WORLD PREMIERE: Symphony Space, NYC September 24, 2011
PORTALS – an full-evening multimedia musical exploration of the human longing for connection in the digital age featuring violinist Tim Fain.
Composers: Philip Glass, Aaron Jay Kernis, William Bolcom, Nico Muhly, Kevin Puts, Lev Zhurbin, Leonard Cohen, Jacob Rubin
Tim Fain: Violinist, Producer & Creative Director
Nicholas Britell: Pianist
Kate Hackett: Co-Producer, Director
Fred Child: Spoken Word
Benjamin Millepied: Choreographer, Director-Dance Films
Haylee Nichele, Julia Eichten, Craig Black: Dancers
Here’s what the Critics are saying:
New York Times: “An ingeniously practical show that Fain can take on tour, unencumbered by much more than a laptop. His goal is to find new ways to frame the music, and in that he succeeded admirably. It was the music, conveyed through Fain’s warm, beautifully centered tone; expressive and varied vibrato; and matter-of-fact virtuosity, that commanded the attention. He expanded the show’s purview by including poetry interludes in which Fred Child read works by Leonard Cohen, often appearing on the screen framed in a Web browser page or on a laptop or an iPad. Several movements of the [Philip] Glass — a rugged, seven-movement suite that draws on both the intensity of Bach’s solo violin music and Mr. Glass’s patent use of repetition — were mated to quirkily narrative, athletic dance sequences, choreographed by Benjamin Millepied.”
Hollywood Today: “The charismatic Fain flawlessly held the audience focused throughout while performing some of the finest virtuoso modern repertoire…the concert truly explored the technical possibilities of the solo violin reminding us where Bach, Ysaye and Paganini might have pointed us and where the future of the art will lead us. Adding film, dance and the spoken word made it possible to change the mood…Tim easily gave us a glimpse of the virtuoso of the future while redefining the idea of the violin recital…”
Los Angeles Times: “‘Portals’ [is] an interactive film directed by Kate Hackett [that] intriguingly attempts to reinvent the violin recital for a what-you-see-is-what-you-get iPad era. [Tim Fain’s] partner in ‘Portals’ is a large screen, against which Fain interacts in various ways…The perspective changes regularly and unpredictably in clever ways…
Shout! Omaha: “‘Portals’ is well-balanced between the film aspect and live performance, Fain’s emotion in delivering the contemporary violin solos and violin/piano duets is matched by his astonishing precision on his violin. ‘Portals’ opens many doors, not just between artists and audience, or different media, but within the mind of the individual, as well. Fain’s synaptic path in ‘Portals’ unlocks a gateway for modern violin music, connecting the past with the future.”
Ovation Press String Visions: “Violinist Tim Fain Brings the Violin Recital into the 21st Century: “Portals” is a breath of fresh air in a style that has become stale through repetition. Fain’s act is a hit now.”
PREVIEWS
Wall Street Journal: “[Mr. Fain] begins each day with Bach. Any given week, he will play through all the sonatas and partitas. It’s as much for his fingers to find their place as it is for him to feel emotionally grounded. [His] need for that kind of inner centering, even amid the multiplying opportunities to reach out through cyberspace to others, is what’s at the heart of Portals. It’s well captured in the ghostly choreography by Benjamin Millepied, which accompanies the Glass “Partita,” and in the superimposed frames showing Mr. Fain and his friend and accompanist, Nick Britell, reach for their instruments and try to create music together across digital boundaries….”
Vanity Fair: “Violinist Tim Fain plays like a virtuoso and thinks like a cinematographer. That’s why [he] will wrap his music in gorgeous imagery when he presents his latest concert program. ‘Portals’ – Fain’s multimedia solo event [which] kicks off at New York’s Symphony Space on September 24 and then takes on the road – is a smart mix of sound and vision for the Facebook generation, who love Björk and Beethoven with equal ardor…As Fain performs onstage, carefully synchronized film sequences provide a music and visual counterpoint…audience members become high-tech voyeurs in this private music-making process.”
Vogue: “Fain officially steps into his own headline with the opening of Portals, a multimedia, multigenre production at New York’s Symphony Space that combines music, film, and dance…The idea in putting together a live performance/video hybrid (Fain performs onstage; the piano, dance, spoken word, and other narratives play out on a film screen behind him) was to simulate logging in, ever frequently the mode by which we engage—and exist—in an iPhone age. There is something to be said for a classical artist who can hop on a tour bus with Leonard Cohen as easily as he can envision a violin movement as a representation of Gchat.”