“Synesthesia Suite: Live” Concert Series with the Museum of Science, Boston
PROJECT INFORMATION
Since 2017, Mary has been collaborating annually with the prestigious Museum of Science, Boston on the groundbreaking “Synesthesia Suite: Live” concert series: an immersive musical event in which live performances of Mary’s compositions (performed by Mary Bichner and Planetary Quartet) are paired with customized 360° full-dome visuals created by the museum’s award-winning planetarium team. The visuals for each piece are directly inspired by Mary’s synesthesia, allowing audience members the unique opportunity to “hear” color and “see” sound just as Mary does when she listens to music.
The first edition of the series took place during two sold-out concerts at the Charles Hayden Planetarium on November 30th 2017, and featured the premiere of Mary’s “Synesthesia Suite: Constellations”, a collection of chamber works inspired by constellations found in the New England night sky in spring.
For the second edition of the concert series in April 2019, the synesthetic visuals were presented to the audience in an additional exciting and innovative form — a series of entirely new immersive LED-based technologies (including audio-responsive wearables and room illuminators) which were developed especially for “Synesthesia Suite: Live” by the renowned scientists of MIT’s Neoperceptions and Arizona State University’s SciHub, under the direction of theoretical physicists Frank Wilczek (Nobel laureate and Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics) and Nathan Newman (Lamonte H. Lawrence Professor in Solid State Science). The creation of these new technologies was made possible by a generous grant awarded to the Neoperceptions team by the Council for the Arts at MIT (CAMIT).
A third version of the sold-out series was held in February 2020; and a virtual version of the concert premiered online in June of 2020 as part of the #MOSAtHome Initiative, in partnership with SubSpace Sessions and the Lowell Institute.
PHOTOS (2019 CONCERT SERIES)
PHOTOS CREDITS: Photos by Jonathan Beckley. LED costumes and dome visuals for #1, #8, and #10-#11 by the Neoperception teams of MIT and ASU SciHub; dome visuals for #3-#7, #9, and #12 by the Museum of Science Boston. Featured performers: Mary Bichner (#1, #3-#4, #7, and #9), Sonia Deng (#3, #6, and #9), Anna Stromer (#2-#3, #6, #8, and #11-#12), Dominick Douglas (#3, #6, and #12), and Timothy Paek (#3, #5-#6, and #12).
PHOTOS (2017 CONCERT SERIES)
PHOTOS CREDITS: Photos by Jonathan Beckley. Dome visuals by the Museum of Science Boston. Featured performers: Mary Bichner (#1-#2 and #5-#8), Tudor Dornescu (#1-#4 and #8), Anna Stromer (#1-2, #4, and #8), Carrol Lee (#2 and #4), and Alan Toda-Ambaras (#4).
AUDIO AND VIDEO (2020 “VIRTUAL” CONCERT SERIES FOR #MOSATHOME)
AUDIO AND VIDEO (2019 CONCERT SERIES)
AUDIO AND VIDEO (2017 CONCERT SERIES)
Contact INformation
For more information, please contact composer Mary Bichner at:
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