Concert Review: We Lost the Skyline

Arvo Pärt's 80th Birthday: Sept. 11, 2015.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

(My apologies to you the reader for the relative lateness of this post. It proved very difficult to write. Normal service will resume shortly.)

The Temple of Dendur in the Sackler Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Photo © 2015 The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

When you live in New York City, (and when you're from here like I am) September 11th is an inevitability. The permanently altered skyline, the terror brought by a bright, blue sky in late summer, the yearly beams of light shot above the city, the reading of the names of the victims of the terrorist attack: all can be overwhelming for those of us who've lived here all our lives and who survived the events of that lonesome day.

Concert Review: The Place Where Time Stops

Johánn Johánnson's Drone Mass at the Temple of Dendur.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Brad Wells (center left) conducts the members of Roomful of Teeth (right) and the
American Contemporary Music Ensemble in Drone Mass at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 
Composer Johánn Johánnson is at the extreme left. Photo by Mark Shelby Perry

The Temple of Dendur was built in 15 B.C. in Egypt. Since 1978, it has stood in New York City. A gift from the Egyptian government, the Temple occupies the Sackler Wing at the north end of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Temple and its Gate are housed in an enormous glass-and-stone space, surrounded by a reflecting pool, Egyptian artworks and watchful museum guards. On Tuesday night, the Temple was the setting for the world premiere of Drone Mass, a new work by the Icelandic composer Johánn Johánnson commissioned by the American Contemporary Music Ensemble for its tenth anniversary.