Animate Sinfonia

2020, Approx 40 minutes

Multi-screen Projection for Live Performance

NOTE: On commission from the Oregon Symphony, Rose Bond animated visuals for Luciano Berio's Sinfonia. Berio composed this avant-garde icon for voice and orchestra in 1968 - a time of tumultuous societal change. This Sound-Sight piece was set to premiere on March 14, 2020 under the baton of Carlos Kalmar with Roomful Of Teeth. The performance was cancelled 2 days before its opening due to COVID.

In 1968, a year of massive political and cultural upheaval, Luciano Berio composed a score that would shape his legacy. Entitled Sinfonia, which literally means sounding together, the symphony was sparked by the assassination of Martin Luther King. Heralded as “the ultimate pre-postmodernist musical palimpsest” (The Guardian) Sinfonia reverberates with the political assassinations and massive protests punctuated by repression that marked 1968.

On the Making

The Sinfonia music track, a CD recording made by the Seattle Symphony featuring Roomful of Teeth, was my reference during the 10 months it took to animate Berio's five movements. The drawings were made with a Blackwing pencil on paper then composited in After Effects and Cinema 4D. My extraordinary Design and Production Artist is Zak Margolis. Steve Farris programmed the work for a 4 screen, large scale projection. Norman Huynh of the Oregon Symphony worked with to determine cues as the animation was designed to be played live as the symphony performed.

For those interested in booking, a PREVIEW video is available. For now, a digital flattened version of Sinfonia serves as a replica of the canceled show.

CONTACT: Melanie Coombs at melanie@melodramapictures.com

Rose rehearsing the projection cues with Steve Farris on a miniaturized set of the Schnitzer Hall with tiny Pico projectors.

Animate Sinfonia still entitled ‘the White Mustang in Memphis’ from Sinfonia Movement 4.

Rose and Zak Margolis in the studio.

Rose shooting her penciled animated drawings.

Digital print of the Rose Parks penciled erasure sequence.

The Joker sequence from Sinfonia’s astounding Movement 3.

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