The Fluid Piano™ Launch Event, 28 November...
Wednesday 30 September 2009
- When?
- Saturday 28 November 2009, 19:00
- Where?
- PATS Studio One
- Open to:
- Public, Staff, Students
- Admission price:
- £12, £10 senior citizens, £5 concessions
- Tickets:
- Tickets are available from the University Box Office: T: 01483 686876, E: boxoffice@surrey.ac.uk
‘The musical equivalent of splitting the atom’ - The Guardian
“As soon as I heard the news that Fluid Tuning on each note of the piano might be a possibility, I immediately wanted to know more. After years of patience and tenacity by inventor Geoff Smith, a new prototype instrument now exists” - Matthew Bourne, composer and pianist.
After ten years of what has been a professional and personal struggle, inventor, musician and composer Geoff Smith will be unveiling and showcasing his historic invention, the first ever Fluid Piano™. The event will take place at PATS Studio One at the University of Surrey, Saturday 28 November, 7:00 p.m. The invention of the Fluid Piano™ enables musicians to alter each note individually and separately by precise microtonal intervals per note, before or during performance. This liberates the instrument from the restrictions of ‘western’ tuning to make the Fluid Piano™ the first ‘multi-cultural’ Acoustic piano. This once in a lifetime event will include performances by the inventor, composers/pianists Matthew Bourne, Nikki Yeoh and Pam Chowhan. These performances will be the world premiere of compositions specifically composed by the artists for the Fluid Piano™.
After the performance, the inventor and musicians will be available to answer questions and to discuss the controversy and debate surrounding the Fluid Piano™ and the contrasting responses to the ideas and principles that it encapsulates. There will also be an opportunity to look at this beautifully made and technically intriguing instrument.
The Fluid Piano™ is one of the most positive and culturally significant developments in the International history of music in the last three hundred years and its story is being filmed for a documentary feature film by director Rafael Lewandowski, (Cela, A Shadowed Gaze, Hearings, Children of Solidarnosc), produced by Eureka Media (Poland).
“…here, at last, is a piano that can easily sit within any musical context in the world, and that opens up new and infinite horizons of expressive possibilities” - Pam Chowhan, pianist /composer/ Head of Planning, London’s Southbank Centre.
Geoff Smith is one of the world’s leading authorities on the hammered dulcimer and is widely known as the musician, composer and performer of critically acclaimed live soundtracks to silent films such as The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, Faust, Haxan Witchcraft through the Ages and most recently The Adventures of Prince Achmed.
The University of Surrey is the educational partner for the Fluid Piano™ project and is also a long term partner of the Fluid Tuning™ Organization in relation to facilitating composition and performance on the instrument by visiting artists. The first works for the Fluid Piano™ have been commissioned by the University’s Department of Music and Sound Recording, with financial support from the University’s Arts Office.