Playhouse Rehearsal Room Presents Saskia Moore's DEAD SYMPHONY, Now thru 8/10

Melbourne artist Saskia Moore has researched near-death experiences and discovered the near-dying can see not only a tunnel of white light but also sounds similar to classical music. Moore has collaborated with acclaimed orchestra ensemble Apartment House to create Dead Symphony, a musical performance and immersive light show inspired by the stories of near-death encounters. The audience will sit surrounding the orchestra, giving an immersive quality to the miniature symphony that will be performed from today, August 7 - 10 in The Playhouse Rehearsal Room.

Sound is understood to be one of the last senses present before death. While most descriptions of near-death experiences focus on the visual - seeing a tunnel of light or already dead relatives - award-winning Melbourne artist Saskia Moore decided to take a different perspective by asking: what does it sound like?

With this intriguing promise, she set out to document and transcribe the actual music and sound experiences people heard when losing or regaining consciousness during a near-death experience. Moore has done her own research with pre-eminent professors in the field and also documented her own accounts of people who have had their own near death experiences.

In seeking answers she uncovered an occurrence that is both rare by account and potentially universal: that of clearly hearing music or non-verbal sound from an unknown source once unconscious.

From the documented collections, Saskia Moore ascertained the sounds and music heard are like miniature symphonies - lyrical, abstract, and beautiful by their very nature.

As an artist, Saskia Moore's work has been shown in International Arts Festivals since 2006. She is a recent recipient of the prestigious Sound & Music UK Embedded: Artist Residency supported by Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, 2011. Saskia Moore is also Director of Vanilla Productions, a small creative Production Company specialising in the development and promotion of distinctive and primarily Australian live stage productions. She was dramaturge and part of the key creative team for the critically acclaimed and Helpmann Award-winning production Smoke & Mirrors, which was a sell-out in its season in The Famous Spiegeltentat Arts Centre Melbourne in 2011.