“When photographer Libbie Masterson received the Houston Symphony’s invitation, she thought: Wow, this will be a challenge,” writes Steven Brown in Sunday’s (9/28) Houston Chronicle. “The orchestra asked her to create a montage of Houston images to accompany ‘City Scenes,’ a [2007] tone poem by Rice University composition teacher Karim Al-Zand. Masterson … enlisted three artists to help evoke Houston in tandem with Al-Zand’s 11-minute score, which will be part of the symphony’s [Oct. 2, 4, and 5] concerts. Al-Zand drew on the urban world for the work. ‘It is inspired by city life, city sounds—the hustle and bustle.’ … Masterson … is working with videographer Ford Gunter … to shoot images and compile the footage. Ship pilot and photographer Lou Vest has contributed images of the Houston Ship Channel. Videographer Frank Donnelly has added views from a camera attached to a drone sailing above parks and highways…. [One] scene begins in Buffalo Bayou, rises to take in a nearby highway, lifts higher to look across more freeways, then finally embraces downtown’s towers…. Gunter realized the sequence might dovetail with a slower section of Al-Zand’s score. ‘This is a nice discovery that I’m happy about,’ Gunter said.”
Posted October 2, 2014
