CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS PROGRAM NOTES Friday, May 7, 2010, 8pm Saturday, May 8, 2010, 8pm Zellerbach Hall Delusion by Laurie Anderson with Special Guest Musicians Colin Stetson & Doug Wieselman Production Credits Laurie Anderson Music Text & Visual Design Colin Stetson Special Guest Musician Doug Wieselman Special Guest Musician Amy Khoshbin Video Design & Live Mix Rus Snelling Production & Lighting Dave Cook Front-of-House Audio Anderson Laurie Maryse Alberti Video Director of Photography Toshiaki Ozawa Additional Video ELUSION is a meditation on life and language. Bob Currie Story Team DConceived as a series of short mystery plays, Rande Brown Story Team Delusion jump-cuts between the everyday and the mythic. Combining violin, electronic puppetry, Shane Koss Audio Rig Design music and visuals, Delusion tells its story in the col- Konrad Kaczmarek Audio Software Design orful and poetic language that has become Laurie Ned Steinberger Violin Design Anderson’s trademark. Brad Hampton Tour Management “The electronically altered voice I have used for many years, the one that turns my voice into a World Premiere February 17, 2010, Cultural Olympiad, male voice, has been gradually evolving from a stock Vancouver, British Columbia voice of authority into a more nuanced one,” says Ms. Anderson. “I have written Delusion as a conver- sation between that voice and my own.” Delusion was commissioned by Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad, Vancouver, and barbicanbite10, London. The stories inDelusion come from ma ny worlds — technical, scientific, personal and mythic—and from Additional support provided by BAM for the 2010 Next Wave Festival; Cal Performances; various states of consciousness, dream and medita- Stanford Lively Arts; and the generosity of Sarah Ratchye and Ed Frank. tion. The stories range from the mystic origins of the Russian space program to theories of time and speed, Additional production support and residency provided by the Experimental Media ancestors, control, silence and animals. and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. At the heart of Delusion is the belief that words and stories can create and decreate the world. This presentation is made possible, in part, by Corporate Sponsor Bank of America. Delusion features some of the music heard on Ms. Anderson’s recording, Homeland, which will be Cal Performances’ 2009–2010 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. issued by Nonesuch Records in summer 2010. 20 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 21 ABOUT THE ARTISTS ABOUT THE ARTISTS AURIE ANDERSON (voice, violin) is one of and with Todd Solondz on his hard-hitting drama, work rooted in a sonnet cycle about Iceland and Sandresky and Cory Arcangel. Semiotech, her LAmerica’s most renowned and daring creative Happiness. She won her second Spirit Award for swallows. The piece will be premiered in New York ongoing collaboration with sound artist Michael pioneers. She is best known for her multimedia the critically acclaimed movie The Wrestler, di- City in fall 2010. Clemow, explores and creates performance tech- presentations and innovative use of technology. rected by Darren Aronofsky. In the last few years, nology for use in their musical performance group, As a writer, director, visual artist and vocalist, she she has worked with artist Pierre Huygue and Konrad Kaczmarek (audio software design) is a And Um Yeah, and by others. She is currently a has created groundbreaking works that span the Ms. Anderson. She lives in New York City with composer, musician and programmer working Resident Artist at New York University’s Interactive worlds of art, theater and experimental music. her husband and son. primarily in live audio processing and video per- Telecommunications Program. Her recording career, launched by O Superman in formance. He received a B.A. in music from Yale 1981, includes the soundtrack to her feature film, Rande Brown (story team) is a noted writer and University, a M.Mus. in electronic music composi- Toshiaki Ozawa (additional video) first met Home of the Brave, and Life on a String (2001). translator of texts on contemporary Japanese tion from the University of London, Goldsmiths, Laurie Anderson by happenstance at a tiny bar in Ms. Anderson’s live shows range from simple spo- spirituality and culture. She co-authored the New and is currently working on his doctoral studies Shinjuku called Jetee. It was many years later when ken word to elaborate multimedia stage perfor- York Times bestseller Geisha, A Life with Mineko in composition at Princeton. He has held teach- they met again and he got the chance to work with mances, such as Songs and Stories for Moby Dick Iwasaki (Atria, 2002). Ms. Brown is also president ing positions at Yale University, New School her; his image-making skills clearly surpass his (1999). She has published seven books, and her of East West Communications, a company that University and Harvestworks Studio in New York. ability for bar talk. He has been behind the cam- visual work has been presented in major museums has been facilitating the presentation of Western His own work has been performed at the Stanley era on many music videos, documentaries, com- around the world. performance and visual art in Asia since 1984. As a Glasser Electronic Music Studio in London; the mercials and feature films in the past 20 years. He In 2002, Ms. Anderson was appointed the first long-time student of Buddhist theory and practice, Sonorities Festival at Queens University in Belfast; has collaborated with many artists, including Isaac artist-in-residence of NASA, which culminated and as a trained interfaith chaplain, she has a par- the SoundBytes Festival in Halifax; Brooklyn Julien, Leandro Katz and Matthew Barney. His in her 2004 touring solo performance The End of ticular interest in delusion, and is currently on the College, The Tank and the Chelsea Art Museum in latest feature film,Scar , a horror movie shot in 3-D, the Moon. Recent projects include a series of au- path to becoming a psychotherapist. New York City; the Extensible Toy Piano Project enjoyed popular success in Russia and is slated for diovisual installations and a high-definition film, at Clark University and University of Albany; and future release in the United States. Hidden Inside Mountains, created for World Expo Dave Cook (front-of-house audio) is a native New the Princeton Composer’s Ensemble. He has been 2005 in Aichi, Japan. In 2007, she received the Yorker who has been a sound engineer for many awarded residencies at the Atlantic Center for the Rus Snelling (production and lights) is an artist prestigious Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize for her years and comes from a background in recording Arts, the Banff Centre in Canada and STEIM who has worked as a production, stage and tour outstanding contribution to the arts. In 2008, she studios, theaters and concert settings. His work in the Netherlands. Mr. Kaczmarek is also a jazz manager, lighting and set designer, technical direc- completed a two-year worldwide tour of her lat- in the pop/rock world has landed him Gold and pianist, and he has received an outstanding soloist tor, fire sculptor and performer with arts organi- est performance piece, Homeland. Her Nonesuch Platinum album credits with artists such as 10,000 award from Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Stanton zations and events ranging from intimate theatri- recording, Homeland, will be released in summer maniacs, the B-52s (he engineered everyone’s fa- Wheeler Prize for jazz performance at Yale. cal works to large-scale ceremonies throughout 2010 and spans the music of Homeland and her vorite backyard barbecue song, “The Love Shack”) Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and newest solo performance, Delusion. This work de- and others, including Nick Cave, Graham Parker, Shane Koss (audio rig design), born and raised the United States. Credits include John Leguizamo buted at the Vancouver Cultural Olympiad in early the Golden Palominos and Juliana Hatfield. He in rural Maryland, twiddled and fiddled his way Live (U.S. tour), Melbourne International Arts 2010 and is touring internationally. Ms. Anderson has engineered and mixed live broadcasts by David through Berklee, Los Angeles and London to find Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Melbourne lives in New York City. Bowie, Radiohead and Morphine, to name a few. himself in New York City, where he now stays up Commonwealth Games Ceremonies, Sydney Mr. Cook has also engineered sessions with jazz way too late making strange noises and beating his Olympic Games Ceremonies, New York’s P.S. Maryse Alberti (video director of photography) artists, such as Dave Holland, Kenny Washington, computers into submission. The latter has helped 122, The Fellas Live (U.S. tour), Lenny Henry Show was born and raised in the south of France and is George Mraz, Jimmy Cobb and Warren Bernhardt. him design studios and performance rigs both and Danny Bhoy Live (Australia and New Zealand a multi–award-winning cinematographer. With an His live concert touring/mixing credits include stateside and abroad. tours), and Ross Noble’s Unrealtime and Sonic eye for thought-provoking and challenging subject Elvis Costello with the Charles Mingus Orchestra, Waffle on London’s West End. matter, she has had a succession of lauded political Carly Simon, Nine Circles Chamber Theater, Amy Khoshbin (video design and live mix) is a documentaries including Enron, the Smartest Guys Maya Beiser, Ravi Shankar, Anoushka Shankar Brooklyn-based multimedia artist from Texas Colin Stetson (special guest musician) was born in the Room, nominated for an Academy Award, and Marc Cohn. Mr. Cook lives with his family in with a background in film, new media and mu- and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and earned and Taxi to the Dark Side, which won an Oscar for Saugerties, New York. sic. Her videos, performances and wearable tech- a degree in music from his hometown school, the best documentary (both directed by Alex Gibney).