Whole Piano Project
This project is a happy collaboration with composer Nicholas DeMaison. Pianist Mark Polesky joins us for our debut performance, on May 22, 2007.
Check out some excerpts from our last performance.
Whole Piano Interpretations explores the possibilities of gesture and enactive approaches to composition and performance. We have created a piece for prepared piano, electronics and two performers, one of whom plays at the keyboard and another who manipulates the materials inside the instrument. Our setup involves a series of microphones (free-standing mics and contact mics) mounted on and around the piano and soundboard that sample sound, and allows for processing and spatialization. A video camera is arranged such that a top-down view of the inside of the prepared piano can be analyzed by a computer. This allows for different regions of the soundboard to be mapped and played, not only by physically manipulating the piano preparations themselves, but also via the movement of hands, arms and body, as they move across the computer's visual field. For example, spatialized sound can be "thrown" around the room by a sweep of the peformer's arms.
