Juniata Presents: Mikel Rouse's Gravity Radio

Audience Reaction footage following Mikel Rouse's GRAVITY RADIO performance at Juniata College on December 3, 2010.


"A composer many believe to be the best of his generation." -The New York Times

He changed the spelling of his first name when he was a kid to make it read like it sounded. Plus it looked a whole lot cooler. He ran away to join a carnival (but not for too long). His band Tirez Tirez opened for the Talking Heads in 1978 in Kansas City before new wave music had fully rolled in. He played a Jerry Springeresque talk show host in an exploration of TV as ceremony. He creates drawings on his iPhone with one finger.

Inspired by the work of physicist Raymond Chiao—known for his experiments with superconductors and gravity waves that exist only in conjecture, eluding detection—composer Mikel Rouse unleashes the rollicking song cycle Gravity Radio.

Acclaimed for his distinctly downtown operas, Rouse is hyper-alert to the bits and bytes that make us tick. Gravity Radio tunes in to the zeitgeist, mixing kaleidoscopic multichannel video with sounds from the AP News Wire, a string quartet, shortwave radio frequencies, and songs by Rouse's band to create an otherworldly environment. Describing the culture we live in, Rouse communicates its complexity and, like the force of gravity that keeps us grounded, evokes its intangible mystery.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Juniata
• Presents
• College
• Performance
• Mikel
• Rouse
• Gravity
• Radio
• Art
• Arts
• music
• aud