Exo becomes full-time creative digital projects commissioning organization

Projects include commissions, “Morning Meditations,” and collaborations with visual artists

 

CONTACT: James Blachly experientialorchestra@gmail.com, 646-320-5583

 

Experiential Orchestra, known for their Rite of Spring Dance Parties and Young Patrons Concerts at Lincoln Center, will be focusing on creating digital content for the foreseeable future, commissioning composers and featuring their superb roster of musicians.

 

“This is Classical Music’s ‘MTV Moment,’” says EXO Music Director James Blachly. “We are reaching people through their screens, so we may as well embrace that as an opportunity for further collaborations and creativity.

 

“EXO concerts are so often about bringing audience members in close proximity to our players so they can feel the music in new ways, and we know that won’t be happening for a while. With the flood of digital content that has emerged in the past two months, we want to make our on-line offerings as exquisite and beautiful as possible, and we see this as an opportunity to have a visual component that reflects and refracts the music.”

 

So far, that has meant commissioning new pieces, working with contemporary artists, and keeping content short and thoughtful.

 

The initiative began in April with artistic partner Mark Dover’s arrangement of Alone Together which begins with his own multi-layered clarinet, expanding to his creative partner Jeremy Ajani Jordan, and ending with soprano Faylotte Joy Crayton’s singing. Mr. Dover, who plays in the Imani Winds, said the following about his arrangement and project:

 

"When the gravity of the pandemic struck New York in March, I like many in my musical community felt the rug pulled out under me seemingly overnight.  With all of my concerts cancelled through the summer, I was left with a sense of panic in terms of the financial ramifications, and also an immediate standstill of creative output and inspiration.  After a couple weeks of feeling this among many other emotions, I made a pact with myself, that I would keep creating and communicating musically with my community no matter what.  James was very much the initial catalyst for this initial burst of energy. His support with this project really made me put into perspective the importance of staying musical, moving forward in the face of grief and uncertainty , and that in this day in age, we must always still continue to create together, and that whether or not we are doing so in person or on the internet, one thing stays true: people will always need art, especially in times like the present."

 

Each week, EXO releases a 2-3 minute “Morning Meditation” on YouTube. The first was Doug Balliett’s If Love, pairing a melodic modern synth pad with abandoned barns in Upstate New York. The second was Brad Balliett’s Carolina Wren Singing, featuring Brad’s own multi-layered bassoons with a video of, yes, a Carolina Wren Singing. Most recently, excerpts from Music Director James Blachly’s 2010 composition Through a Glass Darkly performed by the Choir of Trinty Church Wall Street, paired with the art of Katharine Dufault.

 

Future Meditations will feature noted EXO musicians Adely Nartadjieva, Dana Kelley, Colin and Elzbieta Weyman, Karen Kim, Jeremy Levine, Charles Overton, Sujin Lee, and Pauline Kim Harris, with more to follow. ollaborations with visual artists.

 

Pauline Kim Harris, who also serves as EXO’S Stragic Advisor, says, “Arduous is the path of an artist, but in hard times like these I feel lucky to be able to share our calling for human connection through music.”

 

The next large-scale Digital Project will pair Doug Balliett’s bass concerto Four Seasons of New York, commissioned by EXO in 2015 and recorded with Robert Nairn, with crowd-sourced photography of New York as a “love letter” to the city.

 

Other projects will be released in July and beyond, until live performances can take place again.

 

“We don’t want to think of this as a time when the theater is dark and we go into hibernation,” James Blachly concludes. “Our musicians will continue to play, we will commission composers to write new music that speaks to our audience in this particular time, and we will find a way to create digital content that matches our mission of a new experience of sound.”

 

Links below

 

Mark Dover’s Alone Together

 

Morning Meditations:

 

Doug Balliett’s If Love

 

Brad Balliett’s Carolina Wren Singing

 

James Blachly/Katharine Dufault’s Through a Glass Darkly

 

Surround Sound reference