November 7, 2011
We had the opportunity to hold another ARC Salon to celebrate the work of UCB faculty composer, Ed Campion, when Cal Performances featured the performance of his work by the stunning Paris-based group Ensemble Zellig.
Ed is a leader in the fields of electronic and digital music composition, crafting what are not so much “scores” but alternate “systems” for composing, calibrating, integrating, and synthesizing musical and sonic forms. Cal Performances director, Matías Tarnalpolsky, joined us for a pre-show talk and a post-show reception to help us think about the beauty of Campion’s work, the challenge to “authorship” it launches, and the new skills it requires of its musicians. Admittedly, the turn-out for the reception was so large that we had to revise our concept of “Salon” discussion, but we were thrilled to gather Bay Area arts luminaries—including Paul Dresher and the cultural attachés of the French Consul General— with so many Berkeley faculty and Bay Area arts supporters.