Michiko Hirayama Makes LA Debut at REDCAT, 4/2

REDCAT presents a rare performance by legendary vocalist Michiko Hirayama on April 2, 2010 in the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater. Curtain for the performance is 8:30 pm.

REDCAT | Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater
631 W Second Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Tickets: $20 [Students $16]
213-237-2800 or www.redcat.org

Hirayama makes her first Los Angeles appearance with a must-hear performance of Giacinto Scelsi's Canti del Capricorno--the spellbinding 20-song cycle written expressly for her between 1962 and 1972 and described by The Guardian as "Utterly compelling." Now in her 80s, Hirayama is one of the last living links to the eccentric Italian composer and poet whose works are seldom performed live in the United States.

Though cited as a key influence by György Ligeti and French spectralists Gérard Grisey and Tristan Murail, Scelsi's revolutionary Eastern-inflected soundscapes were not widely recognized until late in his life in the 1980s. The wordless songs of Canti del Capricorno each obsess over a single pitch or small groups of notes, on occasion punctuated by drums, gongs, bass or a wailing saxophone.

Hirayama's singing, meanwhile, delivers an otherworldly spectrum of vocalization--with microtonal pitch differentiations, glissandi, constantly shifting vocal attacks, sudden leaps of tessitura, and surprising breath production. She is accompanied by Amy Knoles and Lydia Martin (both percussion), Aniela Perry (double bass) and Ulrich Krieger (saxophone).

BIOGRAPHY

Michiko Hirayama was born in Tokyo in 1923; her parents were lawyers, and she grew up surrounded by scientists and university professors. Another decisive influence on Michiko Hirayama was her contact with the compose Fumio Hayasaka, who was Toru Takemitsu's teacher and a leading Japanese composer. After studying music she moved to Rome in the early 1950s. As luck would have it, she met Giacinto Scelsi, who was interested in the high value she placed on microtonality in her interpretations. Hirayama in turn was fascinated by the freedom of his improvisation and its undeniable philosophical background. The collaboration between Hirayama and Scelsi began in 1959, and in 1961 she performed her first vocal work by him at the Festival Nuova Consonanza: Hô for solo voice. Numerous pieces for solo voice or voice and instruments would follow.

ABOUT REDCAT
Opened by CalArts in 2003, REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater) introduces diverse audiences, students and artists to the most influential developments in the arts from around the world, and gives artists in this region the creative support they need to achieve national and international stature. REDCAT is the newest partner in an international network of adventurous art and performance centers, which together are playing a vital role in the evolution of contemporary culture. REDCAT is a center for experimentation, discovery and lively civic discourse. For more information, visit www.redcat.org.

Photo: Phonogram/Aubert