Our January 17th performance, Les Boreades, is many things – a concert, a visual art exhibit, an experiment in concert presentation, and an impressive collaborative effort between our musicians, artist Brad Johnson, Professor Elizabeth Margulis, Portland-based Glowbox, and you, our loyal audience. We take our concert title from Rameau’s famous opera, a proper name for this all-French concert that includes other masterpieces by Debussy, Ravel, and Boulez.

When we began brainstorming on how and where to present this program, I recalled a project I did years ago with my friend Brad Johnson, when we created a “virtual venue” in the basement of the then-Hilton hotel downtown. He was intrigued by the idea of doing something like this again and brought the wonderful folks at Glowbox on board to help us create this project.

Combining music and visual art is nothing new. Great set designs bring operas and ballets to life. More and more we’re seeing traditional music presenters seeking to transform their normal venues with visuals that enrich the experience of hearing the music. I encourage everyone to check out the Oregon Symphony’s collaboration with artist Rose Bond in March. It’s going to be fantastic!

The question of how visual context affects how we hear music led me to Professor Elizabeth Margulis, the director of the Music Cognition Lab at Princeton, and an expert on the psychology of listening to music. I’m THRILLED that she has agreed to join us on the 17th for a pre-concert chat at 6pm. Her work has been getting a lot of attention, with recent profiles on Netflix and The New York Times. Check out her recent interview on NPR regarding her research on repetition in music.

The performance will take place at PICA (Portland Institute for Contemporary Art), which is essentially a huge open space, the perfect canvas for our project. Our installation will be a square stage area with projection screens on two of the sides, and open on the other two sides. The audience will sit on all four sides and will have the opportunity to choose how they want to see and hear our performance, either through the translucent screens, or on the non-screen sides. These pictures of our prototype give you an idea of what’s in store:

Brad and Glowbox have very thoughtfully created visual art that complements and connects with the music. The images Brad has assembled include his field photography in the Mt. St. Helens crater, the Stonehenge sculpture at Maryhill, and other scenes from his travels around the world. The result is a gorgeous visual interpretation of the music that we feel redefines what a venue can be in live performance.

Oregon artists coming together to push boundaries – that’s what 45^th Parallel has always been about. We hope that you enjoy this experiment in performance we’ve created… vive le France!

Ron Blessinger
Executive Director, 45^th Parallel Universe