Colorado State University’s Gregory Allicar Museum of Art (GAMA) has premiered original compositions by Joel Bacon and Borahm Lee.
GREGORY ALLICAR MUSEUM OF ART invites individuals to engage with art and each other to inspire fresh perspectives and wonder. The museum is a catalyst for visual literacy and critical thinking that instills a passion for learning.
Register for these free performances on April 4 and April 6 at artmuseum.colostate.edu.
Bacon and Lee will perform via Charley Friedman’s immersive auditory installation, Soundtracks for the Present Future, on view through April 7 in the museum’s Griffin Foundation Gallery. The exhibition creates a singular instrument through nearly sixty acoustic guitars, basses, and mandolins suspended from the ceiling.
On Thursday, April 4, at noon and 5:30 p.m., Joel Bacon is joined by Nicole Asel, mezzo-soprano and reader, for the premiere of At the River, a multi-movement composition written for the installation. Later in the week, Borahm Lee explores ambient electronic realms that meld traditional and futuristic sounds in a single performance on Saturday, April 6, at 1 p.m.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Joel Bacon is the Stewart and Sheron Golden Chair of Organ and Liturgical Studies and the Fr. Don Willette Chair of Catholic Studies at CSU. As a concert organist, his recent performances have focused on music by W. A. Mozart, Herman Berlinski, and Petr Eben, as well as works for
organ and orchestra. His teaching and research centers on topics related to Catholicism and the creative arts, especially Gregorian chant.
Mezzo-soprano Nicole Asel serves as an associate professor of Voice at Colorado State University where she teaches Applied Voice, Vocal Pedagogy, and Freshman Voice Studio. She has performed internationally throughout the United States in operatic, concert, and recital repertoire.
Keyboardist and producer Borahm Lee is a genre-bending artist who bridges the gap between traditional and modern musical realms. With nearly twenty years of touring and recording experience working with iconic artists such as Lauryn Hill, Kanye West, Lee “Scratch” Perry, and Wu-Tang Clan, Lee has also carved his own lane, co-founding the electronic hip-hop band Break Science in 2008, serving as keyboardist and musical director for the Pretty Lights Live Band for over a decade, and blazing his own path with his unique live solo show.
Charley Friedman is a multimedia artist who works in sculpture, performance, photography, drawing, and video to “tackle how we internalize and filter the world through magical thinking, institutionalized religion, and consumer culture…that reinforce our own egocentric world views.” Friedman lives and works in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he co-founded and co-curates Fiendish Plots.
ABOUT SOUNDTRACKS FOR THE PRESENT FUTURE
Charley Friedman: Soundtracks for the Present Future premiered in the summer of 2021 at Bemis Center in Omaha, Nebraska. As an immersive auditory installation that dissects and affirms visitors’ relationship to music as a stimulant and as an art form, Soundtracks explores decentralization and diversity through the multiplicity of distinct instruments: each is a unique character within a crowd, individual yet collective.
EXHIBITION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND SUPPORT
Luke Farritor, exhibition engineer
Jay Carlson, consulting engineer
Invaluable music insight by Benji Kushner and Harry Dingman
Charley Friedman: Soundtracks for the Present Future was originated by the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts and curated by Rachel Adams, Chief Curator and Director of Programs, and organized at Azusa Pacific University. This exhibition and related programming are supported by the Fund Endowment at CSU and by a grant from Colorado Creative Industries. CCI and its
activities are made possible through an annual appropriation from the Colorado General Assembly and federal funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.
GAMA’s free Music in the Museum Concert Series explores the cross-fertilization of music and the visual arts through concerts in the museum galleries. Performances by Colorado State University music faculty and students are enriched with context provided by faculty and students from the Department of Art and Art History and the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. Support for Music in the Museum concerts comes from DATA (Denver-area Art-alumni Transforming the Arts) for GAMA at CSU.
For updated museum information, go to artmuseum.colostate.edu.
Support Northern Colorado Journalism
Show your support for North Forty News by helping us produce more content. It's a kind and simple gesture that will help us continue to bring more content to you.
BONUS - Donors get a link in their receipt to sign up for our once-per-week instant text messaging alert. Get your e-copy of North Forty News the moment it is released!
Click to Donate