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Songs About Buildings and Moods

Nearly two weeks ago I had the extraordinary honor of sharing the stage with one of the world’s foremost architects, Daniel Libeskind.

I had written him through the contact page on his website to ask if he would be willing to be a guest on the Relevant Tones festival at which we’d screen several videos from ACM’s new project Songs About Buildings and Moods, a series of videos exploring the intersection between music and architecture, and incredibly, he said yes.

The other person on the panel is Dorothy Dunn from Open House New York, one of the sponsors of the event.  This evening was really important for me because ACM has put a lot of resources into this new series and this was the first time we were showing any of the videos publicly. In short, I was nervous.

Ultimately each video will combine narrative about the space with conversation from the composer about how the space inspired them and then we fade all the background sounds away and we hear the piece performed while watching exquisitely-shot footage of the space.

Our production team does a great job lingering on details and following the narrative arc of the piece with the photography.  We stay away from any scientific or technical aspects of music and architecture and focus on emotionality instead.  How does a building make us feel?  How does a piece of music make us feel? Each space is an immersion into a totally different world.

For example, The First Church of Deliverance in Bronzeville, seen above, was designed by Walter T. Bailey, Chicago’s first licensed Black architect. The church was built in a Streamline Moderne style, which is not exactly the norm for a house of worship.

To top it off, Bailey put a huge multi-colored mosaic of a cross on the ceiling and, as if that weren’t enough, it lights up.  The church is more than its architectural legacy though. It is a vital institution in Bronzeville with a rich history and a mission that has had a positive impact on the lives of tens of thousands of people since it opened in 1929.

We’ve finished the videos for five sites total and will be pitching them to major media outlets early next year and hopefully releasing them soon after so hopefully you won’t have long to wait to see them.

But you can get a special sneak peek at the video of the First Church of Deliverance tonight as part of a virtual conversation with Open House Chicago. Last minute notice I know…

Join composer Regina Baiochhi, Reverend James Bryson Jr., design writer and critic Zach Mortice and me for an exciting conversation about this unique space that will culminate in a screening of the video.

Today at 5:30 PM Central/6:30 Eastern
Virtual Presentation
Free with Registration

 

 

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