In Friday’s (4/9) Houston Chronicle , Tara Dooley writes, “Few classical music commissions come with an offer of an outdoor adventure. But when film producer Janice Van Dyke Walden asked Brad Sayles to compose music for a documentary about Buffalo Bayou, she suggested he start with a canoe trip down the Houston waterway. So on an August afternoon, Sayles climbed into Walden’s boat to explore the bayou’s wilder parts. … On the trip, they encountered birds, breezes, jumping fish and canopies of cypress trees. They also found debris, cement and pollution that have battered the bayou. When he sat in front of his piano to compose The Buffalo Bayou, his goal, he said, was to re-create those sights and sounds into musical notes … The piece Sayles composed will make its concert premiere Saturday, performed by the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, which will repeat the performance on Sunday. … ‘From the score itself, he is definitely painting pictures with music,’ said Alecia Lawyer, founder and executive director of the chamber orchestra. … As a concert piece, the suite enables the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra to participate in Walden and [Endangered Species Media Project Director Frank] Salzhandler’s goals to raise awareness about the bayou and urban wilderness, Lawyer said.”
Posted April 13, 2010
