Louisville Orchestra Leads “Music Unwound” Festival Next Week

Composer Aaron Copland

Copyright 2013 by Arts-Louisville, all rights reserved.

At a time when the Humana festival might seem to have exclusively captured the spotlight in Louisville, the Louisville Orchestra, the University of Louisville School of Music, and the Louisville Visual Art Association are participants in another festival entitled “Music Unwound” that focuses on Mexico, music and photography.

Curated by music scholar and author Joseph Horowitz, the program is an adventurous collaboration among five American orchestras to bring humanities content into the concert hall.  Louisville is the first participating city to host the heady combination of concerts featuring Aaron Copland’s tone poem El Salón México and an exhibit of photographs by Paul Strand.

El Salón México was composed between 1932 and 1936 while Copland was in Mexico and was first performed by The Mexican Symphony Orchestra in 1937. The often forgotten subtitle, “A Popular Type Dance Hall in Mexico City,” reflects the populist grounding of the material, which was, in fact, based on the sheet music for four Mexican folk songs that the composer obtained while there.

In the same period, seminal American photographer Paul Strand was also working in Mexico, and some of the images from this period are part of a collection entitled “The Mexican Portfolio.” The 20 photogravures are currently on display at PUBLIC, the new Louisville Visual Art Association gallery space located at 131 West Main Street in the Whiskey Row Lofts building. Joseph Horowitz will present a lecture on the portfolio on March 26 in The Baron’s Theatre, also located in Whiskey Row Lofts.

Photographer Paul Strand. Photo-Walter Rosenblum.

The Orchestra’s concerts next week will conclude with a live presentation of a 1936 black-and-white film entitled “Redes” (The Wave) scored by composer Silvestre Revueltas, who was an important influence on Aaron Copland’s work, and with cinematography by Paul Strand. The film is also a part of the Strand exhibit at PUBLIC.

Other guests will appear from Mexico City and Los Angeles as part of the week’s activities. Jorge Mester reflects, “The Copland project is especially meaningful for me. Copland originally visited Mexico to absorb its art and culture. This experience resulted in his popular El Salón México. Later, on a subsequent visit to Mexico, I had the pleasure of spending time with him and even taking him to the movies.”

Music Unwound Schedule of Events:

March -April :
  
Paul Strand:The Mexican Portfolio Presented by the Louisville Visual Art Association • 
Location: PUBLIC,  W. Main St. • Time: Gallery hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 
: am-: pm

March 
: 
Panel Discussion, Paul Strand and Mexico, presented by the Louisville Visual Art Association • Location: The Baron’s Theatre at PUBLIC,  W. Main St. • Time: reception at : pm, discussion at : pm

March : 

Pre-Concert Panel Discussion, presented by the Louisville Orchestra • 
Location: Kentucky Center for the Arts, Mary Anderson Room,  W. Main St. • Time: : am

Coffee Concert, presented by the Louisville Orchestra • 
Location: Kentucky Center for the Arts, Whitney Hall • Tickets $- • Time: : am

Student/Faculty Convocation, presented in partnership with University of Louisville School of Music •  Location: Cardinal Blvd and S. st St. • Time: : pm

University Chamber Players Concert, presented in partnership with University of Louisville School of Music • Location: Comstock Concert Hall, University of Louisville • Time: : pm

March 
: 
Magic of Music: Luncheon & Lecture, presented by the Louisville Orchestra • 
Location: Gingerwoods Event Hall,  Rose Island Rd. • Tickets $ • Time: : pm

Pre-Concert Panel Discussion, presented by the Louisville Orchestra • 
Location: Kentucky Center for the Arts, Mary Anderson Room • Time: : pm

Classics Concert, presented by the Louisville Orchestra • 
Location: Kentucky Center for the Arts, Whitney Hall • Tickets $- • Time: : pm