CELLOS AND CELLPHONES
Esprit Orchestra weaves mobile devices into its newest concert program,
The cellphone has graduated from concert irritant to instrument.
Esprit Orchestra is putting out the welcome mat for the ubiquitous personal communication device for its Feb. 11 Plug In program at Koerner Hall.
“It’s a whole new world of sound,” says music director Alex Pauk of the evening’s music offerings, which include two compositions about the telephone.
Once he had picked a piece by Canadian composer Eugene Astapov featuring the first recording of Canadian inventor Alexander Graham Bell’s voice over a telephone, it wasn’t a stretch to add one by Chinese composer Tan Dun requiring audiences — and musicians — to play their cellphones.
The evening traces the evolution of the telephone from its creation to the present, Pauk says.
Titled “Passacaglia: Secret of Wind and Birds,” Dun’s composition asks audiences to download one minute of bird songs from Esprit’s website, espritorchestra.com.
They will then be directed by Pauk, who is conducting the piece, to play the passages at a key point in the performance.
Viola player Rhyll Peel is gleefully texting the link to her children and their friends in preparation.
“It’s awesome audience involvement,” says Peel, who has been playing with Esprit since its inception 35 years ago. “Our flyer says, ‘Bring your cellphone, be part of the concert.’ It is so easy. People are keen, they are dying to participate.”
Arts organizations can reach new audiences by using technology as the hook, she says. “I tell all my techie friends, this is for you. Millennials are totally comfortable with this.”
As Esprit is a classical organization dedicated to producing new music, it’s no surprise that technology would be showcased, says Esprit percussionist Ryan Scott. In his own life, the cellphone links family members and it’s impossible to “imagine life without it.”
Nonetheless, the internet is filled
“Our flyer says, ‘Bring your cellphone, be part of the concert.’ It is so easy. People are keen, they are dying to participate.” RHYLL PEEL VIOLA PLAYER
with videos of ticked-off performers being thrown off their stride by errant ring tones.
Scott’s worst case involved a 2013 concert in Beijing where he was playing a quiet segment with his wife, harpist Sanya Eng, when a phone went off in the front row.
“And the worst thing was, he took the call.”
But phone interruptions occur less frequently these days, he says, as everyone becomes more familiar with the technology.
Even musicians had to learn at first to turn off their phones, he points out, citing the case of an orchestra member’s phone ringing during a Canadian Opera Company production under past artistic director Richard Bradshaw.
As the artistic director of Continuum Contemporary Music, Scott has programmed concerts with technological parts.
In one case, an electrical cable was plugged into a dead socket. At the pivotal moment, when Scott was to operate a wind machine, nothing happened.
Astapov’s “Hear My Voice” — commissioned in 2017 to celebrate an Ontarian of note — hit a glitch during its premiere when Bell’s recorded voice was rendered almost inaudible.
“Technology is unreliable,” laments Astapov, who admits this is his first attempt to incorporate it into his musical creations.
“It is so much trouble,” he says of the computers and speakers added to the Esprit concert to reproduce Bell counting, saying his name and “Hear my voice” for posterity.
On the bright side, downloading a few bird tweets and whistles onto their own phones is something most cellphone owners can do without assistance or special knowledge, Pauk says. He will give a “how to” lecture before the concert, bringing everyone up to speed. The orchestra musicians, who have their own phone segment in the concert, have been on board from the beginning, he says.
Unlike a cello or a violin, this is an instrument that fits into a coat pocket and needs no music skills to be played. Plug In takes place Feb. 11 at 8 p.m. at Koerner Hall, 273 Bloor St. W., with a pre-concert chat beginning at 7:15. Visit espritorchestra.com or rcmusic.com for tickets.