Wild Up’s Winter Festival Darkness Sounding Returns

Wild Up’s latest winter series, ‘Darkness Sounding,’ features a number of CalArtians. | Image from Facebook.

Each winter, the classical music collective Wild Up presents a new series inspired by the darkest and shortest days of the year. Darkness Sounding opens Friday (Jan. 15), and runs through Feb. 14. The winter festival takes place virtually or at socially distanced outdoor venues at various locations around Los Angeles and Joshua Tree. The entire festival is available to members of Wild Up’s Fan Club on Patreon. 

Wild Up, led by conductor and composer Christopher Rountree, shapes Darkness Sounding around the new realities we face because of the pandemic, and the questions that have arisen during these difficult times. Displaying a diversity of thought and experimentation, the festival program features a number of innovative, imaginative, and intimate concerts, films, and experiences, many of which are created and performed by CalArtians. 

Check out the following Darkness Sounding performances below, also featuring CalArtian musicians:

richard valitutto (Music MFA 11): simple lines / quiet music / silent songs
Sunday, Jan. 17, 6:58 am – 5:08 pm PST / 9:58 am – 8:08 pm EST
“richard valitutto performs an all-day virtual house concert, a livestream lasting from LA’s sunrise to sunset. He marks the passing hours in pianistic solitude — playing music of long durations and gentle contemplation, full of silences, simplicity, and quietude.” 

Chris Kallmyer (MFA Music 09): Two hearts are better than one
Sign-ups open: Monday, Jan. 18, 7 am PST
“Titled after a line in Bruce Springsteen’s seminal 1980 double-album, The River, Two hearts are better than one is a work for two windchimes spread throughout the city of Los Angeles. Each set of windchimes will be lent to festival goers for weeklong listening sessions. The work will run throughout the four-week festival, departing Kallmyer’s workshop Jan.18 and circling one another in conversation across the city. “

Odeya Nini (Music MFA 11): I see you
Sign-ups open: Wednesday, Jan. 20, 7 am PST, first-come, first-served
Performances: Thursday, Feb. 11 and Friday, Feb. 12, by appointment
“A private 5 minute solo vocal performance for a household, at a safe distance outside their home. These 5 minutes will remind us that there is a physical body at the other end of human communication, a body that is experiencing this moment in history with you, that feels you, that hears you, that sees you.” 

Archie Carey (Music MFA 11): Desert Sound Visit
Sign-ups open: Thursday, Jan. 21, 7 am PST, first-come, first-served
Performances: Saturday, Feb. 6 and Sunday, Feb. 7,  11 am – 4 pm PST, by appointment
“A 40 minute interactive sound experience led by an audio track through different stations on a vast slice of land in Joshua Tree. Listeners will be guided to tune into the silence of the desert landscape, engage with installations on the site, and sink into deep audio, composed for the location.” 

Andrew McIntosh (Music MFA 08): A moonbeam is just a filtered sunbeam
Friday, Jan. 22, 5:59 am and 5:11 pm PST
Saturday, Jan. 23, 5:58 am and 5:12 pm PST
Sunday, Jan. 24, 5:57 am and 5:13 pm PST
The events mark the world premiere of a new piece by McIntosh. 

Marta Tiesenga (Music MFA 17): Quick Response Shows
Friday, Jan. 30, 6:52 am PST
“A big part of what we miss about concerts revolves around having to go out into the world, to a special place, and find art in that place. For these Quick Response (QR) Shows, the audience is invited to find music out in nature. Alone, and maybe near some other people listening to the same music.” 

Check here for more information.