“This weekend, the Minnesota Chorale and the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra will present the world premiere of a new work by Minneapolis composer Jocelyn Hagen,” writes Garrett Tiedemann on Wednesday (3/27) at Minnesota Public Radio. “The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci is a seven-movement multimedia experience commissioned jointly by Minnesota Chorale and Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra…. In addition to the Minnesota premiere, the month of April alone will see the work performed in Michigan, Connecticut, California, Alabama and Montana…. In 2015 … Hagen went to an exhibit of the Codex Leicester at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The exhibition presented one of Da Vinci’s original notebooks…. This was a revelatory exhibition for Hagen, who knew that it was the perfect subject matter for a multimedia symphony. ‘It had text, which I could use for the choir to sing, and a beautiful visual component for the projections,’ she said…. The performance also will allow for audience engagement, thanks to Leonardo’s Basement, a creativity workshop based in Minneapolis…. Audience members will have the chance to create handheld inventions for display during the performance. For Hagen, this process ultimately allowed her to see ‘an often-overlooked but extremely beneficial component of the creative process: playfulness,’ she said.”
Posted March 29, 2019
