January 14, 2007 ·

Trimpin at Tacoma Art Museum Today

Celebrate the close of Trimpin’s Conloninpurple exhibition with a performance that pushes music beyond the limits!

Sunday, January 14, 2007
3:30 pm

Rec’d from TAM:

In a fitting conclusion to the two-year series of exhibitions honoring the remarkable career of Northwest artist Trimpin, Tacoma Art Museum has partnered with Sonority Music Productions to present a selection from Conlon Nancarrow’s Studies for Player Piano. Trimpin will play selections from Nancarrow’s Studies for Player Piano using a laptop-controlled box filled with eighty-eight piston-driven mallets placed over the keyboard of a baby grand piano. It was Nancarrow’s use of mechanical instruments to play music human beings would be incapable of performing that inspired Trimpin to create Conloninpurple.

Conloninpurple pays homage to composer Conlon Nancarrow (1912-1997) whose musical compositions are often too complex for humans to perform. Instead he composed for player pianos and other musical machines.

Trimpin converts an upright piano into a modern-day player-piano to perform Nancarrow’s Studies for Player Piano. See a rare 1989 interview with Nancarrow. Hear independent curator Beth Sellars present a brief overview of the two-year survey of exhibitions throughout the Northwest honoring Trimpin.  A reception with Trimpin will follow.

Cost is $5 for members; $10 for non-members.

Link to Tacoma Art Museum

Filed under: Museums, Tacoma Art Museum

2 comments

  • michael buchanan December 2, 2008

    Whitney,
    Thanks for the great stocking stuffing ideas. They were and still are big in my family even tho the children are now adults at least most of the time!)Keep the ideas coming. I hope all is well. I miss seeing everyone at Bocce. My son, Matt, has moved to Tacoma so we are one person closer to beating out Spokane as “second city”. You young people need to get busy and procreate! I am finished.

  • Christine December 2, 2008

    Proud to have purchased only Tacoma for holiday gifts for the past 5 years or so.