Dreams, and why not?

The border between a lecture and a performance is anything but rigid. Dreams, and why not? consciously and continuously breaks the frontier between reality and fiction, between facts and fabrications, both musical and performative. Starting from a simple presentation of musical instruments and their possibilities, the program drifts towards a world where songs last one second, the instruments and the body merge, and the lecturer loses control over the lecture.
The final destination is the state of a lucid dream, where reality and fiction combine, and where the borders between music, text, meaning, sound, and image dissolve.
Reserve your ticket here

Photo: private

François Sarhan (b.1972) is a French composer and director whose works have been presented at international festivals, including Musica (Strasbourg), Donaueschingen, Ars Musica (Brussels), Maerzmusik (Berlin), and Borealis (Bergen).
Sarhan is noted for creating his own music-theatre and multimedia works in which he himself often performs.

Photo: private

Jennifer Torrence is an Oslo-based percussionist, performer, artistic researcher, curator, and teacher specializing in contemporary music. She has performed in diverse settings in twenty-five countries across four continents and is currently a member of Pinquins and a percussion teacher at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Jennifer’s current season includes collaborations with composers such as Øyvind Torvund, Viola Yip, and Simon Løffler among others, and appearances at Ultima Festival, Borealis Festival, Nordic Music Days, Time of Music, Wien Modern, and others.

Chicago-based percussionist Adam Rosenblatt frequently works in an interdisciplinary context.
Adam has performed at such festivals as Donaueschingen, Borealis (Bergen), Musica (Strasbourg), Maerzmusik (Berlin), and Bang on a Can’s LOUD Weekend (Massachusetts). He has performed extensively with the Brussels-based Ictus Ensemble, as well as the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Baltimore-based experimental electronic duo Matmos and indie rock group Horse Lords. Adam is Artistic Co-Director of the Chicago-based ensemble beyond this point.

Percussionist John Corkill is a founding member and Artistic Co-Director of beyond this point, and currently serves as the percussionist for the University of Chicago’s Grossman Ensemble.
In similar capacities, he has collaborated with Third Coast Percussion, Eighth Blackbird, and Ensemble Dal Niente. He has also appeared on the Chicago Symphony’s MusicNOW Series as well as the Chamber Music Northwest, and Yellow Barn Festivals and has collaborated with composers Krzysztof Penderecki, David Lang, Augusta Read Thomas, and Christopher Cerrone, among others.

(c) Nick Zoulek

beyond this point is a percussion-based collaborative ensemble that aims to engage diverse audiences through intersections across artistic mediums, presenting programs that synthesize musical performance with theater, movement, media/film, sculpture, social justice, and environmentalism among others.
Using everything from amplified matchsticks, to rice-spilling pendulums, to reclaimed pieces of wood triggering 5000 LEDs, beyond this point has a drive to create a truly interdisciplinary performance practice, believing that a mix of media and art forms can speak more directly and powerfully to our current context.

Public lectures by François Sarhan:
Tuesday, Nov 1, 5pm-6:30pm:
Northwestern Composition Colloquium
Ryan Center for the Musical Arts
Room 1-121
70 Arts Circle Drive Evanston, IL 60208

Tuesday, Nov 8, 5pm-6:30pm
University of Chicago Composition Seminar
Logan Center for the Arts
Penthouse
915 E 60th St, Chicago, IL 60637