About this project

Redefining the boundaries of chamber music, creating new work, seizing the opportunity to explore new collaborative relationships, – from its inception in 1990, Ensemble Galilei has consistently pushed the envelope.

With their new project, First Person: Seeing America, the group continues its exploration of images, words, and music. This time Ensemble Galilei is looking home. Through the eyes of some of America’s finest photographers, and using the poetry and prose of some of America’s greatest writers, the group marries the images, words, and music together in a way that is unexpected and profound.

The photography collection The Metropolitan Museum of Art, with its great strength and depth in American works, is perfectly suited for First Person: Seeing America. The photographs of Evans, Curtis, Stieglitz, and Eakins, among many others, fit beautifully with the writings of Jim Harrison, Dexter Filkins, Frederick Douglass, award winning poet Lucille Clifton, James Agee and others. The soundtrack is the music of Ensemble Galilei – from the Renaissance to traditional music from Scotland and Ireland, and new compositions featuring fiddles, harp, viola da gamba, percussion, whistles and oboe.

Transcendent and soulful, the music and the text wind around each other as the high-resolution images are projected on a large screen in the center of the stage. NPR’s Neal Conan and actress Lily Knight, partners again in their second touring project with Ensemble Galilei, brilliantly bring characters to life.

The Iraq War, the Great Depression, the Native American experience all shaped our country. Today we listen to the echoing voices. Throughout our history there has been hardship and despair, and yet, there remains a gritty determination to overcome and survive. This is what these great photographers saw – First Person: Seeing America

This show will premiere at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Saturday, October 16, 2010 and the money that we raise here will fund the creation of this work.

For more information about Ensemble Galilei go to www.EGmusic.com