Form Structure and Interactions at the White House.

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The Timucua White House (2001 Hamilton Ln, Orlando, FL 32806) hosts weekly concerts in their spacious living room that rivals some concert halls. Benoit Glazer built his home around this pitch perfect sound proofed space. This concert featured original compositions for trumpet and electronics. Most of the composers were in the audience. Besides the main performance, an artist usually creates on stage as well. On this evening, a sculptor named Diego Inkusual worked on a life sized bust of a young poised dancer named Megan Crawford. I’m pretty sure I sketched Megan at some dance rehearsal, because I recognized her. I decided to sit down at a back patio table, and my chair tumbled over backwards, thankfully with out me in it. As we all waited to get into the concert hall, Diego kissed Megan’s neck and she smiled at the distraction.

Benoit’s wife Elaine Corriveu, Wendy Wallenberg and others bustled in the kitchen. Guests usually bring a bottle of wine or a side dish, turning the evening into a community potluck. Strange, the program doesn’t list the Trumpet player’s name. That is a strange oversight. Anyway, he was quite good as was the sculptor, also not listed.

Diego had several life sized sculpture on stage, and another in The entry-potluck area. Fabrics flowed from their semi nude bodies. It was impressive work. Diego was quite active as was his model, Megan. He would often ask her to rotate in her seat so he could sculpt her from a different angle. He would often stand and he would gouge deep grooves in the sculpted hair. The facial features had been delicately refined back at his studio. He was feeling the music and it influenced his movements. Megan kept perfect still.

One composer wasn’t in the audience. He was at an inspirational seminar. The concert was being shared with him and another audience with him at the seminar. Most composers got on stage to introduce their original music, he called in to talk to us all. Charles Griffin composed Between Islands this year. He told both audiences, that when he moved to Orlando, his creative urge dried up. He tried to work through it, but he was stuck. He had never experienced this before. The support and contact with other creative people finally reversed the stagnancy. This composition was the first he wrote as he got back on track. He spoke about his mother’s death, loss and the need to remember. It is a theme that has hit home with me many times as I sketch people affected by Pulse. I try to remain in business mode, but often it sinks in. Charles used the sounds of ocean bells clanging quietly on the waves. the somber music hit a chord with me and the pencil stopped dancing on the page, so I could stop to close my eyes and truly listen.

The next White House concert is, Tonight 10/16/16 at 7:30 pm. It is Contemporary Classical, featuring Elizabeth Baker, Toy Piano and electronics, Art is by Gladiola Sotomayor.

Ghost in the Machine

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Timothy Stulman the president of Central Florida Composers Forum invited me  to be part of a concert on November 10. I suggested I could do a digital sketch live of the performers and project it during the performance at the White House November 10th. I figured that a sketch being created with the hand unseen would tie in well with the Ghost in the Machine title. I arrived early to set up. Timothy greeted Terry and myself at the door. He had a square three foot white canvas on the stage with an easel. The problem was there were computers and sound mixers in the way of the projector. I wanted the projection to be bigger, so I took the tablet and projector to the second floor. The projected image filled the ceiling. The color would be a bit off, but the audience could see themselves and the performers appear on the ceiling from this God’s eye view. At one point I panicked because I couldn’t find the brushes window. In the digital world, things always seem to crash or disappear into the ether. I tend to work slower digitally since I’m constantly trying to find windows and tools. Too much time is spent searching instead of sketching. At least in the real world, I can leave a brush in my lap and I’ll know where to find it. I felt I ran out of time before I was done, then again, that is why it is a sketch. Of course it will always be fun to brag that I’ve drawn at the White House.

All compositions in the concert contained an electronic element, ranging from interactive computer patches, to surround sound, to recorded ambient noises. One composition was affected by people’s tweets which scrolled across the top of the flat screen TV. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Brian Feldman‘s performances of TXT. People laughed at the tweets as they scrolled. One read, “This is my first tweet, ever!” The concert featured several premieres, including Charles Griffin’s Enfold Us Beneath Open Wings, John Alvarez’s Fermions and Gauge Bosons, and a new work by Thomas Owen. Other featured composers are Thad Anderson, Keith Lay, and Timothy Stulman. The concert also featured the talents of vocalist Michelle Amato and Julie Bateman, saxophonist Timothy Rosenberg, and percussionist Nick Strange.

The concert was part of the Accidental Music Festival, and was free and open to the public. As is the White House tradition, audience members were encouraged to bring a beverage or snack to enjoy before or after the concert. After the concert, several people asked me what software I had used, as if it was the machine that had created the image.

The Central Florida Composers Forum Concert

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CF2 was evening of new music by local composers at the Timucua White House. I arrived with Terry about an hour before the concert because the idea had been tossed around with Serena Jones, that it might be nice for me to project a sketch I was working on live during the concert. Unfortunately for technical reasons, that didn’t work out but I still got a great sketch from the second floor balcony. Serena worked the multi media imagery on a flat panel TV screen from her laptop.

The featured artist for the evening was Woody Igou. Woody set up a series of sculptures on card tables. One sculpture was of a series of hollow horns stacked up. At the beginning of the performance he mixed some gorilla glue with pigments and salt and he poured the mixture inside the horns. For the rest of the evening the mixture expanded like the blob, overflowing and oozing down like lava.

The CF2 concert offered contemporary composers an open forum to showcase their recent work.

Featured Composers on the Program:

Daniel Crozier (Rollins College) – Piano solo (2009)

Benoit Glazer (Music Director for La Nouba) – Brass Quintet and Percussion Quintet (2011)

Charles Griffin (Full Sail University) – Flute Quartet, prerecorded audio and video projection (2010) Rebekah Todia (Full Sail University) – Soprano and piano (2012)

Charles Griffin’s composition featured animated projections that responded to the music. The audience was encouraged to repeat vocalizations as they appeared on the screen. Everyone followed with shhh, and ah, ah sounds. This gave a primal feel to the proceedings.

The concert was an invigorating multimedia mix of electro acoustic, post-minimal, contemporary art song, solo piano and big-band jazz pieces by musicians and composers from Rollins, Full Sail, UCF and of course, Benoit Glazer, the musical director of Cirque du Soleil, and resident of the (Timucua) White House.