Irondale Presents: Tueurs en Série, 4/18-20

Irondale presents Tueurs en Série, a new opera composed in real time using the Soundpainting live composing sign language incorporating imagery and sound inspired by the acts of serial killers. This unique piece, a new collaboration of The Walter Thompson Orchestra and the Tours Soundpainting Orchestra (Tours, France), unfolds in an impressionistic non-linear fashion. The opera will be Soundpainted live by Walter Thompson and Angelique Cormier.

The imagery, music and text for Tueurs en Série are inspired by Thompson's and Cormier's research about famous serial killers like Ted Bundy, The Black Widow and Jack the Ripper, among others. Tueurs en Série does not pronounce a judgment or document crimes, but is an abstract allegory, a creative point of view that invites the audience to imagine what take place in the mind of a serial killer.

Each performance of the opera will be unique complemented by several constant components--libretto, music, choreography, costumes, props and lighting woven together by Soundpainters Thompson and Cormier.

Walter Thompson Orchestra
Walter Thompson, Soundpainter / Steve Rust, Bass / Nicole Poole, Actress / Leese Walker , Actress / Gil Selinger, Cello / Evan Mazunik, Piano & Accordion / Rolf Sturm , Guitar / Rob Henke - Trumpet / Chris Washburne, Trombone, tuba / Dennis Shafer, Saxophone / Hollis Headrick, Percussion

Tours Soundpainting Orchestra:
Angelique Cormier, Soundpainter / Madeline Ardouin, Violin+Voice / Maud Beraudy, Actress+Clown / Linda Bocquel, Actress+Visual Art / Dominique Chanteloup, Drums / Benjamin Chapelot, Actor / Gaëtan Coutable, Violin+Voice / Jacqueline Devaux, Saxophone / Amandine Gravier, Actress / Sylvie Lasalle, Voice / Guillaume Le Baube, Photographer / Thoma Lesigne , Bass / Anne-Laure Renard, Dancer / Cecilia Ribault, Dancer / Muriel Richard, Singer / Juliette Rillard, Voice / Sylvain Roudier, Saxophone / David Simon, Guitar / Amélie Thouin, Voice

About Walter Thompson
Walter Thompson - Soundpainter, Woodwinds, Percussion, and Educator Thompson conceived the Soundpainting language in Woodstock, New York, in the early 1970s. To date, Thompson has developed Soundpainting into a multidisciplinary live composing sign language comprising more than 1200 gestureS. Thompson has composed Soundpaintings with many multidisciplinary and contemporary orchestras in many cities, including Barcelona, Santiago de Compostela, Paris, Bordeaux, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, Oslo, Berlin, Bergen, Lucerne, Copenhagen, and Reykjavik, among others. He has taught Soundpainting at the Paris Conservatoire; Eastman School of Music; Columbia University, Iceland Academy of the Arts; University of Michigan; Grieg Academy in Bergen, Norway; University of Iowa; Oberlin College-Conservatory of Music; and New York University, among many otherS. Thompson is founder of and Soundpainter for The Walter Thompson Orchestra based in New York City.

About Angelique Cormier
Composer, pianist, singer and multidisciplinary Soundpainter Angelique Cormier is a teaching artist and Director of the Tours Soundpainting Orchestra (TSO). Founding the TSO in 2005, the ensemble has become one of the leading live composing ensembles in France. Cormier has led the TSO through many outreach and performance projects with universities, orchestras, choirs, and marching bands, and in 2008, the TSO received a national grant titled "défie jeune-envie d'agir," which provided her ensemble with the funding to develop to its full professional potential. Her projects include collaboration with Franco-Morrocan exchange, the Compagnie du Coin, and the Compagnie OFF as Music Director of Paraboles 2.0, premiered in Singapour in 2010. !n 2011, she composed and arranged music for the opera Pagliacci! for a street theatre adaptation. Her project Signs Across the Atlantic with Walter Thompson and his Walter Thompson Orchestra (WTO) has led a Franco-American exchange culminating in this performance Tueurs en Série, a soundpainting opera about serial killers.