BREAKING ICE
PERFORMANCES
In 2014, our performances focused on deepening engagement with the environment, in collaboration with Greenheart International, and The Recyclery Collective.
A series of sampler events culminated in Breaking Ice, our main 2014 event in October. Guest artists for these performances included Winifred Haun & Dancers, modern dancer Matthew McMunn, and video artist Jessica Segall.
Our eclectic program included a composition for Electronics, Cello, and Video about climate change. The piece was funded in part by an Arts-Science Initiative University of Chicago grant, and involved a fracturing and melting ice experiment
by two wonderful University of Chicaog postdoc Physicists, Ivo Peters and Qin Xu. Other pieces featured on the program included Tree-themed dance choreography set to tree-themed music by Handel and Vivaldi and filmed synchronized biking and dance choreography set to an original composition by Joel Styzens, amongst other equally innovative and exciting works.
A 2014 Breaking Ice donation was given to the Awassa Children's Project, an Illinois nonprofit organization that raises funds for orphans, raises awareness of HIV/Aids in Ethiopia, and initiates environmental projects such as planting trees, providing clean drinking water, and utilizing natural energy sources (such as solar panels).
PERFORMANCE EXCERPTS
Breaking Ice
Composer and Electronics: Iddo Aharony
Co-creator and Cellist: Sophie Webber
Video Artist: Jessica Segall
Physicist-collaborators: Ivo Peters and Qin Xu
Breaking Ice is the outcome of an extended collaboration between its artistic creators and University of Chicago physicists Peters and Xu. The project aims to speak to the increasing rate of melting and disintegrating glaciers by creating a laboratory-controlled model of the much larger-scale phenomenon. Ice - crushed and melting - was examined and documented, and ultimately used as core source material and inspiration for the musical/visual piece. The music combines improvisatory elements and real-time electronics with pre-composed sections. The work was made possible thanks to a 2014 University of Chicago Arts-Science Initiative Grant, as well as a residency at the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, Wyoming.
Bike Again
Composer: Joel Styzens (composer, dulcimer, bike percussion)
Co-creator and Cellist: Sophie Webber
Electronic effects: Iddo Aharony
Video Artist: Alireza Ghoreishi
Bicycle movements in video directed by: Matthew McMunn
This piece came out of a collaboration with Rogers Park's second hand bike project, The Recyclery, and was performed at "Breaking Ice" in 2014. Synchronized biking and industrial recycling integrates with dance and newly-composed music. Following this collaboration, Alireza Ghoreishi edited the work for use as The Recyclery's promotional music video.
Is it too late to touch you, dear?
Music: How Slow the Wind (2001) by Osvaldo Golijov (b.1960-)
Choreography: Winifred Haun
Solo Soprano: Henriët Fourie
Fused Muse Ensemble String Quartet: Yuriy Geyer (vn), Benton Wedge (vla), Jean Hatmaker (vc)
Dancers: Elysia Banks, Timothy Bowser, Zada Cheeks, Ariel Dorsey, and Kristina Edwards
Golijov composed this aria in response to the sudden death of his friend Mariel Stubrin. Here, the music is put in dialogue with choreography that moves, like the music, between the imagery of water and wind, to touch upon loss, transcendence, the pausing of time, and what we are left with when someone leaves us. Here is an excerpt from the premiere given at "Breaking Ice" in 2014.
Is it too late to touch you, dear?
Music: How Slow the Wind (2001) by Osvaldo Golijov (b.1960-)
Choreography: Winifred Haun
Solo Soprano: Henriët Fourie
Fused Muse Ensemble String Quartet: Yuriy Geyer (vn), Benton Wedge (vla), Jean Hatmaker (vc)
Dancers: Elysia Banks, Timothy Bowser, Zada Cheeks, Ariel Dorsey, and Kristina Edwards
Golijov composed this aria in response to the sudden death of his friend Mariel Stubrin. Here, the music is put in dialogue with choreography that moves, like the music, between the imagery of water and wind, to touch upon loss, transcendence, the pausing of time, and what we are left with when someone leaves us. Here is an excerpt from the premiere given at "Breaking Ice" in 2014.
Fragile Shade
Music: Ombra Mai Fu (“Never was a Shade” --opening aria in the 1738 opera, Serse), HWV40 by George Frederic Handel (1685-1759)
Soprano: Henriët Fourie
Piano: Jeeyoon Kim
Pre-recorded sound compiled by Matthew McMunn (source material includes baritone Nelson Eddy performing Ombra Mai Fu, ambient sounds from “Freesounds.com” and sounds collected by Matthew)
Choreography/Dancer: Matthew McMunn
Soprano and dancer contemplate the nebulous and often dissonant relationship between man and nature.
Fragile Shade
Music: Ombra Mai Fu (“Never was a Shade” --opening aria in the 1738 opera, Serse), HWV40 by George Frederic Handel (1685-1759)
Soprano: Henriët Fourie
Piano: Jeeyoon Kim
Pre-recorded sound compiled by: Matthew McMunn (source material includes baritone Nelson Eddy performing Ombra Mai Fu, ambient sounds from “Freesounds.com” and sounds collected by Matthew)
Choreography/Dancer: Matthew McMunn
Soprano and dancer contemplate the nebulous and often dissonant relationship between man and nature.
Cold Air
Music: “Winter” from The Four Seasons RV297 by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Choreography: Winifred Haun
Solo Violin: Dawn Gingrich
Fused Muse Ensemble String Quartet: Yuriy Geyer (vn), Benton Wedge (vla), Jean Hatmaker (vc)
Dancers: Elysia Banks, Timothy Bowser, Shannon Brodie, Zada Cheeks, Ariel Dorsey, and Kristina Edwards
Winter is coming... and you’ve surely heard this piece before. The choreography was inspired by the music and contemplating upon the role and power of nature. The work was premiered at Breaking Ice in 2014.