Activities

Martin Iddon visits the Getty Research Institute

In September 2017 Martin Iddon undertook a research trip to the Getty Research Institute to view the David Tudor papers and the Mary Caroline Richards papers. The trip was funded by a Getty Foundation Library Research Grant.

 

Data collection event with Apartment House

Following the project conference, a major data collection event with the musicians of Apartment House took place at the University of Huddersfield in July 2017. The event comprised two stages: the first was a studio recording session in which each musician recorded their Concert part individually, and in full. These recordings will be embedded in an app on our project website, which will allow users to ‘play’ with the recordings to create infinitely variable versions of the piece. For the second stage, we undertook semi-structured interviews with the musicians, inviting them to discuss their approaches to preparing and performing the piece, reflect on their experiences of the recent concert, and demonstrate the various techniques that are required. These sessions were documented by the excellent videographer, Angela Guyton, and will appear as a documentary resource on our project website. Outline findings from the interviews were recently presented at the Tracking the Creative Process in Music Conference.

 

Performing Indeterminacy Conference

On 30 June–2 July 2017 the project’s conference, Performing Indeterminacy, took place at the School of Music, University of Leeds, bringing together nearly 100 international delegates with a shared interest in indeterminacy and performance. The event also marked a milestone in the project’s activities, including a concert featuring John Cage’s Concert for Piano and Orchestra, and the world premiere of Christian Wolff’s Resistance, performedby Apartment House. See our Events page for a full account of the conference.

 

The Cage project visits Northwestern University

In September 2016 the project team went on a two-week research trip to Northwestern University, to undertake research in the archives of the John Cage Collection. During the visit we were invited to give a talk about our current findings on the Solo for Piano at the Bienen School of Music. The trip was supported by a John Cage Research Grant.

 

The Cage project visits New York

In May 2016 the project team spent three weeks in New York, undertaking research in the archives of the New York Public Library, visiting the John Cage Trust and Edition Peters, and conducting interviews with performers of the Concert.