Wednesday (4/28) on the news website CNet, Leslie Katz writes, “With its sleek architectural lines, extensive acoustic setup, and cultured patrons in fancy garb, Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall is generally considered an elegant place. On May 9, however, the stage at the home of the San Francisco Symphony will be covered in garbage. Sewer pipes, deck railings, dresser drawers, bike wheels, saws, bathroom fixtures, and bird cages. Symphony musicians will bang, clang, tap, and thump on these and other bits of detritus as they perform Junkestra, a composition played with 30-plus percussive instruments made entirely of objects scavenged at the San Francisco Dump. Davies ‘is definitely not used to seeing garbage onstage,’ says Nathaniel Stookey, the composer of Junkestra. ‘It doesn’t go with the velvet seats.’ … Stookey composed Junkestra in 2007 while participating in an artist-in-residence program sponsored by San Francisco waste management company Recology. … The 12-minute Junkestra, which is always performed with the same assemblage of instruments, has drawn listeners to San Francisco warehouses and public squares, and in 2008 helped mark the opening of the redesigned California Academy of Sciences building in the city’s Golden Gate Park."
Photo by Julio Cesar Martinez
Posted April 29, 2010
