“Spring Immersion” (2024)
UMS presents Regenerate! at the Ypsi Freighthouse
Wednesday, April 7th - Sunday, April 28th, 2024
Photo by Peter Smith 2024.
At The Ypsilanti Freighthouse Museum in Ypsilanti, MI
Presented by The University Musical Society
Supported by Culture Source
A Regenerate! event where community musicians of all backgrounds attended three creative sound-making workshops, where they learned how to play ambient soundscapes. The project culminated in a weekend of performances at the historic Ypsi Freighthouse. This project engaged three new composers (Akari Komura, Maddy Wildman, and Grey Grant) to write their own pieces for the group, two of which were world premieres.
Photo by Peter Smith 2024.
As with all Regenerate! events, this project challenged participants to listen in new ways, gave the community a space to come together around a shared creativity, and provided delicious meals of local seasonal food prepared by assistant director Peter Littlejohn.
The program featured “Stick Season,” a meditation on winter that challenged performers to play not only their primary instrument, but make sounds on a variety of props, like slate, buckets of water, kindling, sticks, and even tissue paper. Cellist Wesley Hornpetrie joined us from Maryland as a featured soloist.
During the show, audience members were encouraged to walk through the performance space, taking in the sounds from various angles, as well as make their own sounds on a variety of “prop stations” set up around the room. The whole event took place in the Ypsilanti Freighthouse museum as part of UMS’s spring residency in that venue.
See a highlights reel from this performance
Featuring work by Clay Gonzalez, Akari Komura, Maddy Wildman, and Grey Grant.
See a bit of our rehearsal.
Here, the group rehearsal “Stick Season.”
Project Leadership
J. Clay Gonzalez, director of Regenerate!
Peter Littlejohn, assistant director and chef
Conor Darling, propmaster
Grey Grant, Maddy Wildman, Akari Komura, and J. Clay Gonzalez, composers
Colin McCall and Peter Smith, photographers
Jim Pudar, media and food help
Events for the project
Community sound-making workshop Wednesday, April 10th
Community sound-making workshop Wednesday, April 17th
Community sound-making workshop Wednesday, April 24th
Performance on Saturday, April 27th at 7:30PM
Performance on Sunday, April 28th at 2:00PM
Size of ensemble
47 community musicians participated in this project.
Program
“Havin’ Joy, Havin Day,” by J. Clay Gonzalez (premiere)
“Magical Thinking” by Grey Grant (premiere)
“Sonic Habitat no. 93” by Akari Komura (premiere)
“Sugar Bush” by Maddy Wildman
“Stick Season” by J. Clay Gonzalez, featuring cello soloist Wesley Hornpetrie
“The Michigan State Song” by J. Clay Gonzalez and Perry Maddox
All photographs below by Peter Smith.
Photo by Peter Smith 2024.
