About the Show
This performance features Contemporaneous, Artists-in-Residence for the 2017-2018 season.
And Flowers Showered is part of Classical Sundays, a National Sawdust series that presents the cutting-edge of contemporary classical music. Hear renowned artists from the classical tradition perform music both storied and vitally new, combining tradition with modernity in a way that is quintessential Williamsburg. Unplug and unwind as we curate the industry’s most compelling performances.
Contemporaneous, the 21-piece ensemble lauded as “ferocious” by the New York Times, performs And Flowers Showered, an immersive evening-length exploration of the self through music, movement, and visual art. Created by visionary Latvian composer Krists Auznieks and designer Magnus Pind, And Flowers Showered asks us to examine the nature of the voice within the self, while transforming National Sawdust into a vast natural environment. Through words, music, and the transfiguration of physical space, And Flowers Showered allows us to investigate the constituent parts of the indigenous voice — what is the self, and what makes us each an individual?
And Flowers Showered offers a variety of perspectives, from the scientific to the spiritual, to the poetic and even the experiential. Three texts, spanning thousands of years, inform the underlying architecture of the work: from German philosopher and neurobiologist Thomas Metzinger, a koan by 13th century Japanese monk Muju Ichien, and Wallace Stevens.
In Part I, a blindfolded audience sits facing the walls of the space, Auznieks’s rapturous and patient music emerging as a “voice in the back of the mind.”
Part II is a visual awakening. With blindfolds removed, the audience comes to sit around a bonfire, an experience of communal identity. The music offers a struggle between what Auznieks describes as “the nothing that is there” and “the nothing that is not.” A sonic chill encourages the audience to huddle close together.
Part III is an experience of bliss, an acknowledgment of a joyful beauty that has been present all along. Attention and focus moves away from the ground and towards the ceiling, where the audience encounters a vision of the stars.
About the Artists
Krists Auznieks
Krists Auznieks’s multi-media opera “NeoArctic,” a collaboration with techno producer Andy Stott and Icelandic poet Sjon, premiered at the Royal Danish Theatre (Denmark) in Fall, 2016, winner of the Danish Reumert Prize 2017 as the show of the year and nominee for the Grand Music Award of Latvia 2016, received stellar reviews in Danish press. His quintet “Piano” was featured in The New York Times as one the week’s best classical music moments.
Performed at Beijing National Arts Centre, Shanghai City Theatre, Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw, The Kitchen (NYC), Korzo theatre (Holland), Riga Russian Theatre (Latvia), Gaudeamus Muziekweek (Holland), American Music Festival (Albany, NY), MATA 2017 (NYC), his music has also been played by Sandbox Percussion (NYC), Antico Moderno (Boston),Yale Philharmonia, and Orkest de Ereprijs (Holland). Commissions include works for Latvian Radio Choir, Albany Symphony (NY), Yale Percussion Group, pianist David Fung, and two concert-length works for Contemporaneous (NYC) and Sinfonietta Riga (Latvia).
Auznieks’s “I Exist As I Am,” broadcast on classical music radios worldwide, represented Latvia at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in Finland. Currently pursuing a Doctoral degree at the Yale School of Music, his most recent recognitions include fellowships from American Academy of Fontainebleau and Aspen Music Festival.
Magnus Pind
Magnus Pind is a New York-based artist and designer creating video for performance, visual theater and installations.
Magnus’ videos have been shown at Vienna State Opera, Royal Danish Theatre, La Monnaie National Belgian Opera, Transmediale Festival, Harvard University, CPH:DOX amongst many others. His work has been called “magical” and “unbelievably beautiful” by the press.
As part of the creative team at Hotel Pro Forma, Magnus was recently nominated for the Reumert Prize for Best Stage Design for his work on the contemporary opera NeoArctic. The performance won the Reumert Prize for Best Performance. He is currently designing visuals for a music documentary film and creating a series of small-scale projected video collages.
Magnus holds a BA from University of Copenhagen, and an MFA from Parsons School of Design, where he is currently part-time faculty.
Contemporaneous
CONTEMPORANEOUS is an ensemble of 21 musicians whose mission is to bring to life the music of now. Recently recognized for a “ferocious, focused performance” (The New York Times), Contemporaneous performs and promotes the most exciting work of living composers through innovative concerts, commissions, recordings, and educational programs. Based in New York City and active throughout the United States, Contemporaneous has performed at a wide range of venues, including Lincoln Center, (le) poisson rouge, Merkin Concert Hall, Park Avenue Armory, St. Ann’s Warehouse, National Sawdust, and the Bang on a Can Marathon. The ensemble has worked with artists as diverse as David Byrne, Donnacha Dennehy, Julia Wolfe, and Dawn Upshaw and has premiered over 100 new works. The ensemble has held residencies at Simon’s Rock College, the University of New Orleans, Williams College, and Bard College, where the group was founded in 2010 by co-artistic directors David Bloom and Dylan Mattingly. contemporaneous.org.
