Silence
Website(s) : http://jonathanhultingcohen.com
“Silence” is a video about multi-disciplinary work ; dance, contemporary classical music, improvised music, electronic sounds and video projections.
Biography
Jonathan Hulting-Cohen is Assistant Professor of Saxophone at University of Massachusetts.
He has been a concerto soloist alongside principal players of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and performed under John Adams and David Robertson at Carnegie Hall. Additional performances were at the Kennedy Center & Colburn’s Thayer Hall.
In 2014, Jonathan commissioned 8 pieces for his saxophone and harp duo with Jennifer R. Ellis. His vaudeville saxophone sextet, The Moanin’ Frogs, have appeared across the USA.
He also leads an ambitious interdisciplinary project combining dance, music, visual art, and performance technology.
Jonathan received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees with Donald Sinta at the University of Michigan. He is a Conn-Selmer Artist and endorses Selmer saxophones.
More information
The piece explores the word “silence” in several contexts, ranging from the mundane to the spiritual. The first is purely physical: the simple contrast of sound and its absence. Physical silence is evident in the musical score, which sets deluges of sound against deafening dearth of it to explore the emotional impact such sudden changes can effect. This concept is taken a step further, into minimalist set pieces inspired by architecture that evoke the experience of stillness. Stillness is one rung deeper into spiritual experience: Eastern meditation, Western prayer, and mystical and earth-based religions prize stillness as a sacred path to God. But while this inner stillness can be beautiful, the inner experience of silence can be deadly. Many of us suffer from this silence, our voices silenced by our circumstances or our birth or the actions of others. And perhaps we can each think of a time we have silenced another person or creature or ourselves. Both situations can have implosive and destructive consequences. These paradoxes and their spiritual and emotional ramifications are the crux of this piece.
The form of the piece is based on the compositional structure of David Biedenbender’s “Dreams in the Dusk, Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Band”, which will be performed during this World Saxophone Congress by Jonathan Yanik. One scene is set to the soundtrack of Karen Tanaka’s “Night Bird” for alto saxophone and tape.