Combining music, film, science and stimulating discussion, Project Youth and Chamber Music’s (PYCh) second annual OFF the HOOK Winter Music Festival offers Valentine’s week-end festivities for all lovers of the arts and science.
Composer and host, Bruce Adolphe, Director of Family Concerts Series at The Chamber Music Society at Lincoln Center in New York City, The Piano Puzzler on Public Radio’s Performance Today and co-artistic director of OFF the HOOK (OtH) hosts our winter extension of PYCh’s summer chamber music festival. Events include lectures, narration of his entertaining work, Tyrannosaurus Sue: A Cretaceous Concerto at the Musical Zoo with the Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra, and Einstein’s Light Performance Event featurig clips from this exciting new documentary, hands-on science exploration, live music performance of the score with Bruce at the piano, and our very special guest, writer and director of Einstein’s Light, Nickolas Barris, as he joins us for all three of our Einstein’s Light performance events on Feb. 13, 14, and 16.
This year, the festival ventures outside Fort Collins’ borders offering Boulder and Denver the magical experience of Adolphe’s music and his great on-stage personality.
Einstein’s Light: Illuminating Minds Performance Event involves clips from the upcoming film, and will be shown at the Fiske Planetarium in Boulder with hands-on science exploration in the lobby prior to the concert. It will additionally be featured at Metro State University’s 12th Annual Piano Celebration in Denver and in Fort Collins as a collaborative effort with CSU College of Natural Sciences Education & Outreach Center (EOC), the CSU STEM Educator’s Club, and Sigma Xi.
This new film was produced in celebration of the 100th anniversary of general relativity written and directed by Nickolas Barris, music by Bruce Adolphe recorded by violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Marija Stroke. An official film of the United Nations Year of Light 2015, highlights of the film will be shown with live music at the UNESCO Theater in Paris this January as the finale of the opening ceremony. Barris wrote the script while a Director’s Visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and has focused the narrative on Einstein’s cognitive process and his love of music.
With state-of-the-art technology Einstein’s Light brings physics concepts to the screen with stunning imagination and unforgettable images. With world-wide distribution in the 2015-2016 academic year, the film’s release is timed to inspire students with the importance of science within the framework of STEM and STEAM. The showing of highlights in Colorado presented by the Off the Hook Winter Music Festival is the United States premiere. Both director Nickolas Barris and composer Bruce Adolphe will be on hand to discuss the film with the audience accompanied by violinists, Clara Lyon (Denver and Boulder) and Emily Ondracek-Peterson (Fort Collins). CU Astrophysicist Dr. Michael Shull joins the discussion and ties Einstein’s scientific theories to the science of today. (The full version Einstein’s Light will be shown during the opening week of OFF the HOOK Summer Chamber Festival in June, 2015.)
This performance event exhibits the strong connection between the study and importance of music to one of our greatest scientific thinkers of all time and the value of his scientific achievements.
Denver’s evening performance at Metro State University’s Piano Celebration is preceded by an afternoon discussion, Living the Musical Life: a many-hatted approach to a musical career featuring Bruce on the piano where he will include Piano Puzzlers from his Performance Today radio show.
The festival demonstrates PYCh’s mission to create life-long creative thinkers, cultural advocates and appreciators of the arts through study, exposure and performance of chamber music, for youth and their communities regardless of their financial access.
OFF the HOOK Winter Music Schedule
February 13: The Mind’s Ear Workshop for All-State Orchestra’s Orchestra Directors:
Location: CSU University Center of the Arts, 9:30 -11:00 am
Open to the general public. A free event.
February 13: Best of Bruce Adolphe at The Piano Celebration: Living the Musical Life
Location: Metro State University, Denver, 1:00 -3:00 pm
Tickets are available through The Piano Celebration’s Metro State University website.
February 13: Einstein’s Light: Relativity for Lovers – Clips from a new movie by Nickolas Barris about Einstein with original music performed by Bruce Adolphe on piano and Clara Lyon on violin. Discussion to follow led by Adolphe and CU Astrophysicist Dr. Michael Shull.
Location: Metro State University: King Center Concert Hall, 7:00 pm
Tickets are available through The Piano Celebration’s Metro State University website.
February 14: Einstein’s Light: Relativity for Lovers
Location: Fiske Planetarium, Boulder. 6:30 – 8:00 pm
February 15: MUSICAL ZOO: “Tyrannosaurus Sue: A Creataceous Concerto“. Composed and narrated by Bruce Adolphe. Performed with Fort Collins Symphony Orch.
Location: Timberline Church, Fort Collins. 2:30 pm – 5:00 pm
February 16: Specially released film clips from Einstein’s Light: Relativity for Lovers
Location: CSU Nature & Environmental Sciences Building, Fort Collins, 6:00 – 8:30 pm