Fall 2021 Residency at Edgar Miller House
In the fall of 2021 I did a residency at the Glasner Studio in the Edgar Miller House in Chicago. The time that I spent in this amazing room practicing, and composing was a fantastic opportunity to continue my work -- including rehearsing new material with Tomeka Reid and Jason Roebke -- but also a great chance to contemplate the relationship between music and visual art, design, and architecture. From the organization's website:
Edgar Miller Legacy is a non-profit organization that works to preserve the art and "handmade homes" created by Edgar Miller. The goals of this organization are to preserve and promote Miller as an overlooked artistic genius, encourage study and research of his life and body of work, act as a resource for educational institutions and organizations, and to provide inspirational experiences within Miller-designed spaces. Edgar was a highly talented and driven artist, but what made his work stand out most of all was his ability to translate his ideas into nearly any and all mediums he put his hands upon: painting, sculpture, printmaking, woodcarving, iron working, stained glass and more.
Because of this, Edgar always found work, and stuck to a work ethic of never refusing any idea he found interesting, even if it didn't pay much, or at all. From the time he was a boy growing up in Idaho until his death after a long, fruitful life, Edgar worked tirelessly at his craft, finding ways nearly every day to create something unique and beautiful.
Residency at Gelbe Haus
During the month of March 2018, I have the exceptional opportunity to do a residency at the Gelbe Haus in Lucerne, Switzerland. The residency is sponsored by Sister Cities Lucerne-Chicago. I will work on new compositions and play some concerts.
The Yellow House is a "Künstlerhaus" in Lucerne, Switzerland. It provides residences and studios for artists of all different fields such as
Visual, Performing or Applied Arts. Built in 1925 on the periphery of Lucerne, the building has been a center of production and creation for a changing group of artists since 2005. The Yellow House pulsates as a network and important linchpin for art and culture in the region, and with its garden and splendid view, provides a nice place to gather and interact.
Round the creep of the wave line
A sound installation at Lincoln Park Conservatory, Chicago, created in collaboration with Boris Hauf. The composers considered the materials and elements in the Fern Room – soil, metal, glass, sunlight, humidity – in parallel to the materials and elements of the saxophones and clarinets they play – wood, metal, plastic and breath. Combining these with synthesized and sampled sounds, they developed a compositional process that allowed the piece to grow organically and unpredictably, much like the plants in the Fern Room. An attempt was made to bring the decisions (recording, editing, processing, assembling) forth by working together not through a traditional artistic collaborative effort or the type of teamwork espoused by workplace efficiency experts, but by following the trajectories of the creative and reductive impulses and organizing things with the least amount of 'intervention' possible, to imitate the process of the plants' growth. February 1st through May 31st, 2015. Curated by Lou Mallozzi at Experimental Sound Studio.
Interview for Point of Departure
Keefe Jackson email interview with Troy Collins, March 2014 issue of Point of Departure.