Spektral Quartet – Enigma: A 360° Video Experience
An enveloping sonic and visual journey created by acclaimed Icelandic com- poser Anna Thorvaldsdottír and video artist Sigurður Guðjónsson, Enigma takes place in the immersive night- sky environment of the Bell Museum's planetarium.
Saturday, November 5, 7:00PM
Bell Museum
Co-presented with The Walker Art Center and Bell Museum
This performance is now sold out. Please select another time for availability. There will be an in-person, night-of waitlist starting one hour before the performance at the venue.
Please note: Any night of ticket sales or on-site parking at the Bell Museum will be credit card only.
“Enigma sits on the border between concert music and installation art;
it marshals sounds in ways that have little to do with the conventional pathways of Western classical music.” —Washington Post
An enveloping sonic and visual journey created by acclaimed Icelandic com- poser Anna Thorvaldsdottír and video artist Sigurður Guðjónsson, Enigma takes place in the immersive night- sky environment of the Bell Museum’s planetarium. The mesmerizing ambient score conjures ancient imaginary landscapes, while mysterious images evoke otherworldly associations. Per- formed by Chicago’s Spektral Quar- tet, the piece teleports audiences to places sublime and unknown through a 360-degree constellation of sensory experiences. The program also includes Eliza Brown’s String Quartet #1, Tomás Luis de Victoria’s O Magnum Mysterium, and Claude Debussy’s String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10, No III. Andantino, doucement expressif.
ABOUT THE SPEKTRAL QUARTET
Multi-Grammy nominees, the Spektral Quartet actively pursues a vivid conversation between exhilarating works of the traditional repertoire and those written this decade, this year, or this week. Since its inception in 2010, Spektral is known for creating seamless connections across centuries, drawing in the listener with charismatic deliveries, interactive concert formats, an up-close atmosphere, and bold, inquisitive programming.
With a tour schedule including some of the country’s most notable concert venues such as the Kennedy Center, Miller Theater, Library of Congress, and NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts, the quartet also takes great pride in its home city of Chicago: championing the work of local composers, bridging social and aesthetic partitions, and cultivating its ongoing collaborations and residencies in the Chicago region. The 21/22 Season will see the launch ENIGMA: a hypnotic collision of music and film for full-dome planetarium theaters featuring an original score by Anna Thorvaldsdottir and new video art by Sigurdur Gudjonsson – all performed live by Spektral.
Named “Chicagoans of the Year” by the Chicago Tribune in 2017, Spektral Quartet is most highly regarded for its creative and stylistic versatility: presenting seasons in which, for instance, a thematic program circling Beethoven seamlessly coexists with an improvised sonic meditation at sunrise, a talent show featuring Spektral fans, and the co-release of a jazz album traversing the folk traditions of Puerto Rico.
