The Invisible Viola Project

Performance

The Invisible Viola Project (with Ed Devane), Conflux: Twilight, 9 Lower Cecil St., Limerick, Ireland. 16 November 2013.

The Infinite Viola Project, Raggle Taggle Space, Limerick, Ireland. 18 May 2013.

Description

I played classical viola as a child, but university pressures forced a decision to stop this study. I preferred to pursue sonic experiments that were not based on conventional instrumentation. Later in life I developed a crippling repetitive strain injury that would have in any case annulled a traditional music career.

After a gap of thirty years, I returned to the viola to explore my relationship with this instrument, knowing that any performance would be constrained by my diminished physical means and fading body memory.

The Infinite Viola Project began with the performance documented as Fragments from an Improvisation for Abandoned Parking Garage. It expanded to two other events, including a collaboration with Ed Devane for the music festival Conflux.

While these may have been experiments in anti-virtuosity, the results made it all worthwhile.

Thanks

Thanks to Ed Devane.