While Arcade Fire’s Win Butler, Régine Chassagne, and Owen Pallet are busy prepping a score to Richard Kelly’s upcoming film The Box, multi-instrumentalist Richard Reed Parry has teamed up with celebrated film score writer, classical composer, and indie string arranger (Antony, Grizzly Bear, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy) Nico Muhly for a new symphonic composition in Toronto.
On Oct. 29th, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony will perform Parry’s piece, “For Heart and Breath and Orchestra,” for an event presumably curated by Muhly called “Nico’s Choice” at The Royal Conservatory’s Koerner Hall.
Think a symphony orchestra performing music by Arcade Fire’s guitarist isn’t edgy enough? Check out this description from the RC’s site:
For Heart and Breath and Orchestra is the third in a series of compositions which use automatic/involuntary muscles in the human body (specifically the lungs and the heart) as the performance parameters. All of the notes are read from a score, but the tempos at which they are played are all governed by either the heart rate or breathing rate of the individual players, or the conductor. During the performance, many of the performers wear stethoscopes which enable them to play in synch with their own heartbeats. At other times the performers play directly in synch with their own individual breathing, or are cued by the conductor who uses his/her own breath rate to determine the tempo.
Grab tickets or listen to an audio snippet here.