How can we come together as a city through musical rehearsal? This question is explored by Rehearsing Philadelphia – a large-scale public project conceived by Ari Benjamin Meyers and produced and presented together with the Curtis Institute of Music and Drexel University’s Westphal College of Media Arts & Design.
Image above: © Conrad Erb
The traditional musical preparation process focuses on rehearsal as a means of achieving perfection, which is then repeated in performance. However, this is not the way we live our modern lives in a rapidly changing world of social upheaval. The future is rehearsed, not perfected. Rehearsing Philadelphia explores the rehearsal processes that enable people to act together and create new realities.
Rehearsing Philadelphia will consist of four performance modules – solo, duet, ensemble and orchestra – to engage and map the various constellations of the social fabric and its groups in the process. As part of these modules, the newly commissioned works will be performed live and will include face-to-face encounters with audiences at various public and private venues throughout the city, including City Hall, the School District and Philadelphia Police Department, the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the Cherry Street Pier and others. Accompanying the live performances, artistic partner and digital strategist Vanessa Newman will create a parallel digital space where audiences can experience this public art in digital form.
As part of the meta-score, Ari Benjamin Meyers has invited artists to participate and create new works, including Ei Arakawa, Marshall Allen (Sun Ra Arkestra), Tyshawn Sorey, Zoë Keating, CA Conrad, Xenia Rubinos, Ursula Rucker and Ann Carlson.
The project begins the week of 25 March 2022 and culminates with the final rehearsals of all four phases on Saturday 9 April 2022.
WHEN?
Friday, 25 March until Sunday, 10 April 2022
Opening weekend: Friday, 25th to Saturday, 26th March 2022
WHERE?
Various locations
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
www.rehearsingphiladelphia.com
Instagram: @rehearsingphiladelphia
The information was provided by Galerie Esther Schipper, Berlin.
