How do you go to an unknown place when you know the music inside out?
We recently sat down with director Brian Mertes to hear his thoughts about the collaboration with the MusicWorks Collective on Lab Concert #1:
“This idea of a Lab Concert is a space for Resident Musicians to try approaching things in different ways. Normally in the process of selecting and creating a program it’s very traditional, there’s a set way of going about it. Pick the music, go learn the music, learn your part, come together, play it.
So we played around with changing just that. How are you going to pick the music? Whose voices are part of picking the music but also, why are we picking music? What is it that we’re after? What is it that we’re trying to engage in?
For me, surprise is a very high value. I’m seeking surprise when I’m building a performance and I’m seeking ways to interrogate the conditions, to create impediments, to try to establish a kind of presence that is intimate, vulnerable, connected, and unknown.
So how do you go to an unknown place when you know the music inside out? How do you allow yourself inside of that space of performance to both be present and also bring to the music and the people you’re sharing with, the musicians you’re playing with, all of your expertise and virtuosity? I feel like we’re playing with those questions in a really wonderful way, and it’s exciting.
We’re providing a little bit of light on January 16th. It’s warmth and light. We’re gathering to hear what these four wonderful musicians are thinking about. It’s really from the heart.”
Brian Mertes is Head of the Brown University/Trinity Rep MFA Directing Program, and an Associate Director at Trinity Rep. He has taught directing for Columbia and NYU film programs and has been a guest director at North Carolina School of the Arts, SUNY Purchase, NYU Grad, UT Austin, and Yale. Brian has directed many world premieres and was a guest director at Juilliard for over two decades. Brian has directed for ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, garnering three Emmy and three Directors Guild of America nominations, and an Emmy for directing. Brian is a member of the CMW board, is a CMW parent, and resides in the West End of Providence.
Join us for this event!
Learn more on our calendar
MusicWorks Collective with Brian Mertes
Lab Concert #1: Music Meets Theater
Friday, January 16 at 7:30 pm
The CMW Center
1326 Westminster Street, Providence
Reserve your seat: https://bit.ly/4jFxeSL