November 2012
Hobart’s extraordinary new museum MONA – the Museum of Old and New Art is running a two-day mini-music-festival with colour music synaesthesia as its theme on 3 -4 November.
A co-presentation between Mona and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (TSO), the weekend features the TSO, visiting pianist Peter Hill from the UK, some pianists from the Australian National Academy of Music, singer Kate Miller-Heidke, cabaret performer Meow Meow, jazz performers and individual musicians – over a hundred musicians in about 36 performances over two days. The museum will be closed to the public for the two days and the festival is limited to 400 people only, who come for the full time and also enjoy lunches, dinner and afternoon teas at Mona over the weekend as part of their ticket price. The music performances will be lit by renowned (Sydney Olympics) lighting designer John Rayment with synaesthetic considerations as a stimulus.
In addition we will be conducting a panel discussion about synaesthesia led by the Artistic Director of Opera Australia, Lyndon Terracini, who came up with the event. Panellists are currently being selected but are likely to include synaesthetes, musician Peter Hill and one or two others TBC.
During the weekend, synaesthetic musician Andrew Legg, Director of the Tasmanian Conservatorium, will be involved in a visual representation of both his own emotions and the music he is playing through playing while wired up to a program which translates both his body’s responses and the texture of the music into projections.
Download the brochure here:
Synesthesia at MONA Decemeber 2012 – interview given by myself and Steve Glass