An Interview with Make Music New York’s Executive Director, James Burke
MMNY: Hi John! We're excited to be working with you again to present another new work for the far northern Manhattan community. Before we get into Cloudsplitter, maybe you can speak to your interest in staging works in the neighborhood.
Hello James! Very excited to be working again with MMNY, and to better things to come. I’ve been living in Northern Manhattan (Upstate Manhattan as we lovingly call it) for almost 7 years now. The landscape here, the people, all these things have informed my work broadly and certain projects in particular. Cloudsplitter will be the third performance that I have staged in the Inwood / Washington Heights area. There are many fantastic groups and organizations up here, and I hope that my work can bring another perspective, one that is complementary but also somewhat new.
MMNY: Cloudspillter is informed by American history, both in its theme and its title. Tell us about how the work came to mind and came together.
The idea for Cloudsplitter was born out of a confluence of events for me: the Black Lives Matter protests that happened after George Floyd’s death about this time last year and my own travels last summer in which I crossed paths with remnants of the legacy of the militant abolitionist John Brown. John Brown has a strong connection to New York State via his farmstead near Lake Placid, and his personal history had the effect on me to connect that story with the ever present struggle of our country’s racial history, but in a musical and performative setting. The title is taken from a novel by Russell Banks about John Brown, and it is very apt for a performance that is based on brass instrumentation.
MMNY: How would you compare the piece to other works of yours?
My recent projects, especially the others that I have created for performance in Northern Manhattan, have used the human voice as the main way of conveying information; this is the way we as humans communicate. Cloudsplitter though is solely instrumental, with just brass and no vocals. Through the musical materials (hymns, reconfigured marching songs), the different sections of the work, and through the movements of the players and the visuals, I am hoping to still be able to display the ideas and themes.
MMNY: What can spectators expect to see and hear?
One of the things I want to showcase to an audience is hearing brass instruments sound in public space, in this case Isham Park, near Inwood Hill Park. But not in a concert setting per se, as the performers will be moving throughout the park, forming different groups, and changing the aural and visual landscape. The audience can situate themselves how the want in the park (though there will be a central location where the performers end) but they can move around just as the performers do. Visually, the performers will be wearing a kind of costume that will provide another layer of meaning and context for the whole work. I also hope that the park setting, the time of day (near sundown, the performance starts at 7:30pm) will contribute to the performance being a fun and safe event for everyone.