A History of Elevators in Film at Soundwaves

Aron Kallay will perform my piece A History of Elevators in Film today at Soundwaves in Santa Monica CA. The concert features selections from Beyond 12, Aron’s project for retuned and remapped keyboards.

Wednesday March 21
Beyond 12
Aron Kallay
Soundwaves
Santa Monica Public Library
Martin Luther King Auditorium
601 Santa Monica Blvd
Santa Monica CA 90401
Aron will perform my piece A History of Elevators in Film

A History of Elevators in Film is for piano and electronics with the keys remapped to different pitches in real time as Kallay plays. Here’s video from a 2015 performance at LaGrange College

LA Reviews of “Elevators”

Here are two reviews of Aron Kallay‘s recent performance of A History of Elevators in Film at the MicroFest Beyond 12 concert in Los Angeles. The first is by Paul Muller in Sequenza21 who calls the work

“…an engaging and highly musical work that presents a remarkable variety of moods and colors.”

The second is by Steven Niles in New Classic LA who writes

“The History of Elevators in Film, by Birmingham composer Holland Hopson, depicted the sensory experience of riding in elevators with virtuoso compositional prowess.”

A History of Elevators in Film at Monk Space

On Tuesday Aron Kallay and Andrew McIntosh will present Beyond 12 – Piano and Violin at Monk Space in Los Angeles. The concert is a co-presentation between MicroFestLA and Tuesdays @ Monk Space. Aron will perform my piece A History of Elevators in Film for 88-key controller and computer.

Tuesday June 28 8pm
Beyond 12 – Piano and Violin
Aron Kallay and Andrew McIntosh
Monk Space
4414 West 2nd St.
Los Angeles CA 90004

I wrote A History of Elevators in Film for Aron’s Beyond 12 tour of the Southeast last spring. The piece uses a virtual piano that is retuned on the fly based on choices made by the performer. Below is the complete program for the concert. I wish I were on the other side of the continent next week to hear it.

Kyle Gann – Fugitive Objects
Marc Sabat – Intonation after Morton Feldman I, from Les Duresses
Eric Moe – The Weasel of Melancholy
Johann Joseph Vilsmayr – Partita IV, from Six Partitas
Holland Hopson – A History of Elevators in Film
Marc Sabat – Two Commas, from Les Duresses
Alex Miller – The Blur of Time and Memory

Kallay Tour Underway

A History of Elevators in Film (excerpt)

A History of Elevators in Film (excerpt)

The Birmingham Art Music Alliance kicked off the Beyond 12, 2015 Tour featuring pianist Aron Kallay last night with a performance at the Hoover Library Theater. Aron will perform six more times through April 8. This tour features three premieres of pieces by Alabama-based composers including Monroe Golden, Brian Moon and myself.

My work is titled A History of Elevators in Film, and like all the pieces on the program it features a retuned and remapped piano keyboard. In my case, I’m using Max to retune and remap pitches on the fly in response to the pianist’s performance.