SoNA Premieres Multimedia Production of Petite Symphonie
Virtual concert released online Friday, April 2 at 6:30 p.m.; Collaboration features work of French visual artist Romain Erkiletlian and local videographer Darren Crisp
The Symphony of Northwest Arkansas (SoNA) bridges time, distance and artistic disciplines with its digital production of composer Charles Gounod’s Petite Symphonie in a groundbreaking collaboration with visual artist Romain Erkiletlian and videographer Darren Crisp.
As part of its Reimagined Season, SoNA released the new digital performance on Friday, April 2, at 6:30 p.m. The work premiered as a digital release, available for free on Facebook, YouTube, and here on the SoNA website. The virtual concert is followed by an artistic discussion with Paul Haas, Darren Crisp, and Romain Erkiletlian on the making of the production.
SoNA’s production of Pettie Symphonie spotlights the composer’s beloved city of Paris through Erkiletlian’s creative renderings of Parisian landscapes. Featuring nine wind players, SoNA musicians were recorded on greenscreen at Crisp Recording Studio in Fayetteville. Videographer/media artist Crisp then combined the greenscreen performances with Erkiletlian’s rich visuals for an innovative musical/visual experience.
“With this multimedia production, we wanted to present a truly contemporary interpretation of the Petite Symphonie,” SoNA Music Director Paul Haas said. “At a time when all of us are feeling trapped and dislocated, we wanted to create an environment where the audience can enter into a space free from all constraints, physical or temporal.”
“Romain and I have been friends and colleagues for about 15 years, and I knew that he, of all the artists I know, was the right choice for this project,” Haas added. “What he has created is truly liberating, bringing us halfway around the world and traversing over a century of time. I’m honored to collaborate with him and share his creativity with our audiences.”
Erkiletlian said he wanted his work to reflect what Gounod, himself, might have experienced in Paris when Petite Symphonie originally premiered in 1885. At the time, the western world, and Paris in particular, was experiencing extraordinary change and expansion due to new technologies and urban planning.
“Through this artwork, I wanted to connect visually with what Gounod might have experienced in Paris through great changes in modernity, beauty, and technology,” Erkiletlian said. “In these four movements videos, everything becomes possible, like a totally new world emerging from the past into new urban landscapes. Superpositions of visual layers accompany the Petite Symphonie, allowing it to belong to our current time of modernity, turning into a contemporary poetry.”
SoNA’s performance of Petite Symphonie features SoNA wind musicians Kristen Salinas (Flute), Theresa Delaplain (Oboe I), Kristin Weber (Oboe II), Richard Bobo (Bassoon I), Kay Brusca (Bassoon II), Bruce Schultz (Horn I), Jason Hofmeister (Horn II), Orlando Scalia (Clarinet II), and Trevor Stewart (Clarinet I).
This multimedia production is the latest example of SoNA’s ongoing commitment to delivering creative content to its audiences through its Reimagined Season.
“In spite of the current restraints of the moment, this work opens up new possibilities for the listener to connect with classical music and the musicians they love through a new perspective,” SoNA Executive Director D. Riley Nicholson said. Additionally, the production simultaneously signals both our commitment to our local community of artists and our ability to join the world’s stage by collaborating with an internationally-renowned artist.”
Photos: Imagery by visual artist Romain Erkiletlian, featuring composited video still of SoNA wind musician(s) by videographer Darren Crisp
This concert is generously sponsored by Greenwood Gearhart, Inc. – learn more at www.greenwoodgearhart.com.
