Gary Chang and Neil Leonard Illuminate Sacred Spaces in Italy

Via the Grant Richter of Wiard on the Wiard Group:

"During the month of June, 2007, notable composers Gary Chang and Neil Leonard will visit several sites in Italy with the task of completing 5.1 installations of a program of music entitled "Sanctuaries," which are meditative ambient analog electronic music pieces composed by Chang and realized on a Wiard Modular Music System, specifically designed for playback in churches and other public locations.

The tour is sponsored by Sguardi Sonori 2007, Festival of Media and Time Based Art, for which Leonard is a also a curator.

The cities in the tour will include Rome, Benevento, Torino, Venice, San Galgano and La Spezia. While in La Spezia, Chang and Leonard will also have access to the Naval base, where there are very large rooms (indoor drydocks for warships, for instance) and other interesting ambiances, such as marble quarries and museums, where further explorations in unusual ambient spaces will be recorded and cataloged.

Utilizing Blue Sky Monitors and extensive Taralabs wiring at each installation, each
location will be recorded using a Soundfield SP422B mic, which is a recording system that can yield from mono up to a 7.1 playback. Recording will be achieved using a tcelectronic Konnekt Live, interfacing to a laptop computer and portable firewire drives. In addition, Impulse Response data will be collected from each of the locations to create a library of interesting convolution reverb spaces for McDSP's Revolver.

Following the Italian journey, Chang and Leonard will give many presentations on the
project, including a workshop presented by GASP Gallery in Brookline for senior students in electronic music at Berklee College of Music.

This project would not be possible without the generosity of sponsors, who include The City of Rome; The City of Venice; La Marrana - environmental art park, (for graciously coordinating recording and installation sites during a week long residency in La Spezia); Sguardi Sonori 2007, Festival of Media and Time Based Art; Blue Sky Speakers; TaraLabs Cables; tcelectronic digital audio interfaces and processors; The Wiard Synthesizer Company; Transaudio Group/Soundfield Microphones and The Berklee College of Music.

Confirmed Schedule - (Actual locations to be announced).

June 12/19 LA SPEZIA
June 20 ROME
June 21/22 BENEVENTO
June 23/24 TORINO
June 26/27 VENICE
June 28 SAN GALGANO (Installation includes "Echoes and Footsteps" by Neil Leonard in addition to "Sanctuaries")
June 29 - July 4 LA SPEZIA

SANCTUARIES
An installation by Gary Chang and Neil Leonard
San Galgano, Sienna, Italy

NOTES: GARY CHANG
The music entitled "Sanctuaries" that I have composed for installation in churches is designed for such an environment of spirituality and meditation. The musics are ambient in quality, designed to fill the space with warmth and emotion, but never does the musics every confront the visitor - though there is some abstraction, the dynamics of the pieces are quite controlled, never overtly dramatic. In the best of all things, I am hoping that the music installation will simply be another contributor to the specialness of the Church's ambiance - my special prayer in the space. In loving memory of Diana Lee Chang.

NOTES: NEIL LEONARD
Echoes and Footsteps is a reflection on the sound of Italy, where I lived and work for much of 2006. The primary sources are the sound of cowbells recorded in the region of Lazio, and the songs of workers celebrating the end of the work day in the Palazzo di Ragione market in Padova. The pointed gestures of the bells and bursts of cathartic song were transformed using time-stretching and delay techniques. The resulting composition evolves in slow motion and outlines large sonic contours that celebrate the essence of daily life as I head it while living here.

GARY CHANG SHORT BIO
Sound artist and esteemed film composer Gary Chang worked his way up through the LA
studio musician ranks playing with the best musicians in the country (e.g. Robbie Robertson, Herbie Hancock and Weather Report, Barbara Streisand and Henry Mancini,)
later to compose music for many eminent filmmakers (including John Frankenheimer,
Jonathan Demme and Stephen King). Few composers have mastered such a wide range of
musical genres that Chang has (orchestral, electronic, installation, jazz, soundtrack, dance). Chang is a protagonist in the field of music synthesis. He has recorded on and programmed almost major every hardware and software synthesizer over the last thirty years, built dozens of custom systems, and designed a personal studio that is optimized for recording synthesizers in multi-channel and high definition audio. Chang won the National Endowment for the Arts Grant for Jazz Composers while attending California Institute Of the Arts. Chang is a pioneer in the use of 5.1 surround sound in cinema, concert and installation settings.

NEIL LEONARD SHORT BIO
NEIL LEONARD is a sound artist, composer and saxophonist. His compositions are a
synthesis of concert, improvised and electronic musics that transcend categorization. Leonard's recently premiered works include Dreaming of an Island for orchestra, electronics and live-video (performed by Kirk Trevor and the Indianapolis Chamber
Orchestra), Totems (performed by Byron and Caine at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York City), and the music for Relatives (by Tony Oursler and Constance DeJong that was featured at the Whitney Biennial). His collaborative work with visual artist Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons was featured by premier venues for modern art including 49th Venice Biennial; Museum of Modern Art, NY; and presented by the U.S. State Department at DakArt/Dakar Biennial in Senegal.

Leonard is co-owner of Gallery Artist Studio Project GASP and curator of the GASP sonic arts series in Boston. His ensemble has featured Marshall Allen (Director of the Sun Ra Arkestra), Bruce Barth, Dave Bryant, Don Byron, Kenwood Dennard, Robin Eubanks, Frank Lacy, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, and Uri Caine.

Neil Leonard is an Associate Professor in the Music Synthesis Department at Berklee
College of Music.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Mr. Chang and Mr. Leonard wish to thank Bruce Weisberg of Blue Sky Speakers, Rebecca
Barnhardt of TaraLabs Cables, Ed Simeone of tcelectronic, Grant Richter of The Wiard
Synthesizer Company, Bradley Lunde at Transaudio Group/Soundfield Mics, and Carl Dito at Coast Audio for their sage advice and contributing their companies' products on behalf of our project. Gary wishes to thank his family, Ann and Arthur Chang and Margaret Craig-Chang.

Special thanks goes to Stephen Croes and Kurt Biederwolf of Berklee College of Music for their continued support.

Thanks to Anthony Baldino, Tara Sarmov and Pierce Warneke, students of the Music
Synthesis Program at Berklee College of Music for assisting with the installation.

Extra special thanks are extended to Carlo Fatigoni, Sandro Cecchi and Marisa Corazzol of Sguardi Sonori 2007. Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons of Gallery Artists Studio Projects GASP Gallery, Colonel Sergio Cavanna of The SAVTAM Aeronautica Militare, Cadimare - La Spezia Italy, and Gianni and Grazie Bolongaro of La Marrana di Montemarcello, La Spezia Italy."