Julia Holter Instagram – late to post but i had been wanting to thank everyone involved in this live score for Joan of Arc with @operanorth, bc it was really a combined effort of so many people.
in 2017, i was kindly invited by Felix Salazar at Unsilent Cinema to do a live score to Dreyer’s Passion of Joan of Arc. i asked some of my favorite musicians to work with—@dynamacabre, @coreyvogeln, @devil_hoof, @tashiwada—to perform it with me in downtown LA. so grateful that Jo Nockels heard about this and thought to commission a new live score for Joan of Arc written for the Chorus of @operanorth. she stayed with the idea for 2 years through the pandemic, and i’m lucky she trusted me, with my lack of experience working with a chorus. I was guided along the way by Chorus Master Oliver Rundell, and he had it set so that by the time we arrived in the UK, Opera North already knew the music. i cried when i heard their voices for the first time it was so beautiful lol.
for working with chorus, i thought to add a blend of breath and voice –voice through trumpet, breath through bagpipe, voice through contact mic. To have musicians @sarahbellereid, @coreyvogeln, and @tashiwada on this project was really special–they bring the magic.
much gratitude to @benjaminwoodgates for his focused help with arrangement for this chorus to set to picture, along with @ashilmistry, who, with Ben, beautified my ugly score very quickly and smoothed things out with copyediting as needed for the standards of Opera North. balancing time code with notation and timing it all out was a big undertaking for me–it was my first time doing hours of basic arithmetic to make a score lol
somehow conductor @hughbrunt was able to coordinate this all together in the most beautiful way, and working him was so wonderful. he made it seem easy bc he is really good at what he does, but i am sure it was not haha
Thank you to Jamie Saye for his wonderful job with the sound, and for John Haynes who thankfully carefully recorded both concerts
Thankful as well for Kathryn Gasic for coordinating everything, and to Dominic Gray as well for all of his support | Posted on 31/Dec/2022 01:43:44
