Walter Thompson Orchestra Percussion Ensemble

Brooklyn, NY: Irondale announces a special free outdoor performance of the Walter Thompson Orchestra (WTO) Percussion Ensemble, June 21, as part of Make Music New York’s free day of music. The performance features four percussionists in an exciting, intense and ambitious Soundpainting event. The first performance begins at 6:30pm on the corner of Fulton and South Oxford Streets, Fort Greene, with a march to the Irondale Center.  At 8:00 pm the performance features the premiere of “Kupala,” for two drum sets and percussion. 

Soundpainting, created by Thompson, is a unique sign language developed around musical composition and can encompass live musicians, visual artists, dancers, actors to provide a visceral and inspiring audience experience that has seen For these performances, guest Soundpainter, Evan Mazunik, will lead the four-member WTO Percussion Ensemble - Eric John Eigner, Hollis Headrick, John O’Brien and Andrea Pryor, all of whom are fluent in the Soundpainting language.  

Soundpainting comprises more than 1200 gestures that are signed by the Soundpainter to indicate the type of material desired of the performers. The creation of the composition is realized by the Soundpainter (the composer), through the parameters of the each set of signed hand and body gestures indicating specific and/or aleatoric material to be performed by an individual performer, a specific number of performers, or the entire group.  The Soundpainter develops the responses of the performers, molding and shaping them into the composition and then signs another series of gestures, a phrase. The Soundpainter, listening and looking at the responses of the players, decides the next direction of the piece, signs a phrase - to a performer or performers - and continues in this process of composing the piece in real time. The Soundpainter can include a musical score, a theater script, choreography and/or other elements depending on the nature of the performance.  Visit Soundpainting.com for more information.