“A Place To Listen” concert December 19, 2012

I love how life works.  One of my goals has been to expand my cultural horizons, and push the boundaries of what I would normally watch, attend or listen to.  In November, during the Cage 100 celebrations and series, I had the opportunity to meet a number of young composers, among them Chrisopher Reiche of Open Space, and Daniel Brandes, founder of the “A Place To Listen” concert series.

Just as in later work by Cage, Brandes is interested in exploring the spaces between the notes.  He is a member of the Wandelweiser group of composers who are committed to “the evaluation and integration of silence(s) rather than an ongoing carpet of never-ending sounds.”

“A Place to Listen” is scheduled for the 3rd Wednesday of every month at James Bay United Church, 517 Michigan Street, 7pm, and admission is by donation.

A Place to Listen, Victoria’s newest experimental music series, presents an exploration of sound, silence, and space with what is mine and what is not: Sam Sfirri’s Beckett Pieces.

“The ‘beckett pieces’ were composed during a single two-year reading of Samuel Beckett’s three novels: Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable. Each of the fifteen scores are titled with a fragment from Beckett’s literature and feature notation consisting of two to six complete English sentences that do not break the default line of a standard word processor template” – Sam Sfirri

Local composer/pianist Daniel Brandes will perform a solo realization of “for the choice of directions” (2010). Brandes will then be joined by Christopher Reiche and Stefan Maier for two ensemble realizations of “what is mine and what is not” (2010).

More than a concert series, A Place to Listen is about creating a space. A quiet place where, for an hour or two, one can be deeply attuned to something. Nothing spectacular or sensational. Just some tones and some silence. In our current culture of hyper-stimulation and saturation—which attempts to colonize our imaginations and demands that we not look too closely, or feel too deeply—this kind of musical practice is essential. It feeds a part of us that, more and more, we are learning to neglect. The part that needs quiet.

Rather than a concert series, this is a listening series.

Take some time off for yourself during what is usually a very hectic time for most people.  Give yourself the gift of sound, silence and space.

Here’s a video from the first concert.

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