Performance, percussion, and glass instruments set for onstage encounter in Rochester, New York

A flame lights up the stage, where music and flameworking will join forces in Rochester, New York.

At 8 PM Friday evening, May 10th, the Rochester Contemporary Art Center will be the setting for the debut of an inter-disciplinary performance that will blend fire, live and electronic percussion, and real-time glassblowing at the torch. Percussionists Peter Ferry and Adam Maalouf of The Eastman School of Music will perform using newly invented glass instruments created by Carrie Fertig, who is currently the artist in residence at Rochester Institute of Technology. The live performance, entitled “Flames and Frequencies,” will include electronic music from recorded glass instruments by Alistair MacDonald of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, as well as music made with audience participation.

Edinburgh, Scotland-based Fertig is a sculptor, as well as an installation and performance artist, whose primary medium is flameworked glass. Her Torcher Chamber Arkestra, founded in 2010, explores cultural identity, social and political topics through flameworked glass performance and music using glass instruments performed with audience involvement. Torcher members come from scientific, bead, sculptural and performance backgrounds in flameworking, as well as academia and music. The glass orchestra section of Torcher Chamber Arkestra was built for a project with MacDonald, the head of electro-acoustic studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, who has written compositions specifically for the glass instruments Fertig has created. Two recorded works by MacDonald will be played with live percussion written especially for this performance by Ferry and Maalouf.

Fertig will flamework new instruments for Ferry and Maalouf during the performance by melting and blowing glass while the concert is ongoing. All of the glass instruments for this performance have been developed during Fertig’s residency at Rochester Institute of Technology with assistance from Wil Sideman, Tom Zogas, and Jordan Smith. This project is supported by Creative Scotland.

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