I first met Miranda several years ago when she put on a program in Cambridge called “The Soul of the Night,” which interweaved readings from Chet Raymo’s book of essays, also called, “The Soul of the Night,” with projections from the Hubble Telescope and music for mezzo-soprano and baritone by Debussy, Schumann, Brahms and other composers. What a great idea, I thought. And a great program. The Boston Globe recently hailed her efforts as “the invention of a whole new genre.”
In fact, this was just after she founded Naturestage in 2006. NatureStage is a non-profit arts organization whose mission is to use the metaphorical and emotional power of the performing arts and film to explore our relationship with other species and inspire action to become global stewards.
For a project called “Reaching for the Light: Music and Images of Flowers, Plants and Spring,” former poet laureate Louise Gluck wrote a series of six poems that Loud set to music and premiered. In the “Buccaneers of Buzz: Celebrating the Honeybee,” music for voice, marimba and dance accompanied experimental video and a series of interviews with beekeepers from around the U.S. The latter won an award from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which called it “a work of innovation and excellence in the arts, humanities and interpretive sciences, and which fosters community engagement.”
One of her present projects is called Park Dreams which has her recording people in different city parks sharing their visions – how to improve education in your neighborhood, how to foster empathy for each other and for other species, the role of the arts in society. About it, she says, Everyone’s dream matters, you know.”
Tomorrow night (Thursday April 19), Miranda comes to BU to tell us about another of her engaging present works, The Elephant Project. In March of 2011, she traveled with a cinematographer to Thailand to document the plight of the endangered Asian elephant and highlight our many similarities with elephants. She uses the plight of elephants and our long history with them to explore our relationship with other species, the essence of human nature, and how we can be better global stewards.
Location: KCB 101 (565 Commonwealth Avenue)
Time: 6pm.
Open to the public and free for all.
We hope you can join us.
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