General Exam moment

I am currently working towards my General Exam, including the qualifying exams from MIT. I will be back on the blog right after! In the meantime, enjoy a beautiful last moment of Indian summer --taken with my camera phone...

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure

Mary Farbood, harpsichordist

Morwaread Farbood. Photography by Susan Wilson.

Presenting a harpsichord/piano sculpture in my previous post, I thought it would be nice to attend an authentic harpsichord concert. My friend Mary Farbood is performing in Cambridge and in New York this April.

Morwaread Farbood, American harpsichordist of Iranian and Japanese descent, is quickly becoming recognized as one of the rising young stars in the harpsichord world. She was selected for the Pro Musicis International Award in 2006 and won First Prize at the Prague International Harpsichord Competition the previous year.

An excerpt of her playing J. S. Bach, French Suite No. 5 in G Major, BWV 816 - Allemande


An excerpt of her playing J. S. Bach, French Suite No. 5 in G Major, BWV 816 - Courante


An excerpt of her playing Louis Marchand, Suite in D minor, Pièces de clavecin


An excerpt of her playing Domenico Scarlatti, Sonata in D Major, K. 119



The audio exerpts are unedited and from a live performance at the MIT Chapel in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Recorded April 12, 2006. Engineer: Mike Fabio.

When and where?
Saturday, April 21st, 2007 at 8:00 PM - Pickman Concert Hall, Longy School of Music, Cambridge
Tickets

Wednesday, April 25th, 2007 at 8:00 PM - Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York
Tickets

Program
Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)
Pièces de Clavecin from Suite in D minor
Les Tendres Plaintes
Les Niais de Sologne
Les Soupirs
Les Cyclopes

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Sonata in E minor, Hob.XVI/34
Presto
Adagio
Vivace molto

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, BWV 903

Hubert Ho (1976 - )
Manual Labor (World and New York premieres)

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (1939 - )
Fantasy for Harpsichord

Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)
Sonata K. 502 in C Major
Sonata K. 1 in D Minor
Sonata K. 119 in D Major
Sonata K. 455 in G Major

A tour at the ICA

The ICA in Boston is full of surprises with for instance a welcoming Divine Gas by Chiho Aoshima, the Hanging Fire of Cornelia Parker and Josiah McElheny's mirrors reflected infinitely ...

Do strangers meet?

Drawing and Tag cloud I made for the Kendall T Band

Looking for a site to show Charles Goldman when he is in town, I finally picked the famous Kendall Band - Kepler, Pythagoras, Galileo designed, fabricated and installed by Paul Matisse.
In 1987, Paul Matisse installed in Cambridge, Kendall T Station, the The Kendall Band a musical sculpture. Passengers can move handles located on each platform and will activate hammers that strike the bells. The instruments are suspended in arches between the tracks. Made of aluminum, teak, steel, the band consists of :
· Kepler a 55-inch aluminium ring that hums for five minutes after it is struck by the large teak hammer above it.
· Galileo a sheet of stainless steel that imitates a train roaring in when a train roars in.
· Pythagoras twin sets of eight bells of the type of the new memorial bell in Washington.

The Kendall Sculptures are very much the thing I love to show to a tourist in town. Being a student at MIT, I am not afraid of technical objects, I find them sexy. Bringing technicality into the T station where it is full of machines and the metallic sound resonating with its own voice: the sound of the train, the aluminum as a metal and the reverberation of the vibrato into the station, is exciting. It is definitely unique and as Paul Matisse says: “it is MIT’s baby”.

Social challenge: talk to strangers
It seems contradictory to what my grand ma told me: do not talk to strangers. Well, artists are different, they want things to be different. Paul Matisse wants strangers to talk to each others and maybe meet. He also thinks music can help that to happen. Passengers waiting for their trains can play with the sculpture. Sometimes, strangers can meet: can look at each others, can smile, maybe play together? I believe that one can cut herself from the visuals, but it is harder to do with sounds. So one can notice the change of sounds. Because propagating the sounds throughout the entire station is not directed towards one person, people can then feel free to respond or ignore the gesture. The inside is invaded, but somehow no pressure is put on bringing it outside. One can choose. And sometimes strangers can meet.

Music
The Kepler strikes an F sharp to go with the B minor of the Pythagoras.

Pictures
No picture for this post so you can then fully discover it when you are in Boston!

For more info, read the article Kendall Sculptures Bring Music, Talk to Strangers, The Tech, Volume 115, Number 66, 1996.

Boston is beautiful

Juste des petits bouts de Boston

des petits bouts de Boston