Andrew Studios on Vimeo.
George Crumb’s visionary Black Angels: Thirteen Images of the Dark Land for Electric String Quartet with guest shadow-choreography by designer/director Sebastienne Mundheim, (Founder/Director White Box Theatre) anchors the program. The program opens with a new work by Joshua Hey, and concludes with Scott Ordway’s whisper play, Tonight We Tell the Secrets of the World, a 2016 commission inspired by the archaeology of the Penn Museum and the acoustic of the magnificent 90 foot dome of the Chinese Rotunda.
Crumb completed his masterpiece on Friday, the thirteenth of March, 1970, “in tempore belli,” and we revisit it on Friday the thirteenth, in another time of uncertainty. Let the spirit of the music move you, surrounded by ancient artifacts and evocative shadow projections, enveloped in the resonance of strings, whispering, chanting, eerie glass harmonicas, and gongs. Don’t miss this exquisite evening, copresented by the University of Pennsylvania Music Department and Bowerbird.
Friday 13 January 2017 | 8 pm
Tickets are available here.
GEORGE CRUMB: Black Angels: Thirteen Images of the Dark Land (1970) for electric string quartet
Composed at the height of the Vietnam War, this vitally important work of the 20th-century avantgarde evokes electric insects, bones and flutes, and music diabolical and divine to create an unforgettable and powerful experience.
SCOTT ORDWAY: Tonight We Tell the Secrets of the World (2016) A Whisper Play for soprano voice, alto saxophone, string ensemble, lighting design, and 150 whispered voices
The Daedalus Quartet and special guests present the first reprise of Scott Ordway’s critically-acclaimed “whisper play”, a crowd-interactive work in which members of the audience join the ensemble to create a large-scale choir of whispered voices, signaled by an array of colored lights. Commissioned by the Penn Museum with support from the American Composers Forum. audio/video: www.scottordway.com/secrets
JOSHUA HEY: lens flare from Alpha Centauri: Daedalus Commission & World Premiere (2017)
A new work for string quartet by Joshua Hey, a Penn Ph.D. candidate who has also studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, opens the program.
Daedalus Quartet and special guests