A staring contest amongst sculptures and other random updates

I hope everyone enjoyed their summer! Summer is not really my jam, but I had a good one. Here's what went down:

• I visited LA, where I performed music by Trevor for piano + electronics at Clifton's, an interesting art deco cafeteria/bar/taxidermy museum/former Ray Bradbury haunt
• I got interviewed by Pregame Magazine
• Violinist Hajnal Pivnick and I got all avant-garde at the Bertoia exhibition in the Museum of Art and Design (MAD) in some costumes by my friend Atelier de Geste (pic above). Thanks to Hajnal for being down to get weird last minute! MAD invited musicians to record audio in the space but I wanted to make a video (ok, amateur film) and not just a sound recording. Now I need to sit down with iMovie and make it... 
• I won my first award as an individual artist from the Puffin Foundation for a new multimedia piece that I now also need to make!

Taylor Mac's costumes for Act II of A 24-Decade History of Popular Music by Machine Dazzle

Until I have more time after the NCP Benefit to focus on making the things I need to make, I've been seeing performances every week or so to gather inspiration. Most recently I headed up to Yale to see Carrie Mae Weems' Grace Notes: Reflections for Now and last Saturday I saw the second installment of Taylor Mac's A 24-Decade History of Popular Music. Weems' shows are done, but Mac's are still going on and SO worth seeing! I'm even thinking about going to the 24-hour marathon performances. We'll see...I'll let you know if it ends up happening! 

Piano at the pop-up

I'm on a plane heading to Fort Lauderdale, and from there we'll go to Key West for a sorely needed getaway. It was a little painful to get up at 4:45 am this morning since we were up late packing after performing at the J. Elster pop-up in TriBeCa. Jennifer, the "J" of the gallery's namesake, overhauled the Steinway piano of her late grandfather, harpist Reinhardt Elster, the oldest retiree of the Metropolitan Opera. Trevor Gureckis and I played solo piano pieces: I played the fugue from Ravel's le Tombeau de Couperin and the cadenza from Potential Energies, composed by Trevor, and he played Philip Glass's Mad Rush as well as his own nocturne. People would get so close when we performed. Some dude was even standing in the curve of the piano looking at me. I didn't mind; I thought it was cool that the idea of physical distance between performers and audience somehow dissolved for people in this setting.

The gallery was full of Jennifer's artistic reflections on existence, which included collaborations with David Bowie and Yoko Ono, and a video called "Cemetery," which Trevor and I perform in. It was exciting to see it, since it was taped in 2014 and finally premiered last night. Other performances included Met harpist Mariko Anraku and a makeup artist/musician on singing bowls (will find his name!), and impromptu performance art by Jennifer. 

One of my favorite moments was when Julia Wilkins, who was also in "Cemetery," just started dancing with the harpist. Someone behind me said, "Is that supposed to happen?" When Jennifer got up to join her it was clear the answer was "Yes."

After experiencing this I feel more compelled to pursue all the weird, random ways I want to express myself. It's inspiring to see someone do it so beautifully and honestly.

And now...pics! 

This was so much fun to be a part of! There's a short clip of it on my Instagram (@sugarvendil) 

My friend Barbara Anastacio viewing "Cemetery"

 Mariko & Schaeffer

Tanya Taylor FW 2016

Worked on the music for Tanya Taylor's FW 2016 presentation (mostly creative direction and piano) with Trevor Gureckis aka My Great Ghost. He's an incredibly talented composer and producer. In fact, he worked on some of the latest Kanye album, The Life of Pablo, and some of his stuff made it onto the final! Anyway, this show was so beautiful and it's best you see it rather than read about it, so here are photos of my favorite looks...and Beatrix Ost because she was there and I just had to take a picture of her!