G e r r y L e o n a r d

Spooky Ghost will join the Terry Reily 88th Birthday Global Celebration Sat June 24 @ 00.00 hours (Friday Midnight) Directed by Evan Ziporyn and Jerry Pergolesi …

Saturday, June 24, 2023 / Midnight (12:00am EST / 4am GMT)
Free and open to the public

Directed by Evan Ziporyn and Jerry Pergolesi

Technical Production by Jeff Morton, Wawken Studio

Additional Technical Assistance by Andrew Noseworthy

Made possible by Audiomovers and a lot of hard work by everyone involved

On the occasion of Terry Riley’s 88th birthday, MIT Sounding and ContaQt are set to host a celebratory event that will truly reverberate across the globe. A community of 88 talented musicians hailing from six continents will assemble for an unforgettable virtual concert, paying homage to the legendary composer through a mesmerizing real-time performance of Poppy@88, a collective composition arranged by MIT Sounding curator Evan Ziporyn based on Riley’s 1967 masterpiece, Poppy Nogood And The Phantom Band.

With Terry Riley himself watching from his home in Japan, the global virtual event takes place in 64 distinct locations. Canadian composer/sound artist Jeff Morton will mix the 88 streams in real-time.

Among those who are scheduled to perform are: ACVilla, Adrien Lambinet, Ahmet Yagmur, Allaudin Mathieu, Allison Wiebe, Amelia Ames, Amy Zuidema, Andrew Noseworthy, Andrew Timar, Antonio Correa, Arnold Dreyblatt, Audrey Wozniak, Bex Burch, Blair Mackay, Branden Landis, Brian Stuligross, Casey Sokol, Christine Southworth, Claire Chase, Dan Plonsey, Dennis Russell Davies, Evan Ziporyn, Fie Schouten, George Brooks, Gerry Leonard, Gloria Cheng, Gyan Riley, Hubert Zemler, Ian Williams, Jacob Means, Jaron Lanier, Jeff Abell, Jeff Morton, Jerry Pergolesi, Jesse Lewis, Joan Jeanrenaud, John Oswald, Jon Siddall, Julian Coryell, Kala Ramnath, Kamil Szuszkiewicz, Kate Stenberg, Katrina Krimsky, Krzysztof Dys, Laurel Pardue, Leo Eguchi, Lihi Haruvi, Luciano Chessa, Maki Namekawa, Marc Duby, Mary-Katherine Finch, Maya Beiser, Megumi Stohs (Lewis), Michael Harrison, Miguel Frasconi, Morgan Fisher, Nick Joliat, Padma Newsome, Paul Dresher, Paulo Santos, Ramon Sender, Reynaliz Herrara, Rick Sacks, Robert Rich, Ryan Mayer, Sara Miyamoto, Sarah Cahill, Sarah Fraser Raff, Sasha Callahan, Shabda Owens, Thollem, Tina Pearson, Tobias Klein, Tolgahan Çoğulu, Tony Prabowo, Tracy Silverman, Utsav Lal, Van Anh Vo, Victor Gama, Waclaw Zimpel, Yaz Lancaster

Virtual ContaQt is hosted by Toronto-based multi-locational contemporary music ensemble, ContaQt, joined by past and future collaborators. The project represents an ongoing and still developing initiative by the group, which was already situated in different regional locations before the initial COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020. Waves of pandemic lockdowns furthered the group’s sense of member isolation and accelerated the ensemble’s search for a means of collaborating while still primarily based in different geographic areas. Initial experiments included performances of the group’s formative arrangement of Brian Eno’s Discreet Music using online chat and podcast software. Following a period of trial and error between ContaQt’s Andrew Noseworthy and Jerry Pergolesi, and Evan Ziporyn, ContaQt established a setup that allows each player to hear themselves, hear each other, and record themselves using the Audiomovers ListenTo plugin in conjunction with a digital audio workstation. In developing a practice for creating in this virtual environment, the group (also consisting of Allison Wiebe, Mary-Katherine Finch, and Sara Fraser Raff) sought the guidance of experienced telematic performer and sound artist/composer Tina Pearson. The group then enlisted the technical expertise of sound artist/composer Jeff Morton to coordinate live sound and broadcasting, bringing us to the present launch of Virtual ContaQt.