Imagine wandering through an orchestra as its musicians perform, stopping to watch the violininsts furiously bow through a passage of sixteenth notes, standing between the second and third flutes to listen for the harmonies underlying the broader orchestration, or literally walking through the trumpet players. Anywhere you go, you hear the music exactly as it is being created by the musicians in your immediate vicinity.
That type of experience is all part of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra's virtual reality production being presented this weekend by Princeton University Concerts. A Tempo host Rachel Katz explores the performance of Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream on this week's program. The show includes interviews with Mahler Chamber Orchestra violinist Timothy Summers and the orchestra's Artistic Partner for Immersive Experiences Henrik Oppermann, as well as Princeton University Concerts's Director Marna Seltzer, Communications and Events Coordinator Alexis Branagan and Outreach Manager Dasha Koltunyuk.
The program also includes excerpts from a conversation with U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Andrew Kosinski, a 2020 graduate of Mason Gross School of the Arts, who composed the hymn "Frigidus est Foras" used during the funeral proceedings for Former President Jimmy Carter.
