Immerse yourself in the soundworld of a harp sextet, with the 2018 landmark piece of the Pittsburgh Festival of New Music, Surround (for six harps around the audience) by Pittsburgh composer Federico Garcia-De Castro. Performed by an ensemble featuring PSO principal harpist Gretchen Van Hoesen.

Surround was written through a Lift Grant commission from the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council to composer Federico Garcia-De Castro and harpist Natalie Severson, and premiered on the Pittsburgh Festival of New Music at the Pittsburgh Opera headquarters in 2018. The 30-minute piece employs familiar and innovative harp-playing techniques, and explore the spatial possibilities of surround sound, from all-encompassing textures to circular motion to spatial surprise.

With

Gretchen Van Hoesen (Pittsburgh Symphony)
Natalie Severson (Alia Musica, NAT28)
Nuiko Wadden (International Contemporary Ensemble, Pittsburgh Opera)
Alyssa Hensley (CMU)
Katelyn Croft (CMU)
Caroline Haines (CMU)

Federico Garcia-De Castro, conducting

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/571596916973957/

On the web: https://www.alphabetcity.org/events/surround-with-alia-musica/

The event will be live streamed online
The performance will be enhanced with live video projection, which will be available to watch through YouTube streaming.

This performance is part of a collaboration with the Western Pennsylvania School for the Blind Children, that includes workshops with the students in the creation and performance of spatial music, and is supported in part by Arlene Wolk and the Helen Jaffe Wolk Fund (Pittsburgh Foundation).