Days and Nights Update: March 18

Readers may recall that, at the beginning of last month, it was announced that the Days and Nights Festival, a multidisciplinary event taking place in and around Big Sur, would take place virtually, streaming films of performances at past Festivals. At that time three of those films were released for viewing. As of today that list has been extended by three additional offerings. The updated list, including the films released last month, is as follows:

1. Whistleblower was conceived by Jerry Quickley as an exploration of the leak of classified information by Edward Snowden, which took place in 2013. Quickley provided the text, and  Philip Glass composed the music. Quickley also served as narrator; and Glass performed with Tara Hugo, Alex Weston, Alex Weil, Miranda Cuckson, David Harding, Matt Haimovitz, and Lavina Meijer. The film documents the performance that took place at the 2017 Festival.
2. The Pattern of the Surface was created by Molissa Fenley for her dance company. Her choreography was set to music by Linda Bouchard, Tigran Mansurian, Andrew Toovey, and Frank Cassara, who, like Fenley, was one of the performers. The other performers were Harding and Christiana Axelsen. This film was also made during the 2017 Festival.
3. Heart Strings was a musical presentation of the story of the Dalai Lama’s escape from Tibet. The work was created as a joint project by Glass and Tibetan musician Tenzin Choegyal, both of whom performed at the 2018 Festival. The other performers were Weston, Meijer, Tsering D. Bawa, Will Calhoun, and Jaron Lanier.
4. Two Pianos: Glass was a recital by the husband-and-wife couple of Dennis Russell Davies and Maki Namekawa, each at his/her own piano keyboard, presenting a program consisting entirely of compositions by Glass during the 2018 Festival.
5. This was a retrospective account of Glass compositions originally performed by both the composer and the members of the Philip Glass Ensemble. The performers for this concert included Glass himself, joined by Lisa Bielawa, Dan Bora, Jon Gibson, Peter Hess, Ryan Kelly, Mick Rossi, Eleonor Sandresky, and Andrew Sterman. This film was made during the 2017 Festival.
6. Rehearsing Wichita is a “making of” documentary. In 1988 Glass composed solo music to accompany a reading of Allen Ginsburg’s poem “Wichita Vortex Sutra.” The documentary provides a behind-the-scenes look at Glass rehearsing for a performance of this poem, providing piano accompaniment for a reading by his first cousin once removed Ira Glass. This film was also made during the 2017 Festival.

As was previously announced, the Festival has created a Web page from which all of these performances may be viewed. Each video is available for either rental or purchase with $5 as entry-level admission. Most of the money collected will go directly to the artists, and the rest will support the creation of future programs. The next round of content to be provided is expected to be on April 15.