Jacaranda’s Visual/Music works are bold visual realizations rooted deeply in the lines, rhythms, densities and colors of the music.
They are gifts for our audience, and lures for today’s online visitors.

SMALL TOWNS IN BIG CITIES: A COVID DIARY

Small Towns in Big Cities: Diary 2020-2021 was finished soon after the landmark of one million dead from COVID was observed at the Washington Monument in September 2021. Aaron Copland’s beautiful piano music, performed by Scott Dunn, was transcribed by the composer from his 1940 film score for America’s most performed play Our Town—a keenly observed meditation on mortality. A ceremonial procession of all the U.S. President’s official portraits from the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC begins the diary. Presidents Trump & Biden don’t have them yet. Please note the framed flags at half-mast with each Presidential vacancy by death or assassination.

In 2020, bustling big city settings were hollowed out and replaced with small social groupings. Pots and pans were banged to salute heroic doctors, nurses and emergency workers at dusk. Black Lives Matter solidarity marches spontaneously swelled in communities big and small. Intimate and grand public gestures of remembrance, rebellion and disinformation grew exponentially. The photographic evidence of such contrasting human scale, and the emotionally wrenching images, set in motion this visual music diary.

PHILLIP GLASS - “MAD RUSH”

Mad Rush, Mark Alan Hilt’s signature organ work by Philip Glass, was composed for the Dalai Lama’s 1979 visit to New Your City’s massive Saint John the Divine cathedral. Hilt’s 2014 performance soothes, excites, and empowers as the viewer ponders the climate challenges that we all face, especially in California. Hilt was preparing for a new live performance and recording of Mad Rush when the concert was cancelled due to the Covid-19 lockdown in April 2020. This video was made entirely from license free HD footage and launched on the original concert date as a way of keeping faith with our audience.

…IN THE WILDERNESS: A TRIBUTE TO GEORGE FLOYD IN 8:46

Revised and updated

Performed by renowned dancer/Choreographer David Roussève and trumpeter Daniel Rosenboom, this work of jacaranda’s visual music honors the late George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement for social justice. Directed by Patrick Scott, Artistic Director of Jacaranda Music, and co-conceived with Ben Caldwell, Director, KAOS Network, “…In the Wilderness: A Tribute to George Floyd in 8:46” is a visualization of James Newton’s trumpet solo, with additional music by James Tenney.

"…Beautifully crafted in every way, and moving." – Santa Monica Daily Press

AGONY & ECSTASY PARTS I & II

Part I features Inna Faliks premiering works by Timo Andres & Billy Childs, along with the work that inspired them: Maurice Ravel’s monumental work, Gaspard de la Nuit. Part II features Steven Vanhauwaert and Mark Robson in Olivier Messiaen’s two-piano masterpiece, Visions de l’Amen.

Receive Agony & Ecstasy, Parts I & II after you make a contribution of $100 or more!

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PROGRAM NOTES

SPIRITS OVER THE WATERS

“Spirits Over the Waters” is Franz Schubert’s timeless, moving, and utterly uncanny setting of Goethe’s poem sung by eight men accompanied by violas, cellos, and a bass. The gorgeous audio from 2010 is still as fresh as can be, while newly animated live action was reimagined with HD imagery to enhance Schubert’s intensity of feeling and Goethe’s timely words. Ten minutes of visual music bliss — Spirits Over the Waters is our gift to you.

J.S. BACH - TOCCATA AND FUGUE IN D MINOR

Toccata & Fugue, J.S. Bach’s most famous organ work is catnip to choreographers and filmmakers. This animated version with live action nods to classic animation by Oskar Fischinger and Disney’s Fantasia, and campy horror films. Raiford Rogers, Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Chamber Ballet, graciously granted us access to extensive footage of his ballets in concert and rehearsal with the proviso that we have fun rechoreographing his dancers to Bach. Thomas Mellan’s thrilling September 2019 “Remember the Future” performance from the inaugural concert of the new organ console at First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica lends itself to a densely whimsical if dystopian vision created at the depts of the pandemic.