On Sunday, October 14, Navid Bargrizan’s work Pictures at the Micro-Exhibition (2018) will premiere at the Harn Museum of Art by Swiss saxophonist Laurent Estoppey. Inspired by a miniature album of paintings by Japanese artist Watanabe Shötei (1851 – 1918), on view in the Show Me the Mini exhibition at the Harn through November 2, this composition transforms the visual elements in the paintings (line, form, color, impressions from nature) to musical elements (rhythm, meter, pitch, scale, melody). Composed for alto saxophone, the piece builds on natural harmonics and Japanese, microtonal pentatonic scales, as well as Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (1874). This performance is funded by the Cofrin Curator of Asian Art Endowment with support from College of the Arts and School of Music, and co-sponsored by the UF Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere's Rothman Endowment.
Bargrizan was the Summer 2018 Harn Composer-in-Residence and is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor for the UF School of Music.
Learn more about the world premiere event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1112559428921317/.
