For Immediate Release
Contacts:
Jessica Hunter Larsen, Curator
(719) 227-8263
jessica.larsen@coloradocollege.edu
Colorado Springs, Colo –June 1, 2009– The InterDisciplinary Experimental Arts program at Colorado College announces the opening of a new exhibition, “Listening to Architecture.”The exhibition showcases the innovative architecture that inspired composer Patrick Zimmerli to create his new composition “Light, Color, Line, Symbol,” which will have its world premiere with Colorado College’s Summer Music Festival on June 16. The exhibition will be on display from June 9 to July 17, 2009 in the I.D.E.A. Space, located in the Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center, 825 N. Cascade Avenue.
The public is invited to a free reception on Tuesday, June 16, from 5:30 to 6:15 p.m., to be followed by a pre-concert lecture by Patrick Zimmerli in the Film Screening Room. Zimmerli’s composition will premiere with the Summer Music Festival at 7:30pm. Tickets are $20, $5 for students, or $15 with a CC ID. Call 719-389-6607 for more information about concert tickets.
Commissioned on the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of Colorado College’s Summer Music Festival, Patrick Zimmerli’s composition “Light, Color, Line, Symbol”is a musical celebration of architecture. The piece is in four movements, each based on a building made in America by a living architect: Tadao Ando’s Pulitzer Foundation in St. Louis; Steven Holl’s St. Ignatius Chapel at Seattle University; Colorado College’s ownEdith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center, by Antoine Predock; and Santiago Calatrava’s extension to the Milwaukee Art Museum. The exhibition “Listening to Architecture” offers visitors an inside look at the buildings through video, photographs, models, drawings and other ephemera.
Zimmerli says of his affinity to architecture: “What would music inspired by architecture sound like? In fact, there are strong resonances between the two art forms. Composers are essentially builders themselves, creating structures in sound. And just as the presence of a building gives shape to previously formless space, musical structure gives shape and emotional impact to that most amorphous element of our lives: time itself.”
New York-based composer and saxophonist Zimmerli has released six CDs. He is currently writing for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and producing a CD featuring pianists Kevin Hays and Brad Mehldau. Since 2005 Zimmerli has presented a concert series, entitled Emergence, dedicated to the creation and performance of new work. Featuring his 9-piece ensemble and special guests from the classical, jazz, and electronic music communities, the series has seen 17 performances and over 40 premieres. His work has been performed at MoMA and the Guggenheim Museum, on NPR’s Fresh Sounds, at the Jazz Composers’ Collective, and at major chamber music festivals throughout the US. Zimmerli’s music has been recorded on the Arabesque, Blue Note, Songlines, Koch, Antilles, Jazz City, and Naive labels, and he has written extensively for radio, TV, and film. From 2002–2005 Zimmerli was Composer in Residence with the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra. Awards include first prize in the first annual BMI/Thelonious Monk Institute Composers’ Competition. Zimmerli teaches at Columbia University, where he earned a BA in 1990, an MPhil in 1996 and a DMA in 2000 in Music Composition.Current commissions include a large orchestra piece for the Colorado College Summer Music Festival’s 25th Anniversary Season. Other commissions have come from the Ying Quartet, the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper, and the Belgian jazz octet Octurn.
“Listening to Architecture” is sponsored by: The Robert & Ruby Priddy Charitable Trust.
For more information about the InterDisciplinary Experimental Arts program at Colorado College, visit www.theIDEAspace.com. For directions or disability accommodation at the event, members of the public may call (719) 389-6607.
Please check www.artsfestival.coloradocollege.edu/musicfestival for a complete schedule and repertoire list of all music festival events.
About Colorado College
Colorado College is a nationally prominent, four-year liberal arts college that was founded in Colorado Springs in 1874. The college operates on the innovative Block Plan, in which its 1,975 undergraduate students study one course at a time in intensive 3½-week blocks. The college also offers a master of arts in teaching degree. For more information, visit www.ColoradoCollege.edu .