SPECIAL PROJECTS

  
  The Minimum Security Composers Collective is a group of four composers dedicated to blazing new paths through the contemporary music arena. Since 1998, they have worked together in projects that feed on novel approaches to bringing cutting-edge music to the stage. Current and recent projects with MSCC include Di/verge with Eighth Blackbird, Sendak Radio Show with Relâche, and Studies in Wood and Metal with Eduardo Leandro. [Visit the Minimum Security website]  
       
 

Korczak's Orphans (in progress)
Opera in three acts, to a libretto by Susan Gubernat

Korczak's Orphans is a full-length opera, a moving, impassioned story based on the life of the internationally renowned Holocaust martyr, Janusz Korczak (1878-1942). Korczak, a Polish Jew, was a medical doctor, Army officer, radio celebrity, and author who sacrificed himself to protect 200 children in a Jewish orphanage he founded amidst the chaos of the Nazi-occupied Warsaw Ghetto. Korczak lovingly maintained the orphanage as a refuge, providing a haven until the final moments when he and his orphans were suddenly expelled from the orphanage onto train cars transporting them to certain death at Treblinka. [Visit the Korczak's Orphans website]

  
       
  Pianist Lara Downes

Bodies in Motion
Piano music with video projection

Bodies in Motion is a concert-length integrated multimedia piece performed by pianist Lara Downes combining performance and composition with the non-traditional canvas of projected imagery into an exploration of the audio/visual senses.

The project explores the relationships between body, movement, sound, and technology, pairing works by three of the most creative and exciting young American composers on the contemporary scene: Kevin Puts (Alternating Current), Adam Silverman (Nocturnes and Reveries) and Laurie San Martin (Free Fall) with visual, virtual environments created live by artists Glenda Drew and Jesse Drew in collaboration with choreographer David Grenke.

Bodies in Motion explores various qualities of movement through an infusion of imagery mixed live from both recorded/edited footage and interactive real-time footage of Downes' performance to illustrate the physical nature of the musical experience.

Showcasing the voices of three distinctly individual composers with a range of influences from the classical canon to electronic rock, the piece reinterprets the concert-performance format, reflecting Downes' unique gift for breaking down barriers and opening up new musical vistas to audiences of all ages and backgrounds. Bodies in Motion takes an innovative approach by integrating new media technologies into an exhilarating sensory experience.

[Visit the Bodies in Motion website]