Virtual CONTAQT: POPPY 88

Saturday, June 24, 2023

Directed by Evan Ziporyn and Jerry Pergolesi

Technical Production by Jeff Morton, Wawken Studio

Additional Technical Assistance by Andrew Noseworthy

POPPY@88

To celebrate Terry Riley's 88th birthday, ContaQt and MIT Sounding presented a global telematic event that resonated – literally - worldwide. At the stroke of midnight EDT on June 24th, 2023, a diverse community of 88 individuals, spread across 60 locations in 23 countries and 6 continents came together online to play music with one another, live and in real-time. With no pre-recorded material, no click tracks, no safety nets or contingency plans, together they performed Poppy@88, a collective composition arranged by Evan Ziporyn, paying homage to Riley’s iconic 1967 piece Poppy Nogood & The Phantom Band.

The live-streamed concert pushed the boundaries of virtual telematic performance, showcasing the transformative power of artistic collaboration combined with smart technology to transcend structural and geographical barriers. While previous live telematic performances have involved larger ensembles, with groups of musicians clustered in 2-12 transmitting stations, this performance distinguished itself by originating from a significantly larger number of locations, 60 in all.

This creative repurposing of technology is very much in the spirit of Terry Riley’s original piece.  In the 1960’s, Riley utilized tape loops – originally a DIY ‘hack’ of reel-to-reel - to create distant canonic layers of melody: his ‘Phantom Band.’  For this performance, in 2023, the ensemble similarly repurposed the inherent limitations of streaming audio – i.e., physical distance and varying data rates – to conjure similarly complex layered textures.

This global virtual event brought together musicians from Athens, Berlin, Brussels, Dublin, Istanbul, New York City, Pretoria, São Paulo, San Francisco, Tokyo, Toronto, Warsaw, and more. From Mallacoota, in southeast Australia, to Raufarhöfn, in northeast Iceland, and 58 other locations in between, musicians from a wide range of genres and backgrounds used Audiomovers’ ListenTo to stream their sound to Wawken, Saskatchewan, where Canadian composer/sound artist Jeff Morton mixed and retransmitted their sounds back to them – and the world – in real-time.

After watching the performance from Mito, Japan, Terry Riley himself joined the live-stream to greet the musicians, expressing his profound appreciation: "It felt like the earth itself were singing. You are my community."

THE POPPY 88 MUSICIANS

Adrien Lambinet (Belgium), Ahmet Yağmur Kucur (Turkey), Allison Wiebe (Canada), Amelia Hollander Ames (USA), Amy Zuidema (Ireland), Andrew Noseworthy (Canada), Audrey Wozniak (Germany), Berglind Maria Tomasdottir (Iceland), Bex Burch (UK), Brendan Landis (USA), Brian Stuligross (USA), Dan Plonsey (USA), Evan Ziporyn (Japan), Fie Schouten (France), George Brooks (USA), Gerry Leonard (Ireland), Gloria Cheng (Greece), Gyan Riley (Japan), Hubert Zemler (Poland), Jacob Means (Italy), Jeff Morton (Canada), Jerry Pergolesi (USA), Jesse Lewis (USA), Joan Jeanrenaud (USA), John Oswald (Canada), Jon Siddall (Canada), Julian Coryell (USA), Kala Ramnath (India), Kamil Szuszkiewicz (Poland), Kate Smith (Germany), Kate Stenberg (USA), Katrina Krimsky (USA), Krzysztof Dys (Poland), Laurel Pardue (Germany), Leo Eguchi (USA), Lihi Haruvi (Israel), Luciano Chessa (France), Marc Duby (South Africa), Mary-Katherine Finch (Canada), Maya Beiser (USA), Megumi Stohs Lewis (USA), Miguel Frasconi (USA), Morgan Fisher (Japan), Nick Joliat (USA), Padma Newsome (Australia), Paul Dresher (USA), Paulo Santos (Brazil), Rafał Zapała (Poland), Reynaliz Herrara (USA), Rick Sacks (Canada), Robert Rich (USA), Ryan Meyer (USA) , Sarah Cahill (USA), Sarah Fraser Raff (Canada), Sasha Callahan (USA), Shabda Owens (USA), Thollem (USA), Tina Pearson (Canada), Tobias Klein (Netherlands), Tolgahan Çoğulu (Turkey), Tracy Silverman (USA), Utsav Lal (USA), Victor Gama (Angola), Waclaw Zimpel (Poland), Yaz Lancaster (USA)

VISUAL ARTISTS

AC VIlla, Arnold Dreyblatt, Christine Southworth, Jun Hoshino, Terry Riley

BEHIND-THE-SCENES SUPPORT

Andrew Timar, Allaudin Mathieu, Claire Chase, Dennis Russell Davies, Heidi Ericksen, Ian Williams, Jaron Lanier, Jeff Abell, Katherine Higgins, Leah Talatinian, Leila Kinney, Lydia Brosnahan, Maki Namekawa, Ramon Sender, Sara MIyamoto, Serge Orloff, Tadashi Miyamoto, TImothy Lemp

SPECIAL THANKS TO

Audiomovers, and the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology.

The Canada Council for the Arts and the Toronto Arts Council for their funding support.

Special thanks to Evan Ziporyn for inspiration and initial experimentation.

Special thanks to Tina Pearson for guidance in the telematic universe.

Special thanks to Jeff Morton and Wawken Studio for technical support, live sound, audio and video production, and broadcasting.

Additional Technical Assistance by Andrew Noseworthy