Project Orfeo

A concert that combines readings by Novelist Richard Powers with the music of Olivier Messiaen and composer Scott Lindroth, inspired by Powers’ 2014 novel “Orfeo”. 

Richard Powers (“The Time of our Singing” and “The Echomaker”) joins composer Scott Lindroth, the Horzsowski Piano Trio, clarinetist Benjamin Fingland, Artistic Directors Laura Gilbert , flute and Jonathan Bagg, viola, in a mixed-media concert that combines readings from Powers 2014 novel “Orfeo”, with performances of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, and the premiere a new Lindroth composition. The mixed-media event will weave probing and eloquent passages from “Orfeo” around performances of both compositions, placing them in the context of the novel’s central topic, the search for a revelatory new musical language for our time. Powers book discourses eloquently on 20th century masterpieces, while he imagines a yet-to-be-written music for the 21st century that might be derived from existing natural and scientific phenomena. Lindroth’s new work takes up the challenge of the writer’s imaginings, creating a fascinating dialogue between composer, writer, and performer.

A second performance is scheduled at Duke University (Sept 25, 2016).  Rehearsals will take place over five days (Aug 22-27) at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute in Boscawen, New Hampshire.