V IDEO
the big short Performing-arts companies re-cast themselves as video producers as their digital short films draw large audiences. IN MARCH 2020, Rachael Worby, artistic director-conductor of Pasadena musical ensemble Muse/Ique, was discussing with colleagues what they could do to stay connected with their audience during the newly declared pandemic, when inspiration hit. She called Muse/Ique bass player-singer Michael Valerio and asked if she could come over with an iPhone-bearing colleague to film him playing and singing the Beatles’ song “Come Together.” He agreed. Worby also recorded an introduction addressing the pandemic and posted the video online. § Thus was born Muse/Ique’s In a Minute! (… or Two), a series of digital videos that at press time numbered more than a hundred, with more released each week. Running from one to five minutes, the videos present instrumentalists, singers, dancers and other artists in programs encompassing every genre of music imaginable. Muse/Ique is just one performing-arts company whose leaders have found themselves media producers since the pandemic hit. With equipment readily available and affordable, and the companies’ need to foster creative expression and audience engagement, digital videos have become a regular part of the repertory. They’ve drawn new audiences as well as new donations. “The pandemic provided us with an interesting challenge, to create a format of offerings reflective of our core purpose, to
create empathic connections and expand imaginations through live performances,” Worby says. Performances are now captured via imaginative camera angles and approaches: a dance troupe taps and claps to a spoken-word piece to celebrate Black History Month; a pianist plays while his cat listens attentively on his lap. The Los Angeles Master Chorale has also turned to digital videos, beginning with Alice Parker’s Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal, presented in the standard virtual choir
24 PERFORMANCES SPRING 2021
singers-in-boxes (aka “The Brady Bunch”) look. No more. TaReKiTa, with music by Chorale artist-in-residence Reena Esmail, features a dancer in brightly colored Indian saris making choreographed hand gestures against a backdrop of bold jewel tones. “Once you move away from the concert hall, you start thinking about music in a very different way,” says Master
MASTER CHORALE’S TAREKITA FEATURES CHOREOGRAPHED HAND GESTURES
Chorale director of production Susie McDermid. “We’ve been on a journey of how to be creative visually as well as in an auditory sense. What is this piece about? How do we reflect that visually?” For TaReKiTa, a dynamic presentation of choral sounds rather than lyrics, Esmail worked with the chorale’s associate artistic director, Jenny Wong, and editor Gabriel Zuniga on the rich color choices. Released in November, TaReKiTa was first in a video triptych, Shine Bright, that also includes Meredith Monk’s Earth
