Featured Member: Nicholas DeMaison
Name: Nicholas DeMaison
Websites: www.myspace.com/operacabal, www.southhadleychorale.org
Hometown: Rochester, NY; now resides in New York City
Artistic Disciplines: music composition, conducting
Fractured Atlas Member Since: June 2007
Fractured Atlas Services Used: Development Grant, Fiscal Sponsorship, Event Liability Insurance, Calendar of Events
Both a composer and conductor, Nicholas DeMaison is the founding music director of Opera Cabal, a fledgling experimental opera company bent on the creation and production of new music, new opera and new theater; and the director of the South Hadley Chorale, a 90-voice symphonic choir in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Recently, he took the time to answer a few of our questions…
Who/what are your biggest influences?
As a composer, the usual suspects, from Perotin to Feldman, Manoury, Scelsi, and Lucier; as a conductor, Boulez, Carl St.Clair, Gustav Meier, and Lucas Vis; as the builder of artistic communities, organizations like the The Walden School, The La Jolla Symphony and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE).
What has been your greatest success to date?
It seems that “successes” for me always come in unlikely places and forms.
When the South Hadley Chorale decided to hire me, I was pretty stoked despite the fact that I would be making a 150-mile commute every week from NYC up to central Massachusetts.
And Opera Cabal’s biggest success so far was also, strangely, its biggest disaster.
We typically make use of non-standard performance spaces: private homes, art galleries, old warehouses…whatever. About a year ago, we organized and booked our second 4-day festival of new opera/music/theater (Delusions : 2007) at the Zhou B. Art Center in Chicago’s Industrial Bridgeport neighborhood. Artists and musicians were coming from New York, San Diego, Madison, and Buffalo to perform/display their work. During the performances on the second night, the commissioner of the Chicago Police came to the gallery and shut down the festival, citing the gallery’s lack of a Public Presenter’s License. Turns out, the gallery had run into this problem before…
(Editor’s note: Read more about the gallery’s closure here.)
We left that night completely defeated, feeling that nearly seven months of planning, preparation etc. had just evaporated. On Saturday morning, some friends who had heard about our disaster offered to let us use a large performance space in their home. We scrambled for the next 9 hours, moved our entire setup (sets, lights, sound equipment…everything) across town to Hyde Park, and at 7pm, Phyllis Chen’s Toy Piano Roadshow, the Nonsense Company, and Opera Cabal played to a modest, but very devoted crowd of 25. It was the most powerfully intimate and magical performance I have ever experienced, and it drastically changed the way we think about our work.
How did you hear about Fractured Atlas and what motivated you to become a member?
I heard about Fractured Atlas from Nathan Davis, a NY-based percussionist, and even though at the time I had no idea how I might use the varied services offered, it seemed more than likely that at some point in the future I would.
How do you use your Fractured Atlas membership?
Event advertising, event insurance, and a professional development grant. Opera Cabal has applied for fiscal sponsorship, as well. As soon as I am no longer an “underemployed” musician, I plan to look into the health insurance packages.
How would you finish this sentence: “The artist’s role in society is…”
“…to demonstrate an alternative.”
How can we read more about and experience your organizations’ work?
We haven’t officially started advertising any of these events, but Opera Cabal has two upcoming shows this season:
- My own “Ursularia,” and new pieces by Rick Burkhardt, presented in collaboration with The Nonsense Company; at Chicago’s AVaerie, Dec. 11-13, 2008
- Sciarrino’s “Lohengrin,” in collaboration with The Nonsense Company and UC San Diego; at UCSD’s brand spanking new Prebys Music Center in La Jolla, CA; May 16/17, 2009
And the South Hadley Chorale performs Bruckner’s Mass no. 2 in E Minor on March 15, 2009, in Mount Holyoke’s Abbey Chapel; South Hadley, MA.
To read more about our/my work, you can check out our reviews in Time Out Chicago, and the blogs Telecommuniculturey and Deceptively Simple.
Images:
Top: Nicholas DeMaison
Middle: Ryland Barton, Jonathon Eliot, and Griffin Sharps performing Eliot’s “Lamia.” Opera Cabal’s Collusions : 2007 Festival, April 2007, Zhou B. Art Center, Chicago.
Bottom: Majel Connery (Artistic Director, Opera Cabal) as St.Ursula, in Nicholas DeMaison’s opera “Ursularia.” Opera Cabal’s Collusions : 2007 Festival, April 2007, Zhou B. Art Center, Chicago.
