HCCC & Kinetic Present Dynamic Concert Inspired By Hurricane Harvey

Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) and KINETIC present a free one-night concert inspired by the solo exhibition, Nathalie Miebach: The Water Line, featuring work by the contemporary basket weaver and sculptor that focuses on the major hurricanes of 2017: Harvey, Irma, and Maria. Fascinated by two narratives generated by every disaster--one based on science, encompassing temperature, wind and pressure gradients, and one based on human experience--Miebach translates information from these storms into graphic music scores, large-scale woven installations, and sculptures. As part of the artist's Weather Score Project, The Water Line Concert will feature two new compositions, inspired by Hurricane Harvey, by Houston composers Shane Monds and Kyle Rivera, as well as existing compositions by Matthew Jackfert and Harrison Ponce, based on other hurricanes. Miebach will be present to speak about her work in the exhibition and her collaborations with various composers.

Since 2009, Miebach has collaborated with composers and musicians in her Weather Score Project to translate her graphic scores, based on weather data, into musical compositions, so that her works also can be experienced through sound. Miebach says that she collaborates with composers for two reasons: to convey nuances and the emotion surrounding her research that is hard to perceive on a visual level and to reveal patterns or stories in the data that musicians may identify.

Miebach's approach to data visualization pushes the means by which scientific data is commonly represented and demonstrates the beneficial marriage of art and science. In her graphic score, Harvey Twitter SOS (2018), she depicts the effects of Hurricane Harvey on Houston, Texas, by using color and geometric shapes to tell the traumatic narrative of the hurricane, layering precipitation and wind data with responses from individuals who turned to Twitter for help when the emergency response system became overloaded. In the new compositions performed in The Water Line Concert, Monds and Rivera will interpret the Hurricane Harvey data used by Miebach, while drawing on their personal experiences.

Based in Boston, Massachusetts, Nathalie Miebach is a sculptor who translates the scientific data of ecology, climate change, and meteorology into musical scores, sculptures, and large-scale installations. Miebach holds an MFA in sculpture and an MS in art education from the Massachusetts College of Arts in Boston. She has exhibited in North America, Europe, and Australia, and her work can be found in the collections of the Denison Museum of Art, the DeCordova Sculpture Museum, the Spencer Art Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and Facebook, among many others. She has received numerous fellowships, awards, and grants, including the Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship (2017), IAPP Artist Residency (2016), Art Lab Residency (2015), Virginia A. Groot Foundation Grant (2016), Pollock-Krasner Award (2011), and the TED Global Fellowship (2011). Visit www.nathaliemiebach.com for more information.

Shane Monds is a composer who focuses on music outside of the Western tradition in collaboration with filmmakers, artists, performers, and scientists. Monds holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from Rice University and a BA and MA in music from Louisiana State University and Butler University. He studied composition under Drs. Pierre Jalbert, Kurt Stallmann, Anthony Brandt, Karim Al-Zand, Michael Schelle, Dinos Constantinides, and Keith Gates. In 2016, he was an associate artist-in-residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts under master artist Georg Friedrich Haas, and, from 2015 to 2017, he was Da Camera of Houston's young artist composer-in-residence. Other recent projects include compositions for The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Menil Collection; Rothko Chapel; and two site-specific compositions for James Turrell's Skyspace, Twilight Epiphany, at Rice University. Monds has created commissions for the Indianapolis Symphonic Chorus; The Louisiana Sinfonietta; HGOco (Houston Grand Opera Company); the Vechhione/Erdahl Duo; and the Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra in Taipei, Taiwan. Visit www.shanemonds.com for more information.

Kyle Rivera is a graduate from the University of Houston with degrees in viola performance and music composition from the Moores School of Music and a minor in Kinesiology. Rivera studied composition with Dr. Rob Smith and viola with Suzanne LeFevre. He has been composing for six years and playing viola for 11 years. Rivera has had the opportunity to perform on stage with prestigious artists such as David Curtis, Larvard Skou-Larsen, Spinx Virtuosi, the Ariel Quartet, Tomislav Facini, and the world-renowned Houston Ballet Academy. As a composer, his music has been performed in several cities, on public radio, and by various professional ensembles. Past collaborations include the Houston Symphony, the AURA Contemporary Ensemble, Houston Grand Opera, the Kenari Quartet, Kingwood Park High School, as well as award-winning viola soloist Nathan Schram. Future collaborations include another commission from the AURA Contemporary Ensemble.

Now in its fifth concert season, Houston-based KINETIC is gaining increasing recognition for its dynamic collaboratively driven performances and masterfully curated musical programs. An artist-led ensemble of young professional string players founded in 2015, KINETIC is committed to showcasing diverse, under represented, and newly composed classical music through flexible chamber and orchestral ensemble formats. Its 2019-2020 season brings collaborations with Musiqa, NobleMotion Dance, Archway Gallery, Flatland Gallery Hoppa Project, Sam Houston State University, and Houston Methodist Hospital. Visit www.kineticensemble.org for more information.

Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) is a nonprofit visual arts center dedicated to advancing education about the process, product, and history of craft. HCCC provides exhibition, retail, and studio spaces to support the work of local and national artists and serves as a resource for artists, educators and the community at large.

Located in the Museum District at 4848 Main Street, HCCC is open Wednesday through Saturday, 10 AM - 5 PM, and Sunday, 12 - 5 PM. Closed major holidays. Admission is free. Free parking is available directly behind the facility, off Rosedale and Travis Street. HCCC is three blocks south of Wheeler Ave. MetroRail station on Main Street.

HCCC is supported by individual donors and members and funded in part by The Brown Foundation; Houston Endowment, Inc.; the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance; Texas Commission on the Arts; the National Endowment for the Arts, the Kinder Foundation; the Morgan Foundation; Windgate Charitable Foundation; and the Wortham Foundation. HCCC is a member of the Houston Museum District and the Midtown Arts District.

For more information, call 713-529-4848 or visit www.crafthouston.org.

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