sound waves interacts with stylus; DJ John Uhlemann, host of “Music from the Hills,” talks about Balkan music and what it’s like to play at the Pulitzer.

sound waves: Balkan took place last Thursday evening. Every “Third Thursday” of the month, for the duration of the exhibition stylus, the Pulitzer, in collaboration with 88.1 KDHX, is hosting sound waves from 6-9pm. For information on the upcoming sound waves: Jazz, visit our events page.

Musicians practice in the Lower Gallery as DJ Andrea Dunn plays tracks from the Entrance Gallery.

Yes, you read that correctly. Next Thursday, the Pulitzer is incorporating another kind of cultural event into its repertoire and inviting people to listen to Brazilian music in its galleries from 6 to 9pm.

September 16th’s event will be the first night of sound waves, a series of music listening parties on the third Thursday of each month of stylus, and will feature DJ Andrea Dunn of Radio Rio on 88.1 KDHX, Moacyr Marchini of the band Samba Bom and Scott Rice, a drummer and dance accompanist. sound waves is a collaboration between KDHX Independent Media and the Pulitzer, and is curated by Nico Leone, Co-Executive Director of KDHX.

“It all plays with that idea of call and response,” Lisa Harper Chang, our director of community projects, explains how the event is an extension of stylus. “It’s the way KDHX and the Pulitzer are calling to diverse communities and traditions within greater St. Louis community to respond.”

The St. Louis area can respond by calling into the bell speakers and, most importantly, by joining the show every third Thursday. The Pulitzer and KDHX encourage visitors to bring their own instruments to play along and to move to the music (as long as visitors stay in the Main Gallery and in their “personal bubbles,” as Courtney Henson, our visitor services manager, says). Whether or not you’re prone to publicly dance, it’ll be hard to contain yourselves, considering the beats that will be flowing through speakers all over the Tadao Ando galleries. Read the rest of this entry »

David Robertson, Music Director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, describes how Gyorgy Kurtag’s Kafka-Fragmente relates to the work of Ann Hamilton.

For every exhibition, the Pulitzer teams up with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra for a concert series related to concepts behind the works of art in the galleries. The stylus Concert Series begins this September 14th and 15th. For more information, visit our main website.

Ward Stare, Resident Conductor for the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, talks about Ingram Marshall’s Fog Tropes, in front of Gordon Matta-Clark’s Bingo. Stare will conduct Fog Tropes for the concert tomorrow, March 10, 2010. (Tickets for tomorrow’s concert are SOLD OUT.)

As I’m sure all of you already know (because you follow our blog, facebook and twitter accounts faithfully) our Urban Alchemy / Gordon Matta-Clark exhibition opening took place last Friday from 5pm to 9pm. Admittedly, scheduling a 4 hour opening did seem like a long amount of time and we therefore planned to evaluate the visitor attendance flow every hour to figure out if, for future openings, we should open later or close earlier. Much to our excitement, we found that our 900 visitors came in a steady stream – showing up on their way home from work or arriving after a dinner on the town for a glass of wine on our mezzanine. It certainly didn’t hurt the event when the skies cleared just hours before we were slated to open, giving our guests an amazing view of a setting sun against a St. Louis skyline.

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The Symphony’s Carnegie Hall performance that I mentioned in this post, was reviewed in the New York Times on Sunday.  Sounds like it was a trip full of challenges, but with amazing results.  For example, David Robertson filling in for the soloist at the last minute!  Read about why and what happened here.

I was lucky to be invited to last Friday’s Symphony performance by their blogger extraordinaire, Eddie Silva. He organized Bloggers’ Night, luring us in with promises of free tickets, drinks, and a chance to mingle with fellow bloggers.  In exchange we promised a blog post about the experience. Genius!The Pulitzer collaborates regularly with the Symphony, so they’re no strangers around the Pulitzer (I got a kick out of trying to find musicians on stage that had performed here in the past).  But this time, I enjoyed going down the street to hang on their turf for once.   Listening to the performance at Powell Symphony Hall, was in strong contrast to our stark, modern concrete.   At the Pulitzer, performances are very intimate, but I loved being in the middle of that large hall, dressed up, and surrounded by beautiful gold gilding and chandeliers.

Powell is one of my favorite buildings in St. Louis, and each time I walk through its doors – either for a performance in front, or for a meeting in back – I’m always reminded of my childhood.  I remember going to the Christmas concerts, and the main lobby with its red velvet, gold and mirrors, decked out in its holiday best, was the pinnacle of elegance.  My favorite part of the night was always walking up and down that grand staircase.  I still get a kick out of it.  If I worked at Powell, I’d use that staircase every day.  Or eat my lunch on it.  Though that’s probably not allowed.

We were lucky to be able to watch the Carnegie Hall preview performance.  Here it’s mentioned on Alex Ross’ blog, The Rest is Noise (he also gives a well-deserved shout-out to Eddie!).  It featured the full orchestra (also something we never get to see at the Pulitzer!) performing Wagner’s Good Friday Music from Parsifal and Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5.  They invited two incredible guest artists – cellist, Anssi Karttunen, (his fingers moved so fast, I could barely keep up) who performed on Zimmermann’s Canto di speranza and Mirage by Saariaho, which he performed with soprano Karita Matilla.  My favorite piece of the night was when she sang Sibelius’ Luonnota.  We were sitting towards the back of the hall, and even at that distance, she was completely captivating.

I enjoyed getting outside of the Pulitzer’s walls to experience one of our regular collaborators in all their full Powell Hall performance glory.  I hope I can not only finagle an invite to the next Bloggers Summit (cough cough) but also return the favor very soon.

An Interview with Courtney Henson, Visitor Services Manager (conducted via Gchat):

me: As the new Visitor Services Manager, what have you been working on in the last couple of weeks?

Courtney:  It has been a balancing act of scheduling-mostly getting all the Community Engagement groups scheduled within the other things, like symposia and St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert, etc. The month of March is pretty packed with things to do-at least for the gallery assistants. The general public will be interested in the upcoming April events.

me:  So you have to make sure the Pulitzer building isn’t overbooked?

Courtney:  That is a part of it. It’s important to make sure that even when we’re open for special programs that we maintain our mission of being both a laboratory and a sanctuary.

me:  How will the GAs’ (gallery assistants) workload be affected by the events in April?

Courtney:  The GAs will be working Wednesdays, Saturdays, and all Sundays.  Saturdays and Sundays will be open days for the performances of Staging Old Masters.

me:   What have the GAs been doing with the Community Engagement groups, like Staging Old Masters or the adults with Alzheimer’s?

Courtney:  The GAs have been maintaining the galleries during these group times. Also, from time to time they are asked to assist in interviewing, a new way that we’re evaluating the programs that take place in the building.

The gallery assistants helped interview the participants in Let’s Look.  These interviews are a way to track the ideas held by participants at the beginning of the program. And another interview will

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Pianist Molly Morkoski looked nervous and had every right to be. Olivier Messiaen’s “Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus” contains twenty movements and spans two hours; a challenging work for any accomplished musician. So she took several deep breaths while intently looking at all 88 keys. When she began to push down on the piano’s perfect teeth, sounds escaped from its propped mouth. The language it spoke seemed without order but beautiful nonetheless. Like a charming schizophrenic bearing flowers and jagged glass, I embraced its message but remained cautious. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday evening, in the spirit of season, Molly Morkoski performed French composer Olivier Messiaen’s Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus (twenty contemplations on the infant Jesus). Before she began, Morkoski described studying this difficult, two-hour piece and expressed gratitude at the opportunity to perform it.

Molly Morkoski and Messiaen are mentioned in “Tis the Season 2,” on the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra blog: http://www.slso.org/blog/