May 4, 2019, Saturday - Liquid Music Series at Northrop
Time: 8:00pm
Location: Carlson Family Stage at Northrop, 84 Church Street SE
On Saturday, May 4, 2019 at 8:00pm, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Liquid Music Series presents James McVinnie and Darkstar at Northrop, University of MN, Minneapolis.
One of the world’s most sought-after organists, James McVinnie’s boundless approach to music has led him to collaborations with a wide variety of artists across musical genres such as Nico Muhly, Squarepusher, Shara Nova (My Brightest Diamond) and Oneohtrix Point Never. McVinnie will be joined by London based electronics duo Darkstar for a full evening of new music for electronics and organ performed on Northrop’s spectacular refurbished Aeolian-Skinner organ. McVinnie and Darkstar will explore how synthesis techniques from electronic music can be applied to the organ, using functionality, subtlety, automation and performance to create an unheard and truly immersive sonic experience that evolves through Darkstar’s electronic alchemy and McVinnie’s rare versatility on the organ.
“This will be Liquid Music’s first organ concert and we couldn’t be more excited to show off Northrop’s newly restored historic Aeolian-Skinner Opus 892 with a world premiere,” says Liquid Music Curator Kate Nordstrum. “We are introducing the great organist James McVinnie and electronics duo Darkstar (both UK-based) to the Twin Cities, in a full evening of collaboratively-composed new work commissioned by Liquid Music. We invite students and children to attend for free, thanks to the SPCO’s New Generation Initiative, and we hope that many from the U of MN campus and beyond will take full advantage! Organ music is for everyone.”
TICKETS
Tickets: $30 ($25 Liquid Music subscribers, free for children and students)
northrop.umn.edu | 612.624.2345 | in person at the Northrop box office
The University of Minnesota is not endorsing or sponsoring the activities conducted by The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra on the University of Minnesota campus. The relationship between the University of Minnesota and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra is solely that of licensor and licensee.
ABOUT JAMES MCVINNIE
Organist James McVinnie’s boundless approach to music has led him to collaborations with some of the world’s leading composers, producers and performers. Nico Muhly, Tom Jenkinson/Squarepusher, artist Martin Creed, Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire, Shara Nova, David Chalmin, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Sarah Davachi, David Lang and Bryce Dessner (amongst many others) have written works for him. James McVinnie is a member of Icelandic record label Bedroom Community. Cycles, his debut recording of music written for him by Nico Muhly, was released on this label in 2013 to widespread critical acclaim. An album of music by Philip Glass, The Grid, was released on Orange Mountain Music in 2018. This season's highlights include the first performances of Philip Glass’s Symphony 12, Lodger, with Angekique Kidjo and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under John Adams and in London with the London Contemporary Orchestra at Southbank Centre, a Messiaen recital in Lieu Unique Festival, performances of Nico Muhly's organ concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra, an evening-length collaboration with electronic duo Darkstar for the Liquid Music series, and the release of an album of music written for McVinnie by Tom Jenkinson (Squarepusher) on Warp Records. He also appears in recital at Paris Philharmonie and London's Southbank and Barbican Centres. James McVinnie was Assistant Organist of Westminster Abbey between 2008 and 2011. Prior to this appointment, he held similar positions at St Paul’s Cathedral, St Albans Cathedral, and Clare College, Cambridge where he studied music. His teachers were Sarah Baldock, Thomas Trotter and Hans Fagius. He made his debut at London’s Royal Festival Hall in March 2014, giving one of the six reopening recitals on the refurbished iconic 1954 Harrison & Harrison organ. He made his solo debut in the Salzburg Festival at age 26 performing with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra under Ivor Bolton.
ABOUT DARKSTAR
Since their 2008 dancefloor 12-inches on Hyperdub and through two vocal-led albums in 2010 (North) and 2013 (News From Nowhere), Darkstar have been an influential force in the UK’s electronic scene. Following collaborations with the likes of Actress, Wild Beasts and Zomby they released their third album Foam Island, to critical acclaim in 2015 on Warp Records. It was a hugely ambitious record, buzzing with the energy and excitement of all the possibilities currently inherent in electronic music. Yet it was also one that was shaped by the prevailing social and political climate at that point in time. The band undertook a three-month project of documenting this by talking to and interviewing local young people in Huddersfield, in the North of England. The lyrics and the sound palette for Foam Island were shaped by the people and emotions they encountered there, and — alongside photography included in the album’s physical release — the band’s recordings of interviewees’ speech were compellingly woven into the tracks.
To continue the project, and to form stronger bonds with local communities, Darkstar collaborated with Arts Council England and local charities in Huddersfield after the album release. This saw them hold events and workshops in Huddersfield, Liverpool and London with local and international professionals from the creative industries, as well as touring the record internationally. In early 2016 they contributed to Create London’s Whatever Happened To Social Mobility In The Arts? project alongside The Guardian and The Barbican, and have continued to lecture on a variety of social issues. They followed this in summer last year by travelling to South Africa with The British Council and Connect ZA to recreate many elements of Foam Island and to present a short multimedia performance at Cape Town’s Encounters Festival. Working with director Cieron Magat, the band engaged with local workshops, township communities and creative hubs to present a short film accompanied by an updated take on the music from Foam Island.
Darkstar have continued their dedication to collaboration — releasing music with Empress Of (XL) and Gaika (Warp), collaborating with director Lucy Luscombe and Random Acts for Channel 4, working on ground-breaking live dance performances with choreographer Holly Blakey (Florence and The Machine / Young Fathers) and scoring the Palm d’Or nominated short film Dreamlands.
2017 has seen Darkstar and Cieron Magat reunite again for a new work, a film and live score entitled SAFE. SAFE was commissioned for Berlin’s ‘Pop Kultur’ Festival, premiering in the city in August. The film continued Darkstar’s trend of social documentation, presenting an insight into young male identity in modern day Britain. Darkstar were also commissioned by PRS to create a piece for this year’s New Music Biennial in response to this year’s City of Culture, Hull. Entitled Dance Unity, the piece was performed to a capacity Royal Festival Hall earlier this year, alongside the famed organist James McVinnie. Alongside these the band has spent the year working with
Metal Liverpool, Arts Council England and Harthill Community center to create an installation and performance piece with teens from migrant communities. The final performance, TRACKBED, was performed in October at the Barbican in London.
ABOUT THE AEOLIAN-SKINNER PIPE ORGAN
The historic Northrop organ, an Aeolian-Skinner Opus 892, was built between 1932 and 1936, and is one of the last remaining concert-hall pipe organs in the United States. With its nearly 7,000 pipes, the Northrop organ is approximately 40 feet tall and occupies an area the size of the Northrop stage. The largest of the organ's pipes is 32 feet tall, while the smallest is the size of a pencil. The public face of the organ is the console, the playable part of the instrument that rises on a platform from the orchestra pit with four keyboards and about 225 stops, pedals and buttons.
The Northrop organ is the third-largest auditorium-based Aeolian-Skinner extant in the U.S., and is one of the finest examples of a late-Romantic-era instrument. It was awarded the prestigious “Exceptional Historic Merit” citation by the Organ Historical Society in 1999, and organ scholars attest to the Aeolian Skinner’s historic value as a completely unaltered and intact example of the organ builder’s skill.
Along with its remarkable sound quality in concerts and performances, the Northrop Organ has been used as a teaching instrument throughout the years. Dr. Dean Billmeyer, who is the current and longest-serving University organist, believes the organ is the single strongest factor in the U’s continuation of the organ instruction program and its ability to attract new students to the program.
Over the decades the Northrop organ fell into disrepair. By the early 1970s, it had nearly stopped working. Gordon Schultz, then a student at the University of Minnesota, started an effort to restore the unplayable organ and would sneak into Northrop on nights and weekends to work on it. Schultz had apprenticed with a Minneapolis organ shop and had an accommodating friend with a key who left certain Northrop doors open for him. More than three decades later, Schultz runs Gould and Schultz musical instrument company and travels the Midwest repairing and building pipe organs. He’s helped to maintain the organ ever since.
When the Northrop building renovation began in 2011, the organ was carefully moved to storage, where it sat for several years waiting for the funding needed to repair and reinstall the instrument. A generous bequest by the late Dr. Roger E. Anderson, long-time supporter of the Friends of the Northrop Organ, provided funds for the reinstallation of the instrument in its new location in the chambers above the stage and behind the proscenium.
The reinstallation, which has been painstakingly carried out by Foley-Baker and Associates, culminated in a grand inaugural concert on Oct 12–13, 2018, featuring the Minnesota Orchestra, conductor Osmo Vänskä and renowned organist Paul Jacobs.
In addition to the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony No. 3 (a nod to the first concert played on the Northrop organ) the program featured the world premiere of a commissioned contemporary work for organ by composer John Harbison, one of America’s most distinguished artistic figures. Northrop, the Minnesota Orchestra and the Seattle Symphony were commissioning partners for this new symphonic work.
The Friends of the Northrop Organ committee continues to meet on a regular basis to promote the historic instrument, support student and faculty recitals, and plan programming for future seasons to spotlight the restored pipe organ.
ABOUT NORTHROP
Rooted in the belief that the arts are essential to the human experience, Northrop is committed to cultivating intersections between performing arts and education for the benefit of all participants now and for generations to come. Northrop presents world-class dance and music performances, speakers, films, exhibits, and more.
ABOUT LIQUID MUSIC
The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra's Liquid Music Series, named “Best of Classical” by The New York Times, develops innovative new projects with iconoclastic artists in unique presentation formats. Liquid Music performances invite adventurous audiences to discover the new and the fascinating within the flourishing landscape of contemporary chamber music. Visit liquidmusicseries.org to learn more.
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