I’ve had the privilege of working with Brad Johnson over many years, starting in 2005 with Frozen Music, the first of our projects that sought to create a “virtual venue.” Brad and his team created an incredible, immersive visual world within which we performed live music that we had commissioned for the event. I also was introduced to our dear friend Danny Rosenberg, who is always the person who makes these things work.

It was cool, and yes, literally visionary… and thus two beautiful friendships were born…

Watch excerpts from Frozen Music

I next worked with Brad and the brilliant folks at Glowbox to produce Les Boreades, a live immersive visual and sonic experience that challenged the conventions of live performance. The program featured a survey of French music, including works by Rameau, Debussy, Ravel, and Boulez. It too was very cool, quite visionary, and raised the bar even higher for what we imagined this kind of multi-disciplinary show could be…

Watch excerpts from Les Boreades

And now we’re back with Lost in Deep Time, described by Brad as “…an exploration of geologic themes through landscapes of our region. The first half is a live performance of my 2023 media installation Lost in Deep Time featuring Andy Akiho’s Prospects for a Misplaced Year.”

Watch excerpts from Lost in Deep Time

“The second half previews my current project about the Ice Age Floods, He Who Saw the Deep. These five works explore the enigmatic landscapes that inspired J Harlen Bretz’s cataclysmic flood theory set to a musical program performed by Pyxis Quartet.”

Watch excerpts from He Who Saw the Deep

Our performance takes place at 7 PM on April 12th, at the beautiful Straub Collaborative space, our favorite venue to push boundaries with experimental and convention challenging projects (ticket information below).

It’s been a wonderful experience to read the story of Bretz’s groundbreaking work on solving the mysteries of the great Missoula Flood. Having grown up in eastern Oregon, we had no idea of how our lives were shaped by that cataclysmic event over 17,000 years ago. And now as a 30+ year resident of Portland, it is humbling to understand how those epic forces of nature created the geography that we all love so much, from the Columbia Gorge to the bay in Astoria. Our concert seeks to tell that uniquely Oregon story in music and visual art, featuring music by the leading composers of our time, and performed by myself and my fantastic colleagues in 45^th Parallel. We hope that you’ll join us for what promises to be a wonderful evening of musical and visual art!

Ron Blessinger
Violinist, 45^th Parallel Universe

Lost in Deep Time
April 12th, 7pm
Straub Collaborative
3333 NW Industrial St, Portland, OR, 97210
Program and ticket information

WORKS
Andy Akiho: Prospects of a Misplaced Year
Anna Thorvaldsdottir: Sola, Mvmt. I: Prologue
György Ligeti: Sonata for Solo Cello, Mvmt. I: Dialogo
inti figgis-vizueta: the motion between three worlds
Anna Meredith: Chorale
Anna Meredith: Anno / Four Seasons: Haze (Summer)

PERFORMERS
Ron Blessinger, violin
Greg Ewer, violin
Charles Noble, viola
Marilyn de Oliviera, cello
Yoko Greeney, piano
Brad Johnson, visual artist