TED Talk Thursday – Maya Beiser: A cello with many voices

According to TED.com: In this video “Cellist Maya Beiser plays a gorgeous eight-part modern etude with seven copies of herself, and segues into a meditative music/video hybrid — using tech to create endless possibilities for transformative sound. Music is Steve Reich’s “Cello Counterpoint,” with video from Bill Morrison, then David Lang’s “World to Come,” with video by Irit Batsry.”

“The founding cellist of the Bang on a Can All Stars, cellist Maya Beiser is a frequent collaborator with artists across the spectrum of creativity — visual artists such as Shirin Neshat, video artists such as Irit Batsry — to produce groundbreaking multimedia concerts.”

“Composers who write for her follow her passion for melding influences — Middle Eastern sounds, classic and modern tones. Her newest project, Elsewhere, is described as “a CELLoOpera.” Elsewhere is an imaginative retelling of the Biblical legend of Lot’s wife, created by the “dream team” of Maya, director Robert Woodruff, composers Missy Mazzoli and Eve Beglarian, writer Erin Cressida Wilson, and choreographer Karole Armitage”

Enjoy this interesting performance.

For those of you not familiar with TED Talks here is a brief summery from www.ted.com: “TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences — the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK each summer — TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and Open TV Project, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize”

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I look forward to your thoughts and comments!