Last night One Found Sound (OFS) held its annual fundraising gala. As expected, the event was held in cyberspace. There were two hosts, each contributing from his own personal location. The performing musicians were similarly separated, resulting in visually imaginative accounts of the few musical performances all organized by Max Savage.
If I am to believe the hosts, the fundraising far exceeded expectations. According to the numbers, the overall donation level was about three times the goal that OFS had set. This does not include additional revenue from the silent auction, which will continue through the end of Sunday.
The performances were few and relatively brief. However, they were consistently engaging, once again affirming the overall quality of OFS ensemble playing. They began with the concluding Rondo from Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s first sinfonietta, which he composed in 1953. Savage provide visuals to match the brisk energetic pace of the music, most of which involved abstract transforms of musicians playing their parts. This was basically the “opener” for the gala occasion; and it could not done a better job of setting the spirit of the event.
The other two selections were two of the movements from Edward Elgar’s Opus 36 “Variations on an Original Theme,” best known as the “Enigma” variations. The first of these was the ninth (“Nimrod”) variation, accompanied by Keon Saghari presenting her own choreography on roller skates. Savage’s video captured not only the graceful gliding afforded by the skates but also the wafting of Saghari’s red veils, giving the whole experience a strikingly other-worldly quality (even if it had nothing to do with the character memorialized by that particular variation).
Max Savage’s “toothbrush chorus” for the conclusion of Elgar’s “Enigma” variations (screen shot from the YouTube video of the OFS Virtual Gala)
The final musical offering was the concluding variation from Opus 36, which Elgar conceived as his “self portrait.” Savage provided the clearest view of the OFS musicians in the video he created. However, none of them were seen playing their respective instruments. Instead, they all applied themselves energetically to the motions of performance executed on a wide diversity of objects, some of which seemed to be vegetables. All of Savage’s shots amounted to his own set of “variations” on images of the players brushing their teeth; and his final image amounted to a “toothbrush chorus” as shown above.
The entire offering lasted about an hour, promising that there was much to be expected as OFS plans its future performances, whether they are virtual or physical.
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