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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2010 > March > 02 > Entry
A 100-foot-long string instrument to take up residency in Seaholm
The turbine hall of the historic Seaholm power plant will become the site for an utterly unconventional concert when Ellen Fullman, composer/performer and former Austinite, returns to town with her 100-foot-long string instrument.
When Fullman was here in Austin, 1985 to 1997, she rented a space in a former candy factory off Manor Road It was there that she developed her very unique instrument known as The Long String Instrument.
Fullman used amazing lengths of wire and custom-built wooden resonators to fashion her gigantic instrument. To play it, she developed a method of rosining her hands and walking the lengths of wire as she coaxed out otherworldly vibrations.
“My work resides between the fields of sound art and music,” she has said. “My interest is in composing music on multiple levels, constructing not only the fundamental harmonic content, but also creating a phantom composition by choreographing the performer’s movement through a multi-dimensional matrix of unfolding overtones.”
Fullman’s return visit — her first in 12 years — jibes with the SXSW premiere of Peter Esmonde’s documentary film about her music entitled “5 variations on a long string.”
The two performances at Seaholm are courtesy the non-profit group New Music Co-op.
8 p.m. March 13
8 p.m. March 14
Seaholm Power Plant, 214 West Ave.
Tickets: $12 students/advance and $15 at door
www.newmusiccoop.org
For the concerts Fullman will perform her compositions solo and in ensemble with NMC instrumentalists James Alexander (viola), Henna Chou (cello), Nick Hennies (percussion) and Travis Weller (violin).
Ellen Fullman performance at Berkeley Art Museum, Dec. 2009.
Photo by John Fago.
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