Big Space
Michael Gordon · Tennessee Theatre · March 2018
The United States premiere of Michael Gordon’s Big Space at the Tennessee Theatre for Big Ears 2018: twenty-four University of Tennessee musicians with the Bang on a Can All-Stars, arranged in the round, with the composer in attendance. I conducted.
Playing in the round changes the arithmetic of an ensemble. You cannot see half of the people you are locked to, the sound arrives at each player from a different direction and a different distance, and the audience sitting inside the circle hears a version of the piece that no performer ever hears.
It is the second Michael Gordon piece to open a Big Ears for us. Timber opened the festival the year before.
The room
Photographs from the premiere to be added.
