Orchestra to feature 100 guitars

May 22, 2008 08:21 am

— WILLIAMSPORT — On Friday, students of the Uptown Music Collective will join a cast of avant luminaries to be conducted by Rhys Chatham in a world premiere performance of his new composition for 100 guitars: “Les 100 Guitares: G100” at the Community Arts Center, 220 W. Fourth St. Music starts at 7:30 p.m.
Originally from New York, Rhys Chatham is a classically trained minimalist composer now based in Paris, France.
This will be the first time Chatham has brought one of his 100 guitar orchestra performances to the United States.
Since the late 1970s Chatham has been composing minimalist pieces for electric guitar. Among the musicians who played his pieces early-on were Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo (who would go on to form Sonic Youth) and Chatham’s early collaborator, Glenn Branca.
In 1989, Chatham composed his first piece for 100 guitars, and he has been working in Europe with these guitar orchestras for 20 years.
“Les 100 Guitares” will not be about brutal intensity, but rather about the fantastic sonority that only an ensemble of 100 electric guitars can achieve,” says Chatham. “It will be about the sheer beauty and sensuality of the electric guitar.”
For the performance of “Les Guitares 110: G100,” the student orchestra will be joined by members of Akron/Family, Megafaun, San Agustin, Town and Country, USA is a Monster, as well as original Swans drummer Jonathan Kane. The fifth movement is a rearrangement of Chatham’s influential composition “Guitar Trio” and will be accompanied by the Robert Longo’s “Pictures for Music”, a film first shown during Chatham’s 1970s “Guitar Trio” performances.
Tickets for the performance are $10 for adults and $5 for students and available at caclive.com and by calling 326-2424.
The Uptown Music Collective is a non-profit school of music founded and run by guitarist Dave Brumbaugh. The Collective’s students, teachers and alumni will make up the vast majority of the guitar orchestra for this performance.