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This was the first ensemble concert which was the culmination of my year-long hymn arrangement project. The music was mostly old church hymns such as Amazing Grace or Be Thou My Vision all arranged in a modern fusion of classical and electronica genres. It also included one original song written and sung by my good friend, Amy Streiter. I also snuck in one original piece of my own which wasn't a hymn, but one of my favorite compositions, Belief. Most of the arrangements were purely instrumental, with a few vocal songs. All together VIOS was a 12-piece ensemble comprised of the following friends:
This was a large and fun collaboration project, with a lot of practice and participation on everyone's part. Each piece had a different instrumentation and feel to it, and everyone played (or sung) their part beautifully. We performed at the B-Side lounge in Cleveland Heights as a part of the Lighthouse church's summer concert series. We had a great turnout as well; there were about 40+ people who showed up for the concert.
Our set list included the following repertoire:
This was my first solo performance of all original music. My main focus of this music was in looping — a new electronic medium which is becoming more prominent amoung contemporary artists. The technique involves playing a small melody or musical phrase and simultaneously recording it into the computer, or an audio foot pedal such as a Jam Man. Once the phrase has been completed and recorded, it immediately starts playback of that clip. You can then record many other clips on top of that, or layers, thus creating your own quasi-band or orchestra. All the recording, stopping, and playback of all the clips I control with a Voodoo® Ground Lab midi foot controller.
I was given the opportunity to play at this event through the meeting of James Levin, the founder of Cleveland's Ingenuity Festival — an event devoted to the fusion of technology and the arts. I was given the great opportunity to play for James and thankfully, he invited me to play not only at the Ingenuity Festival in September, but to also participate in another event that he had founded, the Wooster Jam Session. It was a pretty exciting opportunity, a lot due to the fact that I had never done a concert of entirely my own music, let alone incorporating the performance with looping and electronic components.
The event was held at the Wayne County Fairgrounds, which, believe it or not, is where auctions and shows of livestock take place. It was an unusual but very fresh and inventive venue. There were 5 large barns and a grand stand, which were filled with artists, bands, galleries, magicians, food vendors, and more. James is on faculty at The College of Wooster and teaches entrepreneurship classes there. I got to set up and play in the "Grand Stand" section of the fairgrounds.
For sure it wasn't my greatest performance ever, but I was so thankful for the opportunity to explore the possibilities of modern performance techniques. There will definitely be more solo 'experimentations' in the future, building upon the looping and synth elements of electronic audio.
