FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Issued:  07/20/07            

CONTACT:  Linda Nelson, Director
lnelson@operahousearts.org 
367-2788 

ARTISTS AND SCIENTISTS JOIN TO DISCUSS ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
Ear to the Earth comes to Deer Isle

STONINGTON – Opera House Arts at the Stonington Opera House is proud to collaborate with the internationally-renowned Electronic Music Foundation to bring together scientists and musicians in a discussion of and concert on the environmental issues and concerns of our area. Ear to the Earth: Stonington Friday, July 27 at 7 p.m. will be facilitated by Joel Chadabe, president of the Electronic Music Foundation; and will feature local scientists from Penobscot East Resource Enter, the Maine Environmental Resource Institute, and Island Heritage Trust along with sound and music composition artists. The aim of the event is to engage people in environmental issues through sound. The discussion and concert open the 7th Annual Deer Isle Jazz Festival, which continues Saturday, July 28 with a concert of Latin jazz by pianist Arturo O’Farrill & Trio.

Fishermen and scientists have identified whale regulations, global warming, and rebuilding our fisheries as the most critical environmental issues facing our Down East communities. How can we work together, using the art of music and sound composition, to positively impact the most pressing environmental issues?

Following the discussion, Chadabe will present a concert of compositions based on environmental sounds from around the world: Bosavi rain forests; life along the Danube River; the North Pole; the Amazon River; the sounds of extinct and endangered species. Ear to the Earth was first convened in New York City as a week-long festival in October 2006. Chadabe will be joined in a live concert of environmental sound compositions by artists Aviva Rahmani of Vinalhaven and New York City; Nate Aldrich of Brooks, ME; and Zach Poff of New York City.

“I often have occasion to say that one can become engaged in the world through sound at three different levels: You can listen to the sounds around you, most of which convey normal, quotidian information. You can listen to the works of sound artists, which convey exceptional and illuminating information. And you can create sound art yourself, which causes you to focus your attention and search for what is exceptional and illuminating,” said Chadabe after the initial festival. "Ultimately, it's about listening and understanding the meaning of what you hear. When art becomes a vehicle for exploration and research, listening becomes a powerful act. It becomes all the more powerful when it transforms awareness into consciousness and action.”

Opera House Arts intends to use Ear to the Earth to expand its Stonington SoundScape project, the collecting and recording local sounds commissioned in 2004 from artists Nate Aldrich and Zach Poff, to the commissioning of complete compositions based on the sounds of our Down East communities and natural world.

Festival special offer: buy a Saturday night ticket to Arturo O'Farrill & Trio, and get into Ear to the Earth for $6--the same price as a movie at the Opera House. Single tickets are $10. For reservations and further information, please call 367-2788 or go to www.operahousearts.org.

The 1912 Stonington Opera House, on the National Register of Historic Places, is open year round. Opera House Arts (OHA), a 501 C 3 community nonprofit organization, produces original, live performance events and films that celebrate and extend Maine’s cultural legacy; and that integrate professional performers with community members.

Opera House Arts’ mission is to use the performing arts to foster and promote excellence in all the ways we perform our lives: Incite Art, Create Community.