International Contemporary Ensemble And Music On The Rebound to Present THE WORLD WIDE TUNING MEDITATION

On four Saturdays - March 28, April 4, 11, and 18, 2020 at 5pm EDT - the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and Music on the Rebound present The World Wide Tuning Meditation. Ione and Claire Chase lead a global performance of the late Pauline Oliveros' The Tuning Meditation, a sonic gathering with a legacy of bringing communities together through meditative singing. Anyone from anywhere in the world is invited to join in via Zoom to sing together from their personal phone or computer. No music experience is necessary.

Oliveros' The Tuning Meditation consists of four steps:

1. Begin by taking a deep breath and letting it all the way out with air sound. Listen with your mind's ear for a tone.

2. On the next breath using any vowel sound, sing the tone that you have silently perceived on one comfortable breath. Listen to the whole field of sound the group is making.

3. Select a voice distant from you and tune as exactly as possible to the tone you are hearing from that voice. Listen again to the whole field of sound the group is making.

4. Contribute by singing a new tone that no one else is singing. Continue by listening then singing a tone of your own or tuning to the tone of another voice alternately.

Claire Chase says, "I remember with deep admiration how Pauline handled the devastating moments after 9/11, immediately calling on artists to come together, to create renewed kinds of community, and to make music more purposefully and more generously than ever. In these confusing moments over the past weeks as we have found our lives and work upended by the public health crisis, many of us have again turned to Pauline, and even though she is no longer physically with us, her music, practice, and the ever-widening spaces of inclusivity and listening that she engendered in her lifetime are very much with us. The Tuning Meditation is perhaps her most inclusive composition, as it invites any number of humans to listen and sound with one another over any distance, and I can think of no greater salve for our souls right now than the gathering of a thousand self-isolated people to share in music making across all kinds of real and imagined borders. I am so grateful to my colleagues at ICE, to Raquel Klein and Rebound, and to IONE and Pauline for their extraordinary collaboration in this. As Pauline always used to say, 'Collaboration is a community of effort.' When there are so many forces at play to divide us right now, we need every effort to stay together, in all of our complexity and all of our beautiful difference, in all of our suffering and all of our hope."

Of the project, Ione says, "'Call it listening out loud." Pauline said once about The Tuning Meditation. I listened as the 500 members of the audience at St John's Cathedral, Smith's Square in London received comfort from their own rising sounds after hearing Pauline's simple instructions. She stood at the front of the vast crowd, hands clasped, head slightly bowed, listening. It was June of 2016 and the news of the positive Brexit vote had just stunned an enormous number of British citizens. A sense of extraordinary community was palpable in the room as the singing concluded. Pauline, very aware of a political climate that might shock and separate us, intended to present The World Wide Tuning Meditation again to meet upcoming new challenges. I am so grateful to Claire Chase, Raquel Klein of Music on the Rebound, and Ross Karre and Bridgid Bergin of the International Contemporary Ensemble who are bringing Pauline's score to us again in its worldwide form. It has the effect of a healing balm to unite us as one community."

Music on the Rebound is an online, interactive music festival designed to bring people together and support performing artists affected by the COVID-19 crisis, streaming March 25-30, 2020 featuring music across genres from esteemed artists such as Claire Chase, Paola Prestini, Ganavya Doraiswamy, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and more. Donations will go directly to the artists featured in the video or to an emergency arts fund. New concerts are released at 7:30pm EDT each day of the festival.

Program Information
The World Wide Tuning Meditation
Saturday, March 28, 2020 at 5pm EDT
Saturday, April 4, 2020 at 5pm EDT
Saturday, April 11, 2020 at 5pm EDT
Saturday, April 18, 2020 at 5pm EDT
Tickets: Free. RSVP Here to receive Zoom call-in information.
Information Link: https://www.musicrebound.com/pauline-oliveros-tuning-meditation

Performers and Administration:
Raquel Acevedo Klein - Music on the Rebound Festival Organizer
Ione - Co-Organizer, Tuning Meditation
Bridgid Bergin - Co-Organizer, Tuning Meditation
Larry Blumenfeld - Advisor, interviewer
​Claire Chase - Co-Organizer, Tuning Meditation
Boo Froebel - Producing Advisor
​Ross Karre - Co-Organizer, Tuning Meditation
​Erica Zielinski - Producing Advisor
​International Contemporary Ensemble - Host, Tuning Meditation

Social Media:
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/musicontherebound/
Hashtags - #musicrebound #reboundrecover

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