With the long, busy weeks ramping up as the fall semester unfolds, students at The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts find different ways to multitask–like attending a chamber concert while getting some much-needed rest.
Last week (Oct. 1) Richard Valitutto (Music MFA 11) along with Charles du Preez (Music MFA 11), Emi Tamura (Music MFA 11), and music faculty member Mark Menzies, presented a “mini sleep” concert of contemplative and ambient chamber music from 10 pm-2 am in The Wild Beast.
The concert, which was a shorter version of the traditional CalArts all-night sleep concert series, recently revived by composer James Klopfleisch (Music MFA 10), explored the effects of listening while dozing in and out of consciousness.
The first half of the program included several shorter works for solo, duo and trio, including compositions by John Cage, Nick Deyoe, Morton Feldman, Somei Satoh and Valentin Silvestrov, among others. The second half on the concert was solely comprised of Morton Feldman’s late masterpiece for violin and piano, for John Cage.
The video above features excerpts from pieces performed by pianist Valitutto and violinist Menzies.
The first full-length Sleep Concert, led by performer-composer Archie Carey (Music MFA 11), is scheduled for Oct. 15 from 11 pm to 9 am, outside in the S. Mark Taper Foundation Courtyard. The concert will feature new, quiet 45-minute works by CalArtian composers all evening long.