The Poet of Experimental Music | Celebrating Alvin Lucier’s 90th Birthday

On the occasion of his 90th birthday, the ZKM played him a very special serenade: In honor of the sound artist and 2020 Giga-Hertz Prize winner, a new work by Lucier produced as part of EASTN-DC premiered on ZKM's audiovisual livestream on May 14, 2021. The piece was produced at ZKM in April 2021 with instrumentalists from the Ever Present Orchestra, which is dedicated to performing the music of Alvin Lucier. The virtual event also featured the moderated panel discussion »On Key Concepts of Alvin Lucier's Musical Thought«.
Out of the newly produced piece an installation / on-site version of Alvin Lucier's »Adagio for Strings« was created on the occasion of Alvin Lucier's death in December 2021 in the subspace of the ZKM was presented.

Within a one-hour expert talk about the musical poet Alvin Lucier in the context of the virtual event, besides the presentation of the latest issue of “Reflections”, a new 3LP+2CD boxset was presented, containing historical recordings of “I am sitting in a room”, including the recording of a digital version of the masterpiece conceived by Johannes Goebel and realized in 2000 at the ZKM in the context of the exhibition “net_condition”.

Involved

Bernhard Rietbrock (Scientific Assistant at the Institute for Music Research, ZHdK & Founder and Artistic Director of the Ever Present Orchestra)
Jan Thoben (Program Director of Sound Studies and Sonic Arts, UdK Berlin & Artistic Director of the Ever Present Orchestra)
Gisela Gronemeyer (Editor MusikTexte)
Prof. Dr. Sabine Sanio (Professor of Sound Studies and Sonic Arts, UdK Berlin)
Prof. hans w. koch (Professor of Sound, KHM Köln)

Musicians

Lucy Railton (Violoncello, Ever Present Orchestra)
Christina Moser (Violin, Ever Present Orchestra)
Rebecca Thies (Violin, Ever Present Orchestra)
Yodfat Miron (Viola)

Moderation

Prof. Ludger Brümmer (Composer, Head of ZKM | Hertz-Lab & Professor of Composition for Digital Media, HfM Trossingen)