“Sometimes it helps to have a visual, especially when telling a story. Enter Geff Strik, the Florida Orchestra’s first-ever visual artist-in-residence,” writes Kelly Smith in Friday’s (10/4) Osprey Observer (Valrico, FL). “For TFO’s upcoming performance of Strauss’ Don Quixote, Strik started with the musical score, covered with handwritten notes from Music Director Michael Francis and 29 sketches. When he picked up his paintbrush, he used only one 10-by-5-foot canvas, painting each scene on top of the other—the earlier works hidden underneath. But they’re not totally gone. The whole process was captured through video and carefully crafted into a 42-minute, high-definition art film synchronized to the music, which Maestro Francis will conduct live on stage for only one weekend, October 11-13…. TFO has more upcoming multimedia concerts, including: National Geographic Live JANE In Concert, [in which a] documentary of Jane Goodall and her chimpanzee research plays on the big screen while the orchestra performs the score by Philip Glass…. Deep Field: A Cosmic Experience [in which] composer Eric Whitacre leads TFO for Deep Field, his own fusion of live music and Hubble space video.… It’s a stellar night of live music including works from Bernstein and Copland.”
Posted October 7, 2019
In photo: Geff Strik, the Florida Orchestra’s new visual artist-in-residence
