"Symphonies of Movement and Color: Scriabin's Prometheus", ONLINE STREAM, from 20.00, Thursday 8 May 2014
Prometheus Poster (PDF 
, 245kb)
The concert will be free to view, but password protected, so if you would like to watch it please email Dr Katie Tyreman (enchantedmodernities@york.ac.uk) and she will provide a link to the streaming page and an access code.
This concert, organised by Network Partner Dr. Christopher Scheer, was part of a yearlong series of events at USU under the "Enchanted Modernities" umbrella, which was made possible in part through funding from the Leverhulme grant. It originally took place at Kent Music Hall, Utah State University on 23 November 2013. It features two works which connect with the Enchanted Modernities theme, the British composer Gustav Holst's Hymn of Jesus, and the Russian Alexander Scriabin's Prometheus Poem of Fire. The latter is accompanied by spectacular colored lighting effects that the composer specified in his musical score, despite the fact that when the work was premiered in 1905 such effects were impossible to achieve. The concert will be put on by the massed choirs of USU and the USU Symphony Orchestra.
As part of this event Laura Jackson, Music Director of the Reno Philharmonic conducted the concert and was in residence at USU for the week before. Dr. Jackson is one of the most vibrant young conductors in the United States today.
In addition, Dr. Anna Gawboy, assistant professor of music theory at The Ohio State University was in residence. It is her scholarly work on Scriabin's Prometheus which led to the realization of the lighting effects the audience experienced at the concert and you, too, can experience by watching the online stream. You can get an idea of what the event will be like by watching one of Dr. Gawboy's earlier attempts when she was a graduate student at Yale. The video also gives further background on the piece. Gawboy also spoke during the concert, placing a context around Scriabin for the audience before it was played and her talk is included in the online stream.
Also in Logan for part of the week Network Partner was Dr. Marco Pasi, who is Associate Professor (UD1) in History of Hermetic philosophy and related currents at the University of Amsterdam. Pasi is a leader in the cultural history of esotericism. He provided additional contextual information on the place of the pieces in western esotericism and his remarks are also included in the stream.
Related talks by Dr Scheer and Dr Anna Gawboy will also be available online directly after the concert.