It’s been a week since John Luther Adams’ Inuksuit graced the live oak grove at Rice University on February 16. It was an ethereal performance, otherworldly in its focus on the natural beauty around us every day that we often forget to see and listen to, thanks to the incredibly talented and kind direction of Doug Perkins, the dauntless production guidance of Brandon Bell, and the visionary landscape design by Falon Mihalic, as well as 42 inspired percussionists.
You can watch a short summary of it here.
Joining Group 1 as a performer, I got a quick conch and triangle lesson from Doug in the Zaza Hotel parking lot on Friday (I remained quite a bad conch player with only myself to blame). At the early morning rehearsal on Saturday in Gladu Band Hall, I got my first taste of the fullness that is Inuksuit–it moves from shiveringly quiet to shakingly loud and back again in pyramids of rhythmic waves (a patterned score of time that I drew on my forearm in case I forgot anything while standing under the trees later).
The performance later in the day welcomed a warm community of listeners, thoughtful and joyful. My heartfelt thanks to everyone who made it happen.
Girl at the Opera 