Orchestra of St. Luke’s Streams Two Clyne Premieres
Anna Clyne, as OSL’s composer in residence, curates a special program that features the world premiere of a new clarinet quintet as well as a debut screening of a new film collaboration with visual artist Jyll Bradley.
On Wednesday, March 24, 2021 at 6:30pm ET, Orchestra of St. Luke’s presents Sounds & Stories: Anna Clyne and Jyll Bradley, a live streamed performance that features two world premieres by composer Anna Clyne – Strange Loops for Clarinet Quintet and Woman Holding a Balance for String Quartet with a film by artists Jyll Bradley and David Ward. The program, curated by Clyne and narrated by Bradley and Clyne, also includes selections from J.S. Bach’s Three Part Inventions and Art of the Fugue and Steve Reich’s New York Counterpoint.
Clyne’s 17-minute Strange Loops for Clarinet Quintet is based on a concept developed by cognitive science scholar Douglas Hofstadter in his book I am a Strange Loop, where he explores his own sense of “I.” Hofstadter writes, “In the end, we are self-perceiving, self-inventing, locked-in mirages that are little miracles of self-reference.” In Strange Loops, Clyne explores musical loops – motifs and gestures that repeat, morph, modulate, and recapitulate in various guises. At the heart of this piece is a sense of playfulness and yearning – inspired by the creative process in isolation.
The world premiere of artist Jyll Bradley’s seven-minute film, Woman Holding a Balance, features new music for string quartet composed by Clyne. The film centers upon a performance work artist David Ward made in response to Bradley’s sculpture Dutch/Light. Ward revisited his first love as a young art student – the paintings of Dutch artist Joannes Vermeer (1632-1675), who is well known for his use of light as a framing device for ideas around time, human interiority, and space. In the film, shot over one sun-filled day, Ward loops in and out of the sculpture performing gestures from the subjects of Vermeer's paintings. This film brings together three artists from different generations and times whose work shares the languages of light and space.
In Orchestra of St. Luke’s Sounds & Stories series, chamber music is paired with words in performances curated by dynamic, modern writers working across multiple genres and hosted by Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor David Hyde Pierce.
> Further information on Work: Woman Holding a Balance
> Further information on Work: Strange Loops
Photo: Jennifer Taylor
