Berlin 2013
Premiere Commission supports Lisa Bielawa's Templehof Broadcast
Tempelhof Broadcast brings together hundreds of musicians in a large-scale spatial acoustic musical celebration in and about Tempelhofer Park in Berlin, composed by American composer Lisa Bielawa. The 60-minute piece will be composed expressly for performance on the tarmac of the former Tempelhof Airport. This site, famous for its role in the Berlin Airlift in 1948-49, is currently open to the public, unaltered, but in 2013 it will begin to evolve into a new role in the life of the city. May 10-12, 2013, the runways will be turned into a vast musical canvas, as community and professional musicians execute a spatialized symphony. A partnership between Grün Berlin, Ensemble Mosaik, Work in Progress - Berlin, the Knights Chamber Orchestra of New York, and Bielawa, the performance will also include hundreds of amateur and student musicians. It will be free and open to the public, and it will happen around and among the regular public uses of the Park.
The massive event will begin in the center of the field and disperse outwards according to instructions given in the score, some players moving in clusters, others spreading out in long chains, before exiting the park. Groups may be instructed to stay close to each other for a certain duration, then peel away. Some musicians playing larger instruments (like pianos) will play on the beds of motorized luggage carriers that move between the slower-moving groups. Their music would be composed to form different sonic relationships with the musical tasks of the larger groups they approach or transect.
Although the musicians will perform without the aid of any technology beyond simple synchronized wristwatches, New York City's public radio station WQXR will host a site for the project, where multiple streams of live media from people attending the event can be heard, seen and combined, anywhere in the world.
Read Lisa Bielawa's Article in the New York Times Opinionator column about the project
San Francisco 2013
Chrissy Field Performance in San Francisco
In October 2013, San Francisco's Crissy Field will be turned into a vast musical canvas as part of composer Lisa Bielawa's expansive new project, Airfield Broadcasts. Crissy Broadcast is organized in parallel with Tempelhof Broadcast, scheduled for May 2013 in Berlin's Tempelhof Air Field, with three 60-minute performances on October 25, 26 and 27, 2013.
Crissy Broadcast is a massive, spatialized symphony involving more than 500 professional, student and amateur musicians, including orchestras, bands, and experimental new music groups. These musicians will perform on the grounds of Crissy Field for thousands of music lovers and unwitting park goers.
The piece interprets and celebrates the site, allowing listeners to draw their own meaning and experience. Bielawa hopes that the project will have a palpable and sustainable impact on the city, saying "I would like to see this project bring about new partnerships, new vitality and new relationships between arts and civic institutions, between different generations and economic strata, between arts or music lovers and totally non-arts-identified park-goers enjoying surprise encounter with music as a 'happening' in the middle of their familiar and beloved city."
