Finkelmeier performs April 20 at Roundhead Brewing Company in Hyde Park. Expect a free NFT afterward. MAD Labs Studios photograph
By Keith Powers
Maria Finkelmeier is thinking of you.
You, the concert-goer. The listener. The appreciator. She’s thinking about your future.
“Being at a concert is more than the recording of it, more than the photos,” the percussionist and composer says. “This is a new, risky feeling, a meshing of various industries that don’t always mesh.”
Finkelmeier is talking about music-making, but also about light production, software engineering, movement capture—and afterward, memorializing the experience digitally. Musical performance with real-time light and gesture, captured in a unique way. NFTs—non-fungible tokens, the unchangeable digital asset, edging its way into the artistic conversation.
Finkelmeier collaborates with Illuminus Boston and Departure Arts for an immersive music/multimedia experience April 20 at Roundhead Brewing Company in Hyde Park. She’ll play a set of her own marimba compositions, and a single movement arranged from one of the Bach cello suites.
As she plays, her partners from Illuminus Boston will help capture her gestures—“the code picks up my arms and mallets”—which will be projected on the walls of the brewery.
Everyone who appreciates the live concert moment—sometimes profound, sometimes engaging, occasionally infuriating, but always personal—knows the frustration of trying to share the experience. Recordings don’t do it, and video captures are just that—lacking the live, alive energy. Finkelmeier and other artists are investigating possibilities—possibilities at the intersection of gaming, software development, sound and movement capture. It’s early days, and Finkelmeier and her collaborators are experimenting.
“I’ll just perform, and the walls will be illuminated,” she says. “This performance is just about sharing my work. Neighbors and friends will be there. We’re at a brewery, my studio is across the street. People are having a beer—tickets are pay what you can. And I’ll try to preserve the musical moments in a meaningful way.”
NFTs for this experience will be prepared ahead in rehearsal, and will be given away. “I’ve prerecorded this first NFT,” she says. “My goal is to do it live, and it will take a lot more work and funding to be able to develop the process to turn it around. It’s a real startup investment, and I’m new to the landscape.
“We’re offering this NFT free,” Finkelmeier says. “We’re helping people download a digital wallet. When I started to learn about blockchain, about preserving an interaction, a moment, I started to feel like NFTs are the ultimate merch for fans.
“I’m excited to be a human in a digital space. There have been NFT projects in the dance world, but not in classical music expression. Our motion is smaller, and nuanced. I’m interested in pushing forward, to find the value in digital art.”
Maria Finkelmeier’s MF Dynamics collaborates with Illuminus Boston and Departure Arts on April 20 at Roundhead Brewing Company in Hyde Park, presenting Finkelmeier in a 40-minute set featuring marimba, electronics and live motion-tracked visuals projected on the walls. Opening set with Denver Nuckolls.
Chamber Music Events, April 20-24: Skylark, BAE, BoCo galore, Kissin, BEMF
Skylark Vocal Ensemble tours with a new concert-length cantata from Nell Shaw Cohen, April 20 through 22, with performances sequentially in Falmouth, Chestnut Hill and Newburyport. Glissando Concert Series hosts pianist Vivian Choi Milton in works by Chopin, Lysenko, Liszt and Messaien April 21 at First Church in the Back Bay. Boston Artists Ensemble closes its season April 21 in Salem and April 23 in Brookline with two Schuberts: “Rosamunde” quartet, and the D. 956 cello quintet. Fermata Chamber Soloists visit First Parish Dorchester with Yip Wai Chow (violin) performing Richter and Vaughan Williams April 21. On the evening of the 21st the BoCo Wind Ensemble performs at Old South Church in Boston (Vaughan Williams, Lindberg, Stravinsky, McTee).
Worcester Chamber Music Society presents Takemitsu, Caplet, and Fauré, twice: April 21 in the Fitchburg Art Museum, and April 23 at Shapiro Hall in Worcester. Newport Classical presents Mesa-Yakushev duo performing Rachmaninov, N. Boulanger, Casarrubios and Day April 21 in Emmanuel Church.
Boston Early Music Festival hosts Ensemble Castor (Sherezade Panthaki, soprano; Rodolfo Richter, violin) presenting Vivaldi at First Church in Cambridge April 22. BEMF also hosts vocal artists Stile Antico, continuing the 400th-enary of William Byrd, April 28 at St. Paul’s Church near Harvard Square. Doric String Quartet comes to Jordan Hall April 22 thanks to the Celebrity Series, with Beethoven (95), Haydn (“The Frog”), and joins Benjamin Grosvenor for Bridge’s D minor piano quintet. April 22 at Studio 106 BoCoCelli premieres Salkind-Pearl’s cello octet.
The Gardner brings Maxwell String Quartet April 23 for Purcell, Haydn, and traditional Scottish tunes, and is also joined by pianist Awadagin Pratt for Eleanor Alberga’s “Clouds” quintet. Boston Chamber Music Society plays Eric Nathan (“Just a Moment” for duo oboes) and a couple Mozarts (including wind octet K. 388) April 23 at First Church Cambridge. Ina Zdorovetchi plays lots of harp settings (Grandjany, Françaix, Debussy, Ravel, Bas, Cohen, Hindemith) with guests April 23 on the Needham Concert Society series at Carter Memorial Methodist Church. The austere Evgeny Kissin comes to Symphony Hall April 23 for some Bach, Mozart, Debussy and Rachmaninov.
Music for Food benefits the Women’s Lunch Place and everyone in attendance with Brahms piano quintet (Alessio Bax), selected R. Schumann “Kerner-Lieder,” and the first Razumovsky (Parker Quartet) April 23 in Brown Hall at NEC. Additional MFF programs April 26 (Brookline Village) and April 29 (Carriage House Strings, near SH).
Mezzo Letitia Stevens sings Beethoven (“An die ferne geliebte”), Strauss Four Last Songs and Ciampa with pianist Bonnie Donham April 24 at the Scandinavian Living Center in Newton.
Chamber Music Events, April 26–30: Tines, Ensemble Faenza, Gardner, Cantus, Blue Heron
Impressive bass-baritone Davóne Tines makes a Celebrity Series debut April 26 at Pickman Hall (good luck with that ticket), in a program he curates called Recital No. 1: MASS. Promises music by Eastman, Shaw, Bonds, Sorey, others. Intrepid Palaver Strings tours again April 27 through 30: Putney, Brooklyn, Boston (BUR CitySpace) and Portland. Includes three works by Kinan Azmeh, others by Roustom and Adler.
The Irving Fine Tribute Concert in the Slosberg Music Center at Brandeis April 29 includes fascinating 20th c. compositions by N. Boulanger, Fine, Piston. Mezzo Catherine Hedberg sings some Boulanger songs, and instrumentalists include Leslie Amper and Steven Beck (piano), Mark Berger (viola), Julia Glenn (violin) and Joshua Gordon (cello). Blue Heron presents music connected to patron Isabella d’Este of Ferrara, Marchesa of Manua April 29 at First Church in Cambridge. Radius Ensemble plays music of Czernowin, Du Bois, Close and Brahms April 29 in Pickman Hall. Ensemble Faenza visits Granoff Music Center at Tufts for a free program, Sons et Soupirs: Music of Life and Death in Early Modern France, April 30. Le même ensemble joue encore à la Bibliothèque Française le 1 Mai, pour les membres de L’Alliance Française/French Library.
Music & Landscape is a collaboration between multiple curators (including George Steel) and musicians (Isabella Ensemble, Olmsted Quartet, conductor Julius Williams) April 30 on the Gardner Museum afternoon series, closing the concert season.
Lovable Cantus comes to Rockport Music April 30, with lots of popular arrangements (Arcade Fire, Joni, Lennon/McCartney) and contemporary settings (Lang, Larsen). Boston Recorder Orchestra plays music for guess what April 30 at University Lutheran Church on the Harvard campus. Clarinetist Jonathan Cohler and pianist Rasa Vitkauskaite play Latin works April 29 in Rehoboth on the Arts in the Village concert series.
Musicians of the Old Post Road presents music by composer/harpsichordist Christoph Graupner April 29 in the Worcester Historical Museum and April 30 in Old South Church in Boston. “Shared Spaces,” a program by Sheffield Chamber Players April 30 at the Multicultural Arts Center in Cambridge, tells stories of Japanese-American lives, and includes the world premiere of Kenji Bunch’s 5th string quartet. The busy Chameleon Arts Ensemble performs April 30 at the Goethe Institut: R. Schumann, Currier, Reinecke, Tulve and Bartok. The Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra wind section gets into Ligeti (“Sechs Bagatellen für Bläserquintett”) with Geopfart and Farrenc as well April 30 at the Allen Center in West Newton. Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra closes its season April 30 in Harwich Port with Mayflower music, featuring Mashpee Wampanoag artists and a new work by its composer-in-residence Cody Forrest.
Don’t miss Parker String Quartet playing Ligeti 2 on first Monday in May at Jordan Hall. Lots of other good things and players too.