Local composer Nat Evans has embarked on a project that fuses nature, music, community, and subjectivity of experience. Sunrise September 18, 2010 is a completely new piece of music written by Evans. It is a site specific, time specific, event specific work experienced differently by everyone who participates in the premiere. Listeners will gather at before 6:30 am on the 18th at Kite Hill in Magnuson Park. This is also the location which inspired the work and will be the vantage point for the sunrise and the premiere.
At exactly 6:30 am (the time the sun will rise up over the Cascades) Evans will give the cue and everyone will press play on their iPod, Zune, Walkman, CD player, or any other device people choose. Participants will be hearing Sunrise, while watching the sun rise. Sunrise will be recorded before the 18th and distributed to people who let the composer know they want to participate. All participants have to do is download the music, load it onto their favorite media player, and show up on the 18th at Kite Hill.
The idea for this new work originated from the composer’s experience with Zen and how the tradition treats natural cycles like sunrise and sunset. Just as important Evans says, is how individuals experience these cycles. “Over the years I became interested in how we interact with these cycles,” Evans remarked. He elaborated further, “there is also the tradition in Indian classical music that certain pieces are to be played at specific times of the day, even specific times of the year.” Evans took these ideas, put pen to paper, and wrote Sunrise.
Evans is one of Seattle’s talented, up and coming composers. I had the good fortune of introducing a piece of his at the May Day, May Day festival. The concept behind Sunrise is so interesting to me, I asked Evans if he would want to participate in The Five. He obliged. His answers follow the jump.
Oh, and if you want to hear Sunrise, email Evans at NathanielFEvans@gmail.com and he’ll send you a link for the download. See you at Kite Hill on the 18th!
Evans’ responses to my five questions are after the jump.
Gathering Note 