Artist Statement
Apartments explores the intersection between everyday sounds (rain, electrical wires, coffee machines), human communication (via string instruments) and current events (via AM news radio).
Most people consume their news through their phones but the news has always surrounded us, traveling on invisible radio waves. In 2022, AM radio was discontinued in parts of Europe but still exists in America, updating us constantly about the scary and the mundane. The news via AM radio reminds us that we are living in a time when access to information about the world’s horrors is constantly available. Maybe this is good, spreading awareness. Maybe this is bad, creating anxiety. Either way it affects how we live and interact with our loved ones and with our neighbors.
Apartments explores the idea of the connections and separations we can feel, or ignore, with the people we share our cities and buildings with. We all hear the same sounds: the buzzing of the electrical wires, the humming of a laundry machine, the falling of the rain, but we all experience them in our own separate universes.
The instruments of this piece represent different humans living in different apartments. Some people live alone (the bass), and other couples live together (the violins, the cello and the viola). People hear conversations muffled through the walls. Maybe they are talking about the same things. Maybe they are attempting to converse with their partner but are unable to truly hear them. Maybe they long to connect with neighbors but lack the courage to knock on their door. Or maybe they all transcend society’s unspoken boundaries and come together for a singular moment. A singular conversation.
The musicians have the freedom to listen to their surroundings and respond to them when they wish. It is up to them to communicate which phrases will be performed when with the other member of their musical pod (besides the bass which is solo). They must choose when and how to respond to the sounds and words that surround them, perhaps coming together as a collective at times. Each performance will be different.