FLOODESIGN

CB: I asked, "If you could commission anyone to write for you, who would it be?" DS: Cathie mentioned Gavin Bryars. That seemed like a pie-in-the-sky, dream idea to us. Gavin is a legendary composer; we've always wanted to work with him and never thought that would be possible. But Cathie has worked with him and knows him well. CB: He seemed the obvious choice. He's an extraordinary composer who can write in so many styles and does so brilliantly for percussionists. DS: So we reached out, and luckily Gavin was available and interested. Peak Performances and University of Notre Dame's DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, where we are ensemble-in-residence, commissioned the piece for us. PP: What is a "staged concert"? CB: My passion is visualizing music, enhancing the concert experience through visuals. For "See You Later," each piece is approached differently. For Apple Blossom, we will do a little bit of lighting and a little bit of video; very small and subtle to begin. Then Haunt will have a lot of lighting effects. The music and titles are so strong that I didn't want to add dance or film to it, and TCP will memorize the entire second half of the score, so I am free to work with them more physically. For Gavin's piece, The Other Side of the River, video designer Laura Colmenares Guerra has made a beautiful film. PP: How does Apple Blossom set the stage for Haunt of Last Nightfall? DS: Apple Blossom is a very beautiful, simple piece. It's Massacre of Hundreds Reported in Salvador Village The [surviving] villagers have compiled a list of the names, ages, and villages of 733 peasants, mostly children, women and old people, who they say were murdered by the Government soldiers. The Human Rights Commission of El Salvador, which works with the Roman Catholic Church, puts the number at 926. —RAYMOND BONNER, Special to The New York Times | Jan. 27, 1982 26 www.peakperfs.org El Mozote Massacre in the News Abroad at Home; The Whole Truth Over the years politicians and journalists have differed bitterly about what happened [in Mozote]—who did the killing, indeed whether there was a massacre at all. The argument is over now. After the Danner report (The Truth of El Mozote by Mark Danner, published in The New Yorker, December 6, 1993), no rational person can doubt that Salvadoran Government forces carried out a massacre. They killed hundreds of people in El Mozote and other hamlets nearby: men, women, children, infants. They killed with a savagery that is hard even to read about. —ANTHONY LEWIS, The New York Times | December 6, 1993 " Cathie mentioned Gavin Bryars. That seemed like a pie-in-the-sky, dream idea to us. " Testimony Given to the Senate Foreign Affairs Subcommittee There is no evidence to confirm that [Salvadoran] Government forces systematically massacred civilians ... or that the number of civilians killed even remotely approached the 733 or 926 victims cited in the press. —THOMAS ENDERS, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs | January 28, 1982 David T. Little's Haunt of Last Nightfall was inspired by the 1981 El Mozote Massacre in El Salvador.

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