- Jan. 21, 2018, 2:30 pm US/Central
- Fermilab Ramsey Auditorium
- Jim Jenkins
- Wendy Evans (Violin), Larry Glazier (Cello)
- Elizandro Garcia-Montoya (Clarinet), Rick Ferguson (Piano)
- Tickets: $45 for series of 3; $18 for single concert
- Purchase tickets »
SPECIAL NOTE: Despite being a Gallery Chamber Series concert, this event will take place in Ramsey Auditorium due to technical requirements.
Join us for “Dark Matters”, a very special collaboration between Jim Jenkins, the Fermilab Artist-in-Residence and the Gallery Chamber Series to kick off the 2018 season as a Musical Celebration of Science. Jim Jenkins was inspired by Fermilab’s E760 detector, and will create a multi-media installation set to the music of Olivier Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time” performed by Wendy Evans, violin; Rick Ferguson, piano; Elizando Garcia-Montoya, clarinet; and Larry Glazier, cello. Dr. John Peoples, Fermilab Director from 1989 – 1999 will present a brief explanation of the science that served as the inspiration for this piece.
Inspired by the E760 detector, the experiment was conducted in complete darkness and utilized a series of lead crystal blocks. Jim’s installation includes one of these crystals incorporated into his piece “Angel of the Apocolypse” as well as other pieces representing absolute darkness.
Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time has a fascinating history. Born in Paris in 1908, Messiaen entered the Paris Conservatoire at age 11. Drafted into the Army, he was taken as a prisoner of war in 1940 and encamped at Gorlitz. He wrote the Quartet while in the camp for the instruments at hand among the other inmates, and the first performance took place for a large audience of inmates and German officers. This eight-movement work is based on Biblical passages from Revelations, with the first serving as the Angel of the Apocolypse.
Says Jim, “I believe the strong metaphoric thread that stitches these dissimilar and disparate materials together is “Light”. My understanding of the way in which the E760 detector operated was in absolute darkness. The “light” was the charm and anti-charm quarks. What Messiaen was able to manifest with his “Quartet” and the performance of it in German POW Camp, Germany was to bring the “light” of the music into the absolute darkness of the prison camp.”
