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Cultural Event

70+ Percussionists migrate to Waterloo Region for massive outdoor performance of avant garde masterpiece Inuksuit

KITCHENER – On May 11 and 12, 2012, the Open Ears Festival of Music and Sound, in collaboration with Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) will present Environmental Rhythms, a weekend of percussive performances about and in the environment. This brief festival includes a performance of Alaskan composer John Luther Adams' monumental and widely acclaimed work Inuksuit at rare in Cambridge, a percussion concert in the Maureen Forrester Recital Hall at WLU featuring performances by TorQ, intertTITLE, Morris Palter, Nicholas Papador, and Aiuun Huang, and performances by the Jesse Stewart Trio featuring David Mott and Rob Clutton at The Turret.

Known for his music inspired by and rooted in the Earth, Adams wrote Inuksuit...to act in the capacity of the human in 2009 – a work unlike any other that is approximately 80 minutes in length for “between 9 and 99 percussionists”; it is a massive undertaking to perform. Throughout the duration of the performance, percussionists and audience will be widely dispersed within the walking trails of the rare Charitable Reserve, slowly moving throughout the area in a sonic journey that features wind, birdcalls, sirens, and gongs (among other sounds), creating an enhanced aural landscape.

“This work is intended to expand our awareness of the never-ending music of the world in which we live, transforming seemingly empty space into a more fully experienced place,” elaborates Adams.

Months of rehearsal and grueling logistics will culminate in a single performance featuring more than 70 musicians from across Ontario, Quebec, Alaska, and New York.