Here's the extended version of what appeared in the Mercury on Thursday.
What's the difference between the MPP and the MPO? Is the MPO a realization of the MPP? If so, how do you define the MPP?
The Music Population Orchestra is a realization of the Music Population Project and in many ways it was the beginning of the MPP. The MPP is an organization striving to build community by bringing chamber music back to the people. Having realized that music on the greatest level is to build community, we strive to do so through concerts and education. In order to get around many of the obstacles that get between the people and the music, we are establishing a new economy of chamber music – one where the currency is giving and receiving rather than trading commodities. This way we hope to give more people the opportunity to experience what chamber music can mean today, rather than being a representation of something that is a reflection of a long gone cultural context.
The orchestra operates both within this context that the MPP sets forth as well as playing gigs around town in clubs and bars.
Some "indie rock"/"post-rock" bands (like the Album Leaf or Sigur Ros, for example) are playing pop/rock music with a classical aesthetic, but it seems like you're doing the opposite -- chamber music with a rock/pop/electronic (non-classical, I guess) "feel" to it. How did you get into doing this as opposed to more traditional composition?
The last few years I’ve been on a personal mission trying to explore ways of writing music that is just as much pop music as it is “classical”. I have for instance done a lot of work writing what in academic circles would be called electro acoustic music that I instead call klatronic, since it doesn’t really fit under neither one of those categories.
And since the MPP there’s been a more specific purpose behind – to write music that can involve and excite people in a club setting – people who may not have any prior experience with chamber music. I’m still trying to find this balance between pop and “classical” music.
Now that you're in Norway, how does the MPO/MPP work? Does someone else run it in Portland?
Part of why I moved to Oslo is to start mpp:oslo and mpo:oslo. It has been the plan from the beginning of a year ago to bring this to other cities. We work with both a local and global scope, to build a local and a global community of musicians, audiences, composers, djs, and artists – anyone who can be involved with the development of the chamber music experience.
There is a team of people whom have taken over mpp:portland and mpo:portland has a new conductor as well as a support team to help organize the orchestra. I am working on building the same infrastructure in Oslo.
Has the orchestra played other composers' works?
The MPO worked with the Portland group Upper Left Trio for one of our concerts. Our concert with them was our first one in a proper music hall and we played on some of their music and they played with us on one of my pieces. We did a call and response version of my piece ‘here we are in the stone age’ where the orchestra played the original arrangement and the ULT did an improvised jazz remix of the same music. It was an interesting experiment. At the core of the MPO lies collaboration and we will be working with a lot of different artists in the time to come. We are for instance playing with the Stars of Track and Field for one of their concerts. So far most of the music has been written by myself but we are definitely looking for more music to play by other composers.
Of the performances you've been involved with in Portland, which was your favorite, or in your opinion the most successful artistically?
I think the most profound performance the orchestra was a part of was the one where we, with the help of PICA and the B Street Gallery closed down a block of NW 13th ave and did two performances in the street on a first Thursday. Whereas a concert hall can be a setting for a perfectly refined experience we experienced the opposite playing in the street. The musicians were fighting the wind, traffic, sirens and chatter but ultimately it created an amazing context for the music where this all blended in with the music. There we were - an orchestra playing in the middle of the street with no amplification. People really had to want to be close to the orchestra to even hear the music, so it challenged the entire concert experience where the listeners can usually distance themselves comfortably in the back and still hear the music. It was really a profound experience for me and that was when I realized that what we do is to build community – to bring people together and experience chamber music.
The Music Population Orchestra is a realization of the Music Population Project and in many ways it was the beginning of the MPP. The MPP is an organization striving to build community by bringing chamber music back to the people. Having realized that music on the greatest level is to build community, we strive to do so through concerts and education. In order to get around many of the obstacles that get between the people and the music, we are establishing a new economy of chamber music – one where the currency is giving and receiving rather than trading commodities. This way we hope to give more people the opportunity to experience what chamber music can mean today, rather than being a representation of something that is a reflection of a long gone cultural context.
The orchestra operates both within this context that the MPP sets forth as well as playing gigs around town in clubs and bars.
Some "indie rock"/"post-rock" bands (like the Album Leaf or Sigur Ros, for example) are playing pop/rock music with a classical aesthetic, but it seems like you're doing the opposite -- chamber music with a rock/pop/electronic (non-classical, I guess) "feel" to it. How did you get into doing this as opposed to more traditional composition?
The last few years I’ve been on a personal mission trying to explore ways of writing music that is just as much pop music as it is “classical”. I have for instance done a lot of work writing what in academic circles would be called electro acoustic music that I instead call klatronic, since it doesn’t really fit under neither one of those categories.
And since the MPP there’s been a more specific purpose behind – to write music that can involve and excite people in a club setting – people who may not have any prior experience with chamber music. I’m still trying to find this balance between pop and “classical” music.
Now that you're in Norway, how does the MPO/MPP work? Does someone else run it in Portland?
Part of why I moved to Oslo is to start mpp:oslo and mpo:oslo. It has been the plan from the beginning of a year ago to bring this to other cities. We work with both a local and global scope, to build a local and a global community of musicians, audiences, composers, djs, and artists – anyone who can be involved with the development of the chamber music experience.
There is a team of people whom have taken over mpp:portland and mpo:portland has a new conductor as well as a support team to help organize the orchestra. I am working on building the same infrastructure in Oslo.
Has the orchestra played other composers' works?
The MPO worked with the Portland group Upper Left Trio for one of our concerts. Our concert with them was our first one in a proper music hall and we played on some of their music and they played with us on one of my pieces. We did a call and response version of my piece ‘here we are in the stone age’ where the orchestra played the original arrangement and the ULT did an improvised jazz remix of the same music. It was an interesting experiment. At the core of the MPO lies collaboration and we will be working with a lot of different artists in the time to come. We are for instance playing with the Stars of Track and Field for one of their concerts. So far most of the music has been written by myself but we are definitely looking for more music to play by other composers.
Of the performances you've been involved with in Portland, which was your favorite, or in your opinion the most successful artistically?
I think the most profound performance the orchestra was a part of was the one where we, with the help of PICA and the B Street Gallery closed down a block of NW 13th ave and did two performances in the street on a first Thursday. Whereas a concert hall can be a setting for a perfectly refined experience we experienced the opposite playing in the street. The musicians were fighting the wind, traffic, sirens and chatter but ultimately it created an amazing context for the music where this all blended in with the music. There we were - an orchestra playing in the middle of the street with no amplification. People really had to want to be close to the orchestra to even hear the music, so it challenged the entire concert experience where the listeners can usually distance themselves comfortably in the back and still hear the music. It was really a profound experience for me and that was when I realized that what we do is to build community – to bring people together and experience chamber music.
1 comment:
hmmm...i like the idea but i don't really care for the music.
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