MATTHEW DUVALL TRANSIENT LANDSCAPES

Matthew Duvall, percussionist for the GRAMMY® winning ensemble

Eighth Blackbird, is drawn to opportunities that move music forward through innovative performance. As an advocate for new music by living composers, he saw a great opportunity for collaboration during his most recent visit to The Ringling. As he walked through the estate, he realized that though often conceived singularly as sacred space for what is viewed as static art, the modern museum is not a mausoleum—it is an immersive nexus where art is alive and actively engaged. The museum visitor no longer needs to be a passive observer or a silent spectator but has the opportunity—through performance and programs—to become an active and dynamic participant.

With this realization, he began to explore new perspectives in performance within The Ringling, and discovered an opportunity in a sometimes overlooked masterpiece—the Bayfront Gardens. Viewing the flora and fauna as interactive art, the landscape became the canvas for a crossdisciplinary experience. Duvall's new piece, Transient Landscapes, will create a progression of percussive performances celebrating and utilizing the landscape as an instrument of sound—using a lake as an ambient reflective surface, a banyan canopy as an amphitheater, and the historic architecture as context.

Duvall enlisted the help of fellow musician Matthew Burtner, an Alaskaborn composer and sound artist specializing in concert chamber music, interactive new media, and ecoacoustics. Ecoacoustics develops musical procedures from abstracted environmental processes using data expounded from nature, and turns it into music. He listens to the wind and the waves of the ocean and asks questions such as, “what does it sound like when trees breathe?” He then records these natural sounds and uses them within his compositions. Duvall will also be joined by collaborators such as John Corkill, Alex Monroe, Justin Peters, and Sean Connors in the performance of Transient Landscapes

New Stages, The Ringling’s contemporary performance series, will kick off with two works by Duvall. On Friday, October 19, there will be a performance of Inlets at the Historic Asolo Theater; and on Saturday, October 20, Transient Landscapes will invite participants to tour The Ringling grounds and gardens with the art of percussion as their guide.

The program will conclude with The Rhythm of the Ringling: Season

Kick-off Party in the Museum of Art Courtyard featuring a DrumMantra jam session with Matthew Duvall, a special performance by Kraken Quartet, fireworks, and a DJ and dancing.