Orchestra of Original Instruments (O of OI) - Bang on a Can 2016 Summer Marathon (Memory)

Today’s Bang on a Can Summer Marathon 2016 memories (straight from canland.org) focuses on a collective, storytelling improvisation lead by Mark Stewart in his annual performance of the Orchestra of Original Instruments (O of OI).

Composer Notes:
So this group isn’t made up of recurring members, nor is the repertoire predetermined. Every year, multi-instrumentalist Mark Stewart (Bang on a Can All Stars, Paul Simon, many other artists/organizations) does a workshop on DIY instrument making. This usually involves stuff you can buy at a hardware store or instruments that can be versatile without having to put together a lot of pieces. Then, as a part of the workshop, he curates a scenario that they all play a part in as performers, both on instruments and as characters in a story. So this is less of a written catalog of music and more of an expression of improvisation within a storytelling framework, and the results are a lot of fun! Our scenario was being a heard of different animals!

Preparation:
Nobody expected this was going to happen unless this was their second time attending the Bang on a Can summer marathon. I thought the workshop was just a fun exercise in thinking outside the box as performers and educators, but it also included a full performance during the marathon! We learned how to craft things with PVC pipe and balloons, practiced the various sounds we could make with these instruments, and worked out ideas of what to do with these sounds in the performance.

Rehearsal:
Since nothing was written down, rehearsals involved planning what we would do on stage. It was a super cathartic exercise, because it was the part of the marathon we had the most control over and the least amount of stress putting together. It was the humanizing process to take these musicians from all over the world, many who were very successful young artists, and reduce them to a childlike state of discovery and delight in the weird and wonderful aspects of spontaneous music-making. We only had the DIY instruments, our bodies, and our voices to assist us. So while we had a general framework of the story we were going to tell, it was up to us as individuals to contribute our own interpretations.

Performance:
This was too much fun! Getting to make animal sounds with the instruments, having various parts of the story dictating which textures we were going to use to great effect with so many participants involved, and injecting a moment of levity for us as performers were all wonderful things. This was the true moment where we were unified in our Bang on a Can cause: coming together to do something weird and wonderful, putting resumes and career awards aside to just enjoy the sounds we could make at our core. Yes, many of us hit the bar on a nightly basis to celebrate another day of work and music-making, and there were very little times where folks felt excluded (we had a great group of participants), but to have this moment captured to reflect on all of the joyous moments of being a performer at the Bang on a Can summer marathon was truly special. It reminds me that I should definitely look for the joy in music making, because it can be a lot of work and draining. So cheers to all of the animals involved, and cheers to Mark Stewart for being so versatile, weird, and wonderful!

Check out the piece below or on canland.org here - https://canland.org/mark-stewarts-orchestra-of-original-instruments/