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Barry Anderson, still from the video Genome of the Soul
Light Work to Premiere Music Collaboration as part of Intermissions Tuesday, September 29—Gallery Reception 5–8pm, Music Premiere and Syracuse Symposium Lecture beginning at 6pm
In conjunction with the gallery reception and lecture for Intermissions, the innovative art exhibition and related programs featuring the video and photographic art of Kansas City artist Barry Anderson, Light Work will premiere a musical/video collaboration, titled Genome of the Soul, between Anderson and local composer Andrew Waggoner at the event.
Waggoner has composed a unique piece of music in collaboration with Anderson, who then created the accompanying visual components. As part of the gallery reception and lecture on Tuesday, September 29, Waggoner's group, the Open End Ensemble (Nurit Pacht, violin; Andrew Waggoner, violin; Tawnya Popoff, viola; and Caroline Stinson, cello), will perform the music composition live with the video. This will be the first performance of the piece, and will be a premiere that should not be missed.
According to Waggoner, "The music for Genome of the Soul grew both out of chats with Barry Anderson about his work; our work; the nature of work itself; and out of getting to know his work directly, which I liked immediately and have grown now to love. It is deep, strange, funny, and beautiful. . .Sometimes seen as clouds, sometimes as the inner reaches of a Mandelbrot set, the environments Barry creates are vast and enveloping; moving through them is like a stroll through the collective unconscious, like a plunge into the cultural DNA; it is this quality that gave rise to the title Genome of the Soul." In his words, "The music echoes much of what happens in an Anderson piece, without trying directly to imitate or create an exact match. Long, slow patterns - a different one for each instrument - converge in a series of chords that feel to me deeply expressive without being personal."
Waggoner studied at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, the Eastman School of Music, and Cornell University. His music has been commissioned and performed by the Academy of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields; the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the Saint Louis, Denver, Syracuse, and Winnipeg Symphonies; the Cassatt, Corigliano, Miro, and Degas Quartets; and the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, among others. He has received grants and prizes from ASCAP, Yaddo, The New York State Council on the Arts, Meet the Composer, New Music Delaware, the Eastman School of Music, and Syracuse University. He has also been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Roger Sessions Prize for an American composer by the Liguria Study Center in Bogliasco, Italy, where he was in residence at Bogliasco in the spring of 2008. In 2009 he received an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is currently composer-in-residence at the Setnor School of Music of Syracuse University. He recently formed the Open End Ensemble with his wife, cellist Caroline Stinson, giving concerts over the past three seasons in New York, Syracuse, Strasbourg, and Florence.
Anderson's work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions throughout the country, as well as in Thailand, South America, Russia, and the UK. Recent exhibition venues include the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Overland Park, KS; Milo Gallery in Los Angeles, CA; White Flag Projects in St. Louis, MO; Marty Walker Gallery in Dallas, TX; Salina Art Center in Salina, KS; Schopf Gallery on Lake in Chicago, IL; Dam Stuhltrager in Brooklyn, NY; and the Centre for Contemporary Photography in Toronto, Canada. Anderson currently lives in Kansas City. He participated in Light Work's Artist-in-Residence Program in 2006. Anderson was born in Greenville, TX. He holds an MFA from Indiana University Bloomington and a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin.
The other musicians in Open End Ensemble include Tawnya Popoff, Nurit Pacht, and Caroline Stinson. Canadian violist Tawnya Popoff enjoys a versatile international career. In addition to being principal violist with the Vancouver Opera (Canada), she is a founding member of the Athabasca String Trio, and performs regularly with VisionIntoArt (VIA) (NY), the New York Miniaturist Ensemble, and the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (TX). Canadian cellist Caroline Stinson lives in New York City and appears throughout Canada, the United States and Europe as a soloist and chamber music artist. Known for her expressive and personal interpretation of new works, Stinson is sought after for performances of both traditional and contemporary repertoire and has been a repeat soloist with the Syracuse Symphony under Daniel Hege. Violinist Nurit Pacht was selected as one of the "Stars of the Year 2000" by Le Monde de la Musique and since then her career has blossomed with appearances in London's Wigmore Hall, Vienna's Musikverein, Moscow's Great Hall, Washington's Kennedy Center, Carnegie's Weill Hall, The People's Hall of China in Beijing and at Ravinia's Rising Stars Series.
Intermissions is a city-wide art exhibition of videos and photography by Barry Anderson. It is shown across over a dozen venues, including billboards, window installations, and projected on buildings. Intermissions has received generous support from the Central New York Community Foundation; Syracuse University's Division of Student Affairs through co-curricular funding; the 2009 Syracuse Symposium, themed "Light"; and Lamar Outdoor Advertising.
Gallery hours at Light Work are Sunday to Friday, 10am–6pm; and by appointment. The gallery is closed during Syracuse University holidays. To schedule an appointment, please call 315-443-1300. Both the exhibition and reception are free and open to the public. Paid parking is available in the Marion parking lot and Booth Garage.
Light Work invites groups and individuals to schedule tours and gallery talks of the exhibition and facility. Light Work is a non-profit, artist-run organization dedicated to the support of artists working in photography and electronic media. Light Work is a member of CMAC, the Coalition of Museum and Art Centers at Syracuse University.
For more information about any of these exhibitions, please contact Jessica Heckman at Light Work, 315-443-1300 or jhheckma@syr.edu.
**Digital press images and image information from both exhibitions are available upon request.