LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles is no stranger to the all-day pop music festival, but what if your taste is for something a little more classical, or even on the avant garde side?
If the rehearsal at Disney Hall sounded a bit like a sporting event, that's because composer David Lang drew inspiration for his piece “crowd cut” from listening to a live soccer match. Lang’s piece, which uses a thousand singer/performers, kicks off the “Noon to Midnight Festival,” which features 12 hours of performances from many local artists and performers in and around Disney Hall.
“crowd out’s” director, Dimitri Chamblas, Dean of the CalArts dance school, says the piece is emblematic of the city of L.A. as a whole.
“In order to find those voices, it has been an amazing way to discover the city,” said Chamblas. “To discover all those different geographies, all those different cultures, and the very strong diversity.”
The “crowd out’s” one thousand singers, which will be mixed in amongst the audience members, were pulled together from a diverse collection of communities from across L.A., at all performance levels. The piece is about creating a group experience with the audience.
“That's very special for the audience,” said Chamblas. “And that's what I wanted, because most of the time, the singers are very far away [from the audience].”
“Noon to Midnight” also marks the end of this year's Fluxus Festival, Fluxus being the revolutionary art movement that began in the 1960’s, the ideals of which are kept alive with festivals like this.
“One of the ideas of Fluxus,” explained Chamblas, “is that the responsibility of the show is really shared between what's happening on stage and what's happening in the room with the audience.”
Chamblas, who recently moved to L.A. from Paris, says there's a tremendous sense of freedom in Los Angeles that he was drawn to, and through the CalArts program, he's able to involve his students in performances like this.
“It's a festival, a celebration of art, instead of just a concert, just a piece of entertainment,” said recent CalArts grad Tanner Pfeiffer. “It's a celebration of the vitality and life of the music that we're making today.”
“There's so much with the audience,” said Chamblas, “and we're giving room to the audience so that they're going to maybe transform the thing.”
The all-day family event takes place Saturday, June 1 and tickets are only $10, giving some Angelenos who might not get to Disney Hall often a chance to hear some of the great sounds of the city.
For tickets and more information: laphil.com/concerts-and-events/tickets-and-packages/noon-to-midnight