Christen Lein

I was in Salt Lake City, Utah for the 2011 Supermoon because I had a concert at the Vieve Gore Concert Hall, then was a guest artist for a few days at the University of Utah, courtesy of the graceful and incredible writer, Terry Tempest Williams. I didn’t see the Supermoon because it was cloudy and raining that night in Utah. But I found this incredible collection of Supermoon photos from around the world.

When you look at these images,  it suddenly feels like the world is smaller, and that this moment in the sky feels a bit more grand. A few samples are below — you can check out the collection here.

New York City

Athens, Greece

Trondheim, Norway

Mexico City

Colorado

My performance and collaboration with David McConville’s at the Morrison Planetarium at California Academy of Sceinces in San Francisco was unforgettable, and is one of my favorite collaborations.

On Thursday, October 14th, David and I presented “Perceiving Home: An Ecological Tour of the Cosmos” to a sold-out audience of 600 at the California Academy of Sciences, as part of their “Nightlife” series.

Here are some statements about the experience:

“In all my years I can’t quite recall another presentation or experience that left quite the same intellectual and spiritual impression – not just on me, but on the whole audience. The unique blend of David’s insightful voice and Christen’s gifted viola playing can best be described as ‘other- worldly.’ Bravo to both of them for a magnificent performance!” ~Christine Arena

“Imagine yourself surrounded by brilliant images of the known Universe in the spherical dome of the Planetarium at the California Academy of Science coupled with Christen Lien’s gorgeous viola playing weaving a tapestry of evocative sound. David McConville’s deep knowledge and delightful humor guides you through the evolution of humanities ongoing love affair with astronomy. From the moment Christen begins to play you are entranced as your eyes take in the constellations…” ~Martine Sweeney

We hope to do this presentation again and again at CalAcademy, or at a digital planetarium near you. If you are able to help make this possible, send a message to christen [at] itsnotaviolin.com.

To learn more about “Perceiving Home” and the technology behind it, click here.

We’re returning to San Francisco for an encore performance!

On Thursday, October 14th, I will return to the world’s largest digital planetarium with David McConville to live-score David’s presentation of of Perceiving Home: An Ecological Tour of the Cosmos, hosted at the Morrison Planetarium at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park.

Trust me, you won’t want to miss this experience ~ this is one of my favorite collaborations and concerts of all time.

“Perceiving Home an immersive journey across vast scales of time and space, revealing the systemic interconnections that create and sustain life. Participants will be guided by David McConville on an interactive exploration of beautifully rendered Earth and space science visualizations, illuminating the meaning behind Buckminster Fuller’s admonition to “Start with Universe.” Violist Christen Lien will provide live musical accompaniment with her haunting ambient soundscapes.”

Translation? David will give an interactive tour of the observable universe using actual satellite images (i.e. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope) that are flawlessly stitched together, while I live-score the adventure with music (new and old songs!), creating an immersive audio-visual experience in the world’s top state-of-the-art facilities. I’ll also perform before and after David’s presentation.

The Morrison Planetarium has a 300-person capacity, and we are doing two shows at 7:30pm and 8:30pm. But don’t let the 600-capacity limit fool you, this event is GUARANTEED to sell out by 6:30pm. Those who want to go for this sonic ride in outer space will have to stay on top of their game to gain entry!

To guarantee that you won’t miss this amazing event, here is what you should do:

1) Buy “NightLife” tickets online beforehand ($12-http://www.calacademy.org/events/nightlife/)

2) Show up before 6:00pm to get in line.

3) Immediately go to the Planetarium Kiosk and pick up a pass right away.

The 2009 presentation of Perceiving Home was mind-blowing, and friends and fans are traveling from far and wide for this show. We hope you join the party at this state of the art facilities. See you October 14th in San Francisco!

As composers, our relationship to sound is intimate.

Explaining the process of making music can be difficult, even impossible at times. There is a magic and power there that we dare not tread and mince into words. Yet we are often asked to describe this process.

When I find other composers, musicians and artists who describe this well, I feel… well, I feel a lot. Gratitude, relief, inspiration, simplicity…

Here are two artists who are both enormous influences on my work explain this mystery of music that we have all experienced, with incredible wisdom and tenderness.

Estonian composer Arvo Pärt explains the notes of “Fur Alina.”

“I’d say that I had a need to concentrate on each sound so that every blade of grass would be as important as a flower.”

In the video below, Björk interviews Arvo Pärt. Quite amazing.

And here is Charlie Rose interviewing Björk. How she describes the “tending of music” is incredibly spot on.

Yesterday I had a photo shoot at the National Gallery of Art in DC for the upcoming interview/story with ReadysetDC. We went to two locations, first was the “La Negresse” enormous cut-out by Henri Matisse. The other was this courtyard, which had AMAZING acoustics. I had to do it, I had to play Unabi… Allyson Behnke from ReadysetDC happened to capture the moment:

(The interview with ReadysetDC will be published next Monday, stay tuned for more…)