NMC Campus Observer

Red {an orchestra} at NMC Campus: Live Performance Streamed in Second Life

CDB Barkley (aka Alan Levine) : Apr 10, 2007 02:05pm

You are invited to experience a ground-breaking event.

On April 14, 2007, at 5:00 pm PDT (check your local time), Red {an orchestra} will be premiering the first ever live digital-simulcast of an American orchestra into the 3D virtual web.

In partnership with Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University, OneCommunity and the New Media Consortium, Red {an orchestra} will perform its concert, That Red Guy, both in Cleveland at the Masonic Auditorium as well via video streamed as into Second Life.

This performance heralds the “Grand Opening” of the virtual City of Cleveland and the Case Western Reserve University Campus known as OneCleveland, thereby demonstrating to the world Cleveland’s role as both a “digital city” and great cultural center. This will be the first time ever a live audio/video feed of an American orchestral concert is presented in Second Life and is sure to be of interest to orchestra audiences around the world.

Red {an orchestra} is using this concert experience in Second Life to explore ways of introducing new audiences to Classical Music, an important part of Red’s mission.

What will you experience? At 5:00 pm PDT, while Red {an orchestra} performs live at the Masonic Auditorium in Cleveland, you and an audience of other avatars will be seated at either OneCleveland or the New Media Consortium campus amphitheaters.

If you have never visited Second Life, a few days before the concert, create an account and your avatar and take some time to learn the environment. See the NMC Campus Getting Started guide or the tutorial on the Red {an orchestra} web site.

If you already have an avatar in Second Life, you have three locations to choose where you can attend this performance. Two of these are on NMC Campus — if you have never visited us before, you will need to first join one of the NMC groups that provide teleport access to NMC. Once you have done this, you can use these map URLs or use your Second Life map controls to find:

• Gonick Amphitheater on NMC Campus (113,100, 26) (try map url or second life url)
• The new Amphitheater on the second floor of the NMC Machinima Studio building on Learning (114, 94, 29) (try map url or second life url)

For information and location on attending at the OneClieveland site, please see the Red {an orchestra} web site

The Concert: That Red Guy has music orchestrated and composed by Red’s Artistic Director and Conductor, Jonathan Sheffer. Red {an orchestra} will present the world premier of Sheffer’s A Red Couch Floating in Lake Erie: A Symphony of Songs. This new work features a libretto written by Cleveland poets and poems written about Cleveland. This is a tribute to Cleveland and is based on poems published by the Poets’ and Writers’ League of Greater Cleveland. The poems include one about Helen Keller experiencing a 1913 blizzard in Cleveland, and one about the only major league baseball player ever hit and killed by a pitch – yes in Cleveland.

The other pieces include the North American premier of Jonathan Sheffer’s Romp: Concerto for So prano Saxophone and Orchestra, featuring Anders Paulsson of Sweden, the world-leading classical soprano saxophonist. And, Six Preludes from the Well Tempered Clavier, an orchestral transcription Sheffer composed from Bach’s masterpiece, “The Well Tempered Clavier” will also be performed.

Seating at the site is limited. Entry to the Red {an orchestra} performance in Second Life is based on a “first-come” basis.

RED’s performance in Second Life is made possible by a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and with support from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University, the New Media Consortium, OneCommunity, Leonard Steinbach Cultural Technology Strategies, MediaAffect.com, JaredJared.com, and the musicians of Red {an orchestra}.

Story filed under: Arts, Campus Headlines, What's Happening

See all stories by CDB Barkley (aka Alan Levine)