3 Questions with Ciyadh Wells
Nicholas Perry Clark, Density512 Artistic Director: What can the audience expect from Sunday’s show?
Ciyadh Wells, collective member and curator of Lachrymatory: The audience can expect to come to a space and hopefully be moved to think about what it means to cry — what it means to process human emotions in a really public but also private manner and hopefully feel some sort of relief or catharsis… through an electric guitar.
NPC: And remind us what Lachrymatory means?
CW: It has a lot of meanings, but it means to produce tears. I got introduced to lachrymatory because I was watching this show on Netflix where people were making these glass-blown tear collectors. I was really moved by two minutes of that episode that I didn’t finish watching…
NPC: Is there a piece that you’re most excited about and why?
CW: I’m really excited about Body, which is going to be a premiere. It was commissioned by the Margins Guitar Collective composed by Phong Tran. And I’m really excited because I haven’t done a lot of premieres (I’ve done a few) but I also haven’t done a lot of works that involve live projection. So I’m really excited to see how that turns out and what it’s like. I think it’ll be cool because it’s a piece that I can’t perform on my own. It requires someone else to do the projection part.
NPC: It’s like a duet but with one sonic element.
CW: Yeah.
NPC: Who is this show for? Who should come?
CW: I think this show is for everyone; anyone who’s interested in music, who’s interested in the way music affects and impacts the way that we go through our lives, the way that it affects are emotions and how we move about spaces and places. I think it’s also for someone who might be new to the electric guitar in a contemporary music setting. It’s not the most common of all the things to be included in chamber music. I think it’s for somebody who says “Oh that’s interesting. I love the guitar but I’ve never heard it in this context.
NPC: There’s a lot of sounds you can make with it!
CW: So many sounds!
