Music for Skyspace

Austin is one of a select few cities with a Skyspace. A Skyspace, for the uninitiated, is a naked-eye observatory where visitors view the sky through an opening in the ceiling called an oculus. Since the 1970’s artist James Turrell has been creating environments to observe light and space all around the world — including a large scale work inside a dormant volcano in Arizona. Austin’s Skyspace, “The Color Inside,” was commissioned in 2013 by Landmarks, the public art program of The University of Texas at Austin. This April, NMC composers Brent Fariss, Andrew Stoltz, and Travis Weller will present three site-specific pieces for violin trio inspired by the experience of a sunset in the Skyspace and Turrell’s accompanying light sequence. In a three night run, audiences will experience the composers’ live chamber score during the transition from daylight to darkness inside Turrell’s captivating artwork.