University Open Air: Making Music from our Surroundings

Sun, Sep 29 2024
12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Prospect Park Boathouse

BPL Outdoors humanities and art music University Open Air


How can we make music drawing inspiration from our daily lives? Can we translate into sound what we observe in, for instance, a tarot card or a painting? What lies behind notes and rhythm? In the past few decades, musicians have been exploring alternative ways to compose and perform music by employing graphic scores, paintings, sets of instructions, cues, poems, and more. In these highly interactive sessions, following a brief discussion, we will collaboratively create music using a keyboard and instructions that we will develop together. We will delve into the essence of "making music" and how closely it can resemble the sonic world that envelops us in our everyday lives. *Prior musical experience is not necessary!

Matteo Liberatore is an artist and composer working in experimental music and video art. Now based in Brooklyn, Liberatore spent much of his life in the medieval region of Abruzzo, Italy, amidst dramatic landscapes that are reflected through a performance and composition style of “unsettling beauty” and “striking physicality” (The New York City Jazz Record).

Matteo is currently focused on a solo audio/visual project called Molto Ohm, which is a sonic exploration of the interplay between digital life and social decay on an emotional level; ongoing collaborations include a duo with Amirtha Kidambi (vocals) creating “interdimensional” (The Quietus) improvised aural landscapes that are at once spacious and unrestrained, as heard on their debut album Neutral Love (Astral Spirits); a duo with Brian Chase, playing in the art-rock band Gold Dime, and a trio with Donald McKenzkie and Mark Kelley. He is also an active member of New York’s improv scene, having released albums with Ava Mendoza, Joanna Mattrey, gabby fluke-mogul, Elliott Sharp, Weasel Walter and Catherine Sikora.

 During his formative years, Liberatore studied classical guitar under Maestro Marco Salcito at Conservatorio di Foggia, philosophy at the University of L’Aquila, and obtained his M.M. in Jazz Performance at NYU.

*In cases of rain, classes will be either moved to the Prospect Park Boathouse or canceled. Registered patrons will be notified by email on the morning of each course day and are also encouraged to check the UOA webpage and BPL Presents’ Facebook and Twitter pages for updates

University Open Air is generously supported by The Morris & Alma Schapiro Fund.

Prospect Park Boathouse
101 East Drive
Brooklyn, NY 11225

Add to My Calendar 09/29/2024 12:00 pm 09/29/2024 02:00 pm America/New_York University Open Air: Making Music from our Surroundings

How can we make music drawing inspiration from our daily lives? Can we translate into sound what we observe in, for instance, a tarot card or a painting? What lies behind notes and rhythm? In the past few decades, musicians have been exploring alternative ways to compose and perform music by employing graphic scores, paintings, sets of instructions, cues, poems, and more. In these highly interactive sessions, following a brief discussion, we will collaboratively create music using a keyboard and instructions that we will develop together. We will delve into the essence of "making music" and how closely it can resemble the sonic world that envelops us in our everyday lives. *Prior musical experience is not necessary!

Brooklyn Public Library - Central Library MM/DD/YYYY 60

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