The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Blowing Their Horns
Dundee Contemporary Arts, August 10
Dundee Contemporary Arts will welcome an exciting night of music to accompany Clare Woods’ current exhibition, a Victim of Geography, which involves a raw and powerful array of oil-painted aluminium sheets.
It’s the DCA’s latest venture in its string of Echo projects which aim to shed new light on the works being displayed in the gallery’s spaces.
Echo looks to invite a multidisciplinary response to the exhibitions it hosts. It encourages other artistic voices to create their own responses to the work on show through a vast range of mediums.
In collaboration with the Red Note Ensemble and the Edinburgh University Musical Instrument Museum, the project first started in Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket Gallery to celebrate the reopening of St Cecelia’s Hall and the museum.
It will now make its way to the DCA with four brass players performing a compilation of existing compositions, along with a piece written specifically for the project.
Mark O’Keefe, a member of the Red Note Ensemble and the principal trumpeter for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, will be joined by fellow brass instrument players including a French horn, tuba and a trombone.
Speaking ahead of the event, Mark said: “We’ll be playing a mixture of pieces from brass quartets, solos, riffs and a piece that was especially composed for this event called “Always A Bridesmaid” by Jim Sutherland. Audiences can also expect music by Bach, Wagner and many more.
“The players will be playing unconventional instruments which audiences may never have come across,” he adds.
“The emphasis will be on playing older instruments which are named after or associated with their makers.”
Mark will be playing something called a Khula horn, which is similar to a trumpet.
Mark, who graduated with a Masters in Trumpet Performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, expressed his passion for the project stating that his interests lie in working in unusual venues with different instruments, composers and players.
The music written for this event does exactly that. Composers use old instruments from the museum and their accompanying music, and re-work them for a modern audience.
Mark has worked with his fellow brass players in the past in various different capacities. Previously, he took part in a similar event which worked in conjunction with the work of Mark Wallinger, who exhibited his work at the DCA prior to Clare Woods.