FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Lon Bouldin, 917.370.1002, lon@venturespr.com
Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts
Presents
In the Garden of Sonic Delights
Large-Scale Open-Air Sound Art Exhibition
Featuring Sound Artists Laurie Anderson, Ed Osborn,
Annea Lockwood, Stephen Vitiello and Trimpin, among others…
Exhibition Includes Commissioned Site-Specific Sound Works
Located at Caramoor and Westchester County Cultural Organizations
Opening June 7, Continuing through Autumn 2014
Katonah, NY (March 2014) – In Summer 2014, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts will introduce an innovative sound and music experience with a new large-scale open-air sound art exhibition, entitled In the Garden of Sonic Delights (Sonic Delights). Opening Saturday, June 7 and continuing through the fall season, the exhibition, led by Curator and Artistic Director Stephan Moore, will include fifteen site-specific sound artworks. Caramoor commissioned sixteen established and emerging sound artists to choose distinctive locations at Caramoor and five partner organizations throughout Westchester County and the mid-Hudson Valley. The artists have been inspired by their surroundings, creating artworks that take a diversity of forms – sculptural, environmental, and ephemeral. The commissioned artists include acclaimed performance artists, composers, sound designers, musicians, visual artists and sculptors. “Caramoor is very proud to be presenting In the Garden of Sonic Delights, featuring commissioned artwork by a diverse group of today’s most innovative sound artists,” stated Jeff Haydon, Caramoor CEO. “This exciting synergy between numerous Hudson Valley organizations offers new inspiration for all of Westchester County’s performing, music, and visual arts organizations; and earmarks the importance of collaboration.” Artists presented at Caramoor include Laurie Anderson, Bob Bielecki, Betsey Biggs, Eli Keszler, Annea Lockwood, Francisco Lopez, Stephan Moore, Scott Smallwood,Suzanne Thorpe, Trimpin, and Stephen Vitiello. “Sonic Delights has been a priority project in development for the past five years, and we look forward to these artists bringing our audiences innovative and compelling ways to experience sound,” remarked Paul Rosenblum, Caramoor’s managing director. Showcasing the Hudson Valley’s cultural vibrancy, Caramoor has partnered with five arts organizations within the community. Partner organizations, and their respective artists, are Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art (Peekskill)/A. Taylor Kuffner, Jacob Burns Film Center (Pleasantville)/John Morton, Lyndhurst (Tarrytown)/Ed Osborn,Neuberger Museum of Art of Purchase College (Purchase)/Ranjit Bhatnagar, and Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture (Pocantico Hills)/Bruce Odland. ABOUT THE EXHIBITION: IN THE GARDEN OF SONIC DELIGHTS Sound art transforms its surroundings by creating situations that galvanize perception, participation, awareness and reflection. For In the Garden of Sonic Delights, each artist in the exhibition approaches their chosen site differently, paying attention to details to find inspiration. They may respond to a particular location's history, its acoustic properties, the forms of nature present, or how the public engages with it. They explore the natural- and human-made sounds that are present, and respond with auditory interventions that run the gamut from sculptural to invisible, electronic to natural, narrative to abstract. These responses include a robotically played gamelan, interactive solar instruments, a hammock accessorized with vibrating bass actuators, and a house made of piano harps, plucked and scraped by mechanical devices. As the seasons change throughout the exhibition, so will the audience experience; a specific work encountered on a hot summer day will differ from that same work experienced on a cool fall evening. “Like painting or sculpture, sound art can be narrative or expressive, representational or abstract,” Mr. Moore said, noting that unlike those fields, “it benefits from the history of both art- and music-making without having a long history of its own to contend with. This position affords sound art the flexibility to engage with concepts from those fields as readily as it responds to recent developments in perception, acoustics, and technology.” Caramoor and the other participating organizations form an ideal setting for In the Garden of Sonic Delights, providing inspiring environments, engaged and artistically curious audiences, and a wealth of diverse cultural experiences beyond the exhibition, ready to be discovered. ABOUT THE CURATOR & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: STEPHAN MOORE Sound artist Stephan Moore has been working at the forefront of the contemporary experimental audio world for the past 15 years as a curator, improviser, composer, programmer, theatrical sound designer, loudspeaker builder, radio technician, installation artist, live sound engineer, and teacher. His creative work currently manifests as electronic studio compositions, solo and group improvisations, sound installation works, scores for collaborative performance pieces, and multi-channel sound designs for unusual circumstances. His company, Isobel Audio, produces unique Hemisphere speakers. He currently serves as the vice-president of the American Society for Acoustic Ecology, and as an audio and technology consultant for a number of for- and non-profit organizations. From 2004 to 2010, he toured with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, serving as their sound engineer and music coordinator, as well as a performing musician. Based in Providence, RI, he is a Ph.D. candidate at Brown University in the Multimedia and Electronic Music Experiments program. ABOUT THE PRESENTER: CARAMOOR:Caramoor is a performing arts center located on a unique 90-acre setting of Italianate architecture and gardens in Westchester County, NY. It enriches the lives of its audiences through innovative and diverse musical performances of the highest quality. Its mission also includes mentoring young professional musicians and providing educational programs for young children centered around music. Audiences are invited to come early to explore the beautiful grounds, tour the historic Rosen House, enjoy a pre-concert picnic, and discover beautiful music in the relaxed settings of the Venetian Theater, Spanish Courtyard, Music Room of the Rosen House, and the magnificent gardens. To learn more, visit caramoor.org. Keeping with Caramoor’s commitment to the community and education, exhibition works will be accompanied by public discussions, performances, workshops, a digital guide, a catalogue and a map for conducting self-guided tours. In the Garden of Sonic Delights is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. In the Garden of Sonic Delights will be open Thursday-Sunday, 10AM-3PM. Admission includes all-day access to the Caramoor grounds for the exhibit, picnics, and walks. (children 12 and under are free)