Looking Through Trees, Irondale Center,
85 S. Oxford St at Lafayette www.irondale.org. Visit www.chrischalfant.com for discount code. Chris Chalfant, composer, producer,
director with Meg Brooker, dance, Michael-David Gordon, acting, Joe Giardullo, soprano saxophone, Ken Yamazaki, percussion, Tim Cryan, lighting design, Al Margolis sounds and sampling.
Come sit down with us to witness an
evening of total theater. Chris Chalfant’s opera without the opera singer
combines the forces of dance, acting, music, sound and lighting design with a
full cast of incredibly talented and unique artists in their own right. Their
creative expertise and insight will amplify the concept of Looking Through Trees, which is
composed, produced and directed by Chalfant. Chalfant brings together works
dating back to the 80’s through this year to tell this tale of a Monk, his cat,
and his search for peace.
This accessible and yet provocative
show is a total sensorial experience that will leave you with memories of
sights and sounds that will last long after the last note is “sung”. It will
bring you on a journey of a full range of emotions, give you time to pause, and
throw you into a fast-paced tizzy with laughter, awe and amazement. You will
want to dance in your seat. You will be captivated by a world of mystery,
strangeness, beauty, and lyricism. Looking
Through Trees, a highly structured, yet improvisational piece is an
experience that will give the performers and audience-alike a unique sensorial
experience unlike any one has witnessed before.
Chalfant combines her unique blend of
sonorities ranging from the ancient traditions of Africa, India, from the
Eastern spiritual traditions, to the most far-reaching composers in the
classical and jazz idioms.
The original Looking Through Trees paper collage, created in 2008 based on
the memory of her peaceful feeling while looking up through the trees in the
summer will be displayed in the gallery in the balcony of Irondale Center along
with Sabine Bodemann’s earth pieces and other artists' rendition of their
interpretation of nature.
Chris Chalfant has been developing the
concept of “polycyclic collage” for many decades. This production of LTT is yet
another dimension in which the concept continues to manifest. It is a blending
and acceptance of all rhythms and of all cycles, harmonizing and being open to
other rhythms and energies that we may not understand. It is about connecting
through our common ancestry - nature. Chris Chalfant’s ongoing curiosity for
the “different” has led her down many paths, through many cultures, mediums,
genres and their links throughout global history. While in music school
studying classical piano at Kent State, Chalfant also took a class in African
Music and Dance with Halim El Dabh where she learned how to feel polyrhythm.
This has become a key element in her work.
In 1983
Chris Chalfant went on to study Eurhythmics at Longy School and received her MM
at New England Conservatory in 1988 where she studied with George Russell.
Dreams and Nightmares for solo piano, and Mulasto for chamber-jazz ensemble
were her first classical/jazz pieces composed during the same period. Chalfant
also studied Senegalese, Hungarian and Scottish dance, played for ballet and
Graham classes, modeled for art classes and studied Japanese culture. She went
on to New York in 1993 to delve into the “out” jazz scene and to practice
Aikido and Buddhism with Sensei Joseph Jarman. Chalfant later performed and
recorded with him for many years. She has many recordings as leader, and over
500 compositions. A quarter of them are in Book of Unstandards. She is also in
Notations21, Silent Solos - Improvisers Speak, and Maximillian de Lafayette’s
Encyclopedia of the 21st Century. Chalfant grew up doing musical
theater, played Regina in Ghosts with Theater S. and spent many years in the
80’s and early 90’s doing performance art and “sound-movement-poetry”. She has
produced many festivals, concerts and special events over a thirty-year span.
Michael David Gordon has been a member of the Irondale Ensemble
Project for 18 years. His roles have included Barrachio in Much Ado About
Nothing, The Stage Manager in Our Town, and most recently, Sam Slate in
Irondale Ensemble Project’s Wasted! Gordon is also in demand as a rhythm and
blues singer and voice-over. www.irondale.org
Meg Brooker’s performance background ranges from Isadora Duncan
dance (Lori Belilove & Company) to avant-garde theatre. Credits include
Austin, New York, Moscow, Amsterdam, Vienna, and Sevastopol. Meg specializes in
and blogs about early modern dance history and techniques (www.mb-arts.com/http://tunicsintexas.blogspot.com).
Tim Cryan, lighting
designer has had the opportunity to collaborate with a variety of artists
including: Paul Bargetto, Diamanda Galas, Fiasco Theatre Company & The Nature Theatre of Oklahoma. He is a
nominee for the 2010 New York Innovative Theatre Award in Lighting Design for
his work with director Erwin Maas on Alex Van Warmerdam’s“Welkom in het Bos”. http://timcryan.net
Al
Margolis has been active under the name If,
Bwana since 1984, making music that has swung between fairly spontaneous studio
constructions and more process-oriented composition. He is co-founder of
experimental music label Pogus, which he continues to run. www.pogus.com
Joe Giardullo is known as a composer and soprano saxophonist
in avant jazz and new music. He developed his Gravity compositions in the 90’s
and has studied Indian music and the Lydian Chromatic Concept. He has toured
internationally, working with Anthony Braxton, Marilyn Crispell and Steve Lacy.
In 1979 he received an NEA grant.
Ken Yamazaki, percussionist and composer, has
performed at some of the world’s most prestigious institutions, including
Lincoln Center and Museum of Modern Art. Collaborators include Steve Coleman,
Thulani Davis, Joseph Jarman, Ken McIntyre, John Medeski, Elliot Sharpe and
Reggie Workman.
Acknowledgements
- This
project is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of
the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by the
Brooklyn Arts Council, Inc. (BAC). Portions of this piece were rehearsed
at Mark Morris Dance Center as part of a grant from NYSCA. Portions of
this piece were developed at Noyes School of Rhythm, Portland, CT.
