MUSIC

Contemporary music group Musiqa opens its Loft Concert series with Music with Camera, a performance that explores the relationship between music, movement, and the visual arts.

Musiqa's Loft Concert Series is a series of intimate concerts held in the galleries of the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston. Presented in conjunction with the Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston's exhibitDance with Camera, Music with Camera includes the work of Alvin Lucier and Frederic Rzewski, performed by percussionist Craig Hauschildt with a live video feed created by Johnny DeKam of Be Johnny.

Music with Camera will take place on Thursday, September 23, 2010, at 6:30 p.m. at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston.

Alvin Lucier is an American composer who incorporates physical gestures and visual imagery into his music. Musiqa will perform his work, The Queen of the South, a piece that explores the musicality of a variety of instruments and materials, including those that will make the effects of sound visible. In his instructions for the piece, closed-circuit television is to be used to "verticalize and enlarge for the players and audience the visual images made by the players' sounds on the material-strewn surfaces."

Frederic Rzewski is an American composer who interests range from classically composed pieces to avant-garde electronic works. Musiqa will perform his To the Earth. Performed with knitting needles on four clay flower-pots and accompanied by the spoken word of the performer, To the Earth presents a simplicity of sound that intensifies to create a rich musical and visual experience.

Percussionist Craig Hauschildt is on the faculty of Texas A&M. In addition to performing with Musiqa, he is active as a freelance musician and performs regularly with the Houston Grand Opera, Houston Ballet, the Houston Symphony and Da Camera of Houston.

Johnny DeKam is an internationally acclaimed video artist, VJ and software designer. In 1998 he founded the software company VIDVOX creating innovative software for live video production used by thousands of artists worldwide. He has toured professionally as a VJ for over a decade and designed video productions in a wide variety of contexts. He resides in Houston and is creative director of BE JOHNNY, LLC - a video design studio producing projects for entertainment, art & architecture.

Founded in 2002, Musiqa (www.musiqahouston.org ) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music. Led by five composers, Musiqa aims to enrich and inspire the community through programs that integrate contemporary music with other modern art-forms. Musiqa celebrates modern creative arts through inter-disciplinary concerts that highlight modern music and its connections to literature, film, dance, art, and more. With its innovative collaborations and educational programming, Musiqa strives to make modern repertoire accessible and vital to audiences of all ages and musical backgrounds. Musiqa is funded in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance.

Pictured: detail of an image from Joachim Koester, Tarantism 2007, 16mm film installation, silent, 6:31 minutes Courtesy of Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen, and Greene Naftali, New York