News and Updates
MUSEUM LOAN NETWORK - AMERICAN COMPOSERS FORUM COLLABORATION TO PRESENT PREMIERE PERFORMANCES THIS FALL
Museums, Composers, and Communities Supports New Music
Commissions Inspired by Museums and their Communities Across the Country
(Cambridge, MA) August 19, 2001 – The Museum Loan Network has partnered with the American Composers Forum on a successful pilot program that will bring new music and the creative energy of composers directly into museums and their communities, creating a new model for interdisciplinary collaboration. Museums, Composers, and Communities is a unique initiative that pairs composers with museums and introduces a musical component into museum installations, in an effort to enhance audience-experience and further engage local communities. The program was initiated in 2001, and this fall three of the pilot projects will premiere performances of commissioned compositions at the Mobile Museum of Art in Mobile, Alabama, the Spencer Museum of Art, in Lawrence, Kansas, and the Western Heritage Center in Billings, Montana.
Since its inception in 1995, the Museum Loan Network has funded Travel, Survey, and Implementation Grants, which support the research and long-term loan of art and objects of cultural heritage between museums across the country. Museums, Composers, and Communities, in conjunction with the MLN Travel and Implementation grants, sponsors resident composers at museums and enables them to collaborate with curators on a variety of exhibition development activities, including the research and selection of objects for loan. Working with museums and their communities, composers are commissioned to create original pieces of work inspired by the museum installations, thereby enlivening the museum experience and enhancing the presentation of works in a manner that is specifically meaningful and relevant to all participants. Currently, six grants have been awarded through this program to museums across the country.
The Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, Alabama collaborated with composer William C. Banfield on an exhibition of American sculpture titled “The American Way,” which celebrates the American experience. The exhibition will be presented in the Museum’s new and greatly-expanded facility, which is scheduled to open this eptember. Banfield participated in the curatorial process of selecting works for long-term loan and composed six pieces in response to the works he helped select that seek to evoke an artistic and emotional response in the viewer. Although each piece was composed in response to a specific sculpture, Banfield also sought to create a body of work that celebrates the entire museum installation and the opening of the new Museum building, and that will continue to be relevant to audiences after its premiere. The six-movement chamber piece, titled “Structures: Sculptures in Soul and Sound” will be performed by the Silverwood Quartet on September 5, 2002, in conjunction with the opening of the new building.
Through an MLN implementation grant, the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas is hosting resident composer Gabriela Lena Frank, whose work fuses Latin American folk music with classical strains, to compose three pieces of music inspired by the 20th-century Latin American paintings and sculpture currently on long-term loan. During her residency, Gabriela worked closely with the museum, students and faculty from the Department of Music, and local residents, serving as a catalyst in bringing together the community and heightening awareness of the interrelationship between music and the visual arts. The compositions will premiere this fall, beginning with a quintet, which will be performed by a faculty quintet group on October 5, 2002. The performance of a piano concerto by the University Symphony will premiere on October 31, 2002, followed by the performance of a choral piece on November 18, 2002.
The Western Heritage Center in Billings, MT is currently presenting an exhibition about its hometown’s namesake, conservationist Frederick Billings. Life by Comparison: The Stories of Frederick and Parmly Billings presents the personal stories of Frederick and his son Parmly Billings, and explores their lives at different family homes in Billings and Woodstock, Vermont in the 1880’s. Jim Cockey, a composer from McCall, Idaho, collaborated with the Western Heritage Center staff to research and document music in the letters, diaries, and sheet music of the Billing’s family, traveled to Billings and Woodstock, where he collaborated with local talent to re-record and document 19th-century music that was part of the Billings’ family life. In addition, Cockey composed his own work in response to music he discovered through this process, which will premiere on September 14, 2002 in a performance by the Billings Symphony Orchestra.
The American Composers Forum (ACF)’s mission is to link communities with composers and performers, encouraging the making, playing, and enjoyment of new music. Building two-way relationships between artists and the public, the ACF develops programs that educate audiences, energize composers’ careers, stimulate entrepreneurship and collaboration, and serve as models of effective support for the arts. For more information on the ACF please visit their website at www.composersforum.org.