News Release

The Hopkins Symphony Orchestra takes a trip back to the future at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 9, opening its spring 2003 season with "Coming to Life," a multimedia performance marrying classical music with 21st- century digital visual artistry. The performance will be in Shriver Hall Auditorium on The Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus, 3400 N. Charles St. in Baltimore.

Music Director Jed Gaylin will lead the orchestra of Johns Hopkins students, staff and Baltimore-area residents in a performance that will be dramatically enhanced by real-time digital images created on laptop computers by the Johns Hopkins Digital Media Center, digital media performer Joseph Reinsel, and visual and animation artist James Gillispie, an award-winning student painter at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

The performance will open with the world premiere of Peabody Institute director Robert Sirota's "City of God: Prelude." Sirota's composition will be followed by Copland's "Appalachian Spring" and Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 "Eroica." While the orchestra plays, real-time digital graphics will be projected onto two large scrims. The goal is to synthesize the two art forms from different eras through the spontaneity of live performance.

"In film, the music highlights the action on screen, but in this performance, the roles are reversed," Gaylin says. "The visual element will now adjust to the spontaneity of the performance, and thus the imagery will support and comment upon the sonic landscape."

Portions of "Coming to Life," including the digital media collaboration will be performed for Hopkins Symphony Orchestra's children's concerts. The New Jersey-based Bay- Atlantic Symphony, also led by Gaylin, will also perform the sequence of educational and subscription concerts including the digital media collaboration.

The Johns Hopkins Digital Media Center is a studio where students can express their creativity and see the possibilities that are created when art and technology merge. The center's staff works with students to develop ideas for integrating electronic art and creativity into their academic and non-academic projects. Through workshops and one-on-one consultation, students learn to use the professional hardware and software tools available in the lab.

Joseph Reinsel is a composer working in electronics who teaches digital media classes and workshops at the Digital Media Center. His work has been performed in numerous places on the East Coast and he performs his own compositions around northeastern United States. Reinsel has master's degrees in music composition and music technology from Radford University and in electronic arts from iEAR Studios at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His studies evolved from his work in Los Angeles with film composers. Reinsel is completing a new video and sound performance environment constructed with help from the 2002 artist-in- residence program at Harvestworks Digital Media Center.

James Gillispie is a senior majoring in painting with a concentration in digital art at Maryland Institute College of Art. His father, Gary Gillispie, is a classical pianist based in Houston. Gillilspie has also been involved with other collaborative projects, including a permanent mural installation in the family division at the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse in Baltimore. Last year, he was involved in collaboration with Princeton University designing the set for the feature length film, "The Instrument."

Tickets for "Coming to Life" are $9 for the general public; $7 senior citizens, students and Johns Hopkins affiliates with valid ID; free for Johns Hopkins students with valid ID. Family discounts are also available. Call 410-516-6542, e-mail hso@jhu.edu, or visit www.jhu.edu/~jhso/ for tickets and more information. Financial support has been provided by the Dodge Foundation. The Hopkins Symphony Orchestra is also supported by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council.