Stephen Paulus in Residence at University of Louisiana - Monroe, "Voices from the Gallery" in Performance

Stephen Paulus takes up the position of Composer-in-Residence this month in the University of Louisiana - Monroe ‘s Division of Visual and Performing Arts from Monday, March 3 through Wednesday, March 5. Among the activities included in the residency is a performance of Paulus' Voices from the Gallery, an eleven section work for narrator and chamber orchestra. In this work, eleven pieces of art ranging from ancient Greek times to the modern era have the chance to speak to their audience for the first time in words and music while being projected above the orchestra. For example, Grant Woods' American Gothic pair complain about shopping mall parking lots and the evil that pervades society. Paulus elaborates:

The goal of Voices from the Gallery is to allow these works, many of them quite familiar, to be experienced anew with the ears rather than the eyes and perhaps to provide an impetus for us to reacquaint ourselves with them. According to the author of the narration, the ability of art to 'speak' to its viewers was suggested by Andre Malraux's study of art history, Voices of Silence.

For more information on the music of Stephen Paulus, visit www.stephenpaulus.com.

Stephen Paulus
Voices from the Gallery (1991)
Text by Joan Vail Thorne
for narrator and orchestra
1111-1100-timp.perc-str
30'

The Winged Victory of Samotluace
American Gothic (Grant Wood)
The Garden of Earthly Delights (Hieronymus Bosch)
Infanta Margarita (Diego de Velazquez)
The She-Goat (Pablo Picasso)
Nude Descending a Staircase (Marcel Duchamp)
The Birth of Venus (Sandra Botticelli)
Mona Lisa (Leonardo da Vinci)
The Beggars (Pieter Breugel)
Christina's World (Andrew Wyeth)
Dance at Bougival (Auguste Renoir)