The Gertrude C. Ford Studio Theatre welcomed Alice-Anne Light, Kristy Kristinek and Cecil Price Walden for “hours” — a new and unique music and art experience — on Sunday, Oct. 2.
The performance, which was presented by the University of Mississippi Department of Music, Department of Art and Art History and the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies, garnered a rapturous reception, as the trio combined their artistic talents into a collaboration like no other.
In addition to composing “hours,” Walden scores the 16-piece movement, with a piano medley to accompany Light’s mezzo-soprano vocals. Concurrently, Kristinek, a visual artist, transforms the emotions of the music into abstract artworks.
From the audience, one could look at any part of the stage and see an artist working at the top of their game, not to mention how the three complement one another during the hour-long performance. With the introduction of visual art, the group completely reimagines the concept of the song cycle and recital, developing something fresh and unique with each performance.
Following the performance, the trio sat down with Nancy Maria Balach, chair and professor of music, for the university’s web talk show series, “Living Music Resource,” where they discussed their inspiration and takeaways behind the piece.
“hours” features timeless literary voices and influences (of multiple languages, too), from Emily Dickinson to Rainer Maria Rilke, and derives its namesake from the Middle Ages’ “Book of the Hours.” Kristinek’s visual work also aids in mirroring these influences.
“The work echoes the medieval triptych altarpieces prevalent during the same time as the ‘Book of the Hours,’ as well as the illuminated texts within them,” said Light, in the program’s show notes.
Yet these sources directly translate into the group’s internal motivations behind the music, with the poems and songs chosen as a direct response to the recent socio-political landscape, as well as the travails of the pandemic.
“The piece has only become more relevant,” Walden said. “It meets you where you are.”
Walden, while no stranger to existential themes within his work, describes “hours” as the most ambitious artistic pursuit he has been a part of, and the soulfulness of the collaboration reflects this.
“Hopefully by the time we get to the last E-flat … the audience feels something,” Walden said. “Whether physically, emotionally, visually … and we hope they begin to think differently about something. When we perform, I find it to be like group therapy.”
In addition to the show’s lyricism and thematic complexity, the trio also hope to inspire in a broader, more practical sense.
During their Oxford residency, Light (an Ole Miss alumna) and Walden led a performance for school-age children on Friday, Sept. 30. Following the show, many parents graciously reached out, joyously proclaiming how enthusiastic their kids were about music, painting and engaging in the arts in an entirely new way. The prospect of future generations responding to the work greatly excites the trio.
“Many feel the need to reassess who we are and where we are going. This piece endeavors to give voice to this new reality,” Light said.“hours” premiered at Texas Tech University to rave reviews and is currently touring throughout the South. For more information on the performance, visit the University of Mississippi’s Department of Music website.
