Photos by Hasan Elahi
I had the pleasure of attending and talking at the Creative Capital retreat at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) in Troy, New York this past weekend. I shared excerpts and context for my current project, "Shawnee Ohio." There were so many inspiring artists, presenters, and others working in the arts. It is such an honor to be among them!
I am excited to announce that Contemporary Arts Center (Cincinnati) and Duke Performances at Duke University have joined the Wexner Center for the Arts as co-commissioners of "Shawnee, Ohio." The piece will premiere at the Wexner Center October 27 and 28, will be performed in at CAC on November 3, and again at Duke Performances in 2017. In addition, CAC will host a week long residency in Cincinnati, funded in part by the National Performance Network. I cannot think of any better places to develop and share this piece. Their support, along with Creative Capital, is invaluable!
The video below is for the 2016-17 season at CAC. I'm honored to be a part of it!
The Massillon Museum's "Readapt" exhibit opens today, and I am happy to be a part of it. Above is an excerpt from "To Hold, To Keep," a video and sound piece that remixes the museum's Charles and Lucy Myers collection of archival films.
A new commissioned video and sound piece entitled "To Hold, To Keep" will be a part of the "Readapt" exhibit at Massillon Museum, Massillon, Ohio. The piece centers on the reservoir of Sippo Creek in Massillon. It asks how the reservoir was used in the past and continues to be used today. It is also a series of visual and aural portraits of people connected to the reservoir and its water. "To Hold, To Keep" draws from archival films of Charles and Lucy Myers (made from 1938-40), and contemporary field recordings.
For more information, go here.
Ohio University's Compass magazine wrote a nice article on faculty and alumni who recently won the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award. It is great to be among them!
For more information, visit:
https://www.ohio.edu/compass/stories/15-16/05/fine-arts-individual-awards.cfm
I'm thrilled to receive a 2016 Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council! This is an award based on previous work; in this case it was for the albums The Star-Faced One (2013, Atavistic) and Rawhead & Bloodybones (2015, Dust-to-Digital).
The award money will support the costs of my current project, Shawnee, Ohio (2016, Dust-to-Digtal). Shawnee, Ohio will premiere this fall at the Wexner Center for the Arts on October 27 and 28, 2016. The money will also support a live performance at the Tecumseh Theater in Shawnee on October 29, 2016, a performance meant to help the theater and draw attention to the town and the Little Cities of Black Diamonds region. It is great to apply these funds to a project that reflects on the lives and stories of people who live in southeastern Ohio, and also addresses the long history of mining and gas extraction, booms and busts, and environmental degradation and recovery--issues that are still relevant today.
I've written a series of articles for New Music Box on listening to the Little Cities of Black Diamonds in Appalachian Ohio. In them, I listen to protest and resistance, social life, and labor. I visit Robinson's Cave, attend a direct action training session, and observe protest in the Wayne National Forest against fracking; I record the Moonshine Festival and walk through the Tecumseh Theater; I spend a day at a gas well drill site, and listen to archival recordings of a mine inspector.
All of the articles can be found here: http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/author/brianharnetty/
I'm honored and excited to receive a Creative Capital Award. The project, called "Shawnee, Ohio" was one of 46 selected.
Full information here: http://blog.creative-capital.org/2016/01/7517/
Rawhead & Bloodybones was on the "Personal Best of 2015" list by The Big City blog. Here is the review:
"Not the usual archival release from Dust-to-Digital, but new music from composer Harnetty. He combines samples of music and spoken audio from both the Berea College Appalachian Sound Archives and the Sun Ra/El Saturn Creative Audio Archive, and to the prerecorded music he adds original, acoustic touches. This is a dialogue between past and present, memory and action, grisly, strange, and compelling." -- George Grella
And, here is more information on the other artists on the list:
http://thebigcityblog.com/personal-best-2015/
Columbus Alive wrote a feature article on the new "Shawnee, Ohio" project. The piece will be premiered at the Wexner Center for the Arts this fall, and received support from Creative Capital and the National Endowment for the Arts. Here is an excerpt:
"Shawnee, Ohio, is being commissioned by the Wexner Center for the Arts, which recently was awarded a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment of the Arts to support creative residency artists. Harnetty is one of three nationally acclaimed artists who are receiving support from the grant.
Charles Helm, director of performing arts at the Wexner Center, said he is excited for the premiere of the composition, scheduled for Oct. 28, 2016. 'It talks about issues like environment, Appalachian culture, the history of coal mining, organizing labor and fracking’s impact on population decline,' said Helm. 'He’s dealing with this material in a very profound and artistic way. That’s exactly the kind of project we want to embrace.'
The premiere will feature a live performance with Harnetty and a handful of other artists, along with an accompanying video. The album is scheduled to be released on the Dust-to-Digital recording label in September 2016.
'The Wexner Center for the Arts has a strong commitment to local artists, and I think that it’s pretty amazing for Columbus,' said Harnetty.
Harnetty quotes Wendell Berry, a Kentucky poet, activist and farmer who writes about agrarian and environmental issues.
'He said that he used to think that art was a refuge from all the troubles in the world, but he no longer thinks that way,” Harnetty said. “Art is his place and he lives in it. I took that pretty literally.'"
And, here is the full article:
http://www.columbusalive.com/content/stories/2015/12/17/composer-brian-harnetty.html
Honored to receive a Wexner Center commission to premiere a new work in the fall of 2016 for"Shawnee, Ohio." Funded through the NEA Art Works grant!
Here is an excerpt from the announcement from the Wexner Center:
"The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced grants to organizations across the country this week, including a $25,000 Art Works grant to the Wexner Center to support creative residencies in visual and performing arts, as well as a the commission of a new work of music:
A composition by Columbus composer/musician Brian Harnetty titled Shawnee, Ohio, an electro-acoustical work using audio from archives from the Appalachian town of Shawnee. The commissioned work will premiere at the Wexner Center on October 28, 2016 and explores the region’s history in coal mining and organized labor as well as its fracking boom today. Harnetty will hold discussions with audiences and high-school students, and will engage with Ohio State students studying Appalachia, environmental issues, and musical composition. He will also perform his work in a historic theater in Shawnee, as well as in Cleveland and Cincinnati. Harnetty’s record label, Dust-to-Digital, will also release Shawnee, Ohio as an album and accompanying book."