Samantha DiRosa

Single-channel video, live score

Another live music performance commission, If I’m Lost–Now is also an extension of my larger body of work titled "Mapping Meg Ryan," which reveals and comments on the formulas behind Ryan's romantic film comedies. This video in particular focuses on "in between" and unresolved moments: bodies are fragmented and the fluidity of shots are interrupted to counter happily-ever-after formulas and idealized notions of love. Here, a state of tension is created, to speak more to ambiguity, longing, loss, and conflict.  The video accompanies and reacts to the text of Emily Dickinson's poem "If I'm Lost–Now", which composer Wei Dai incorporates into her musical composition of the same name. Performances by saxophonists Steven Stusek and Xin Gao.  View the full video here: https://vimeo.com/91961386

Boxset DVD including 6 films; the trailer can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/122243000

SAXOPHONES
Laurent ESTOPPEY & Steven STUSEK

VIDEO
Vincent CAPES, Chris CASSIDY, Samantha DiROSA, Jonathan WALL

COMPOSITIONS
Wei DAI, Philipp GLASS, Maurizio GUERANDI, Andrew WEATHERS, Nicholas RICH

Reinventing the saxophone recital, STACKS concerts are a seamless stream of saxophones, electronics and video. Based in Greensboro, North Carolina, STACKS has been presenting concerts in the US since 2011. Our repertoire consists primarily of pieces dedicated to the duo. In addition, we collaborate with video artists who create films from and for our compositions, student composers, as well as performance and improvisatory workshops for young artists. Our concerts are typically presented without interruption and bring spectators on a visual and auditory journey. STACKS is also part of COLLective for hAPpy SoundS (COLLAPSS), a collective of musicians, composers, dancers, and visual artists based in Greensboro, North Carolina.
 

YOU MAY BURY ME IN THE EAST
Film - Vincent CAPES / Composition - Andrew WEATHERS
2014 - Couleurs - Stéréo - 8:05

PIECE IN A SHAPE OF A SQUARE
Film - Chris CASSIDY / Composition - Philip GLASS
2014 - Couleurs - Stéréo - 11:48

ZAP NO ZAP
Film - Chris CASSIDY / Composition - Laurent ESTOPPEY
2014 - Couleurs - Stéréo - 4:23

RICOCHET
Film - Samantha DiROSA / Composition - Maurizio GUERANDI
2014 - Couleurs - Stéréo - 7:40

IF I'M LOST-NOW
Film - Samantha DiROSA / Composition - Wei DAI
2014 - Noir & Blanc - Stéréo - 5:46

ON REPEATS
Film - John WALL / Composition - Nicholas RICH
2014 - Couleurs - Stéréo - 7:36

Single-channel video, live score

The most recent of live music performance commissions, Outlau similarly utilizes appropriated footage, this time from the endings of Meg Ryan romantic comedies.  “The End” and “And They Lived Happily Ever After” is abstracted and repeated, responding to the repetition of the composition, and again, illuminating the formulaic messages encoded within the films. Composed by Maurizio Guerandi. Performance by Laurent Estoppey.  View the full video here

Single-channel video, electronic score

Realized in 2007 by myself and composer Ryan Hare, the piece Notturno, "night music" in the Bartókian sense of the word, is 5'30" and in two movements.

The video consists of footage captured from the Costa Rican rain forest and the Museum of Natural History in New York, purposely recorded at a slow frame rate with a low resolution digital still camera. Akin to my earlier work, issues surrounding the technological mediation of nature and experience manifest in this collage of pixelated moving images. 

From Ryan Hare: "The sound sources include a recalcitrant steam radiator... which used to awaken me daily in the brutally early hours of the morning. After cursing the primitive technology, I tried to adopt a more constructive attitude and hear the radiator noises as composition."

View the full video here.