jeff zahos

Contact Improvisation And Ballroom Dancing Come Together!

Jeff — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 03:00:18 +0000

On Sunday April 10th 2011, I was honored to be asked by Kirstie Simson to participate as a musician in a performance that included contact improvisation and ballroom dancing in the atrium of the beautiful new Business Instructional Facility on the campus of the University of Illinois.

The dancers included two fantastic ballroom dancers Alex Tecza and Katja Lindholm, and improvisational dancers Tim O’Donnell and Kirstie Simson. They presented work along with musicians Dorothy Martirano (violin), Armand Beaudoin (cello) and Andy Miller (percussion). Along with me, Erik Lund, Liliana Carrizo, Ming-Ching Chiu and Drew Whiting, all founding members of Colab were invited to participate.

This was a particularly memorable experience because the Trisha Brown Dance Company (one of my favorite choreographers/companies) was touring at the Krannert Center. Company dancers Dai Jian, Elena Demyanenko, Leah Morrison and Laurel Tentindo joined the performance and we became quick friends during their visit at Illinois!

Enjoy the video by Bogdan Heretoiu below:

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On-line Web concert with Sal-Mar Construction

Jeff — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:00:14 +0000

On Sunday, December 11th, 2011, I participated in an improvised online concert which featured the Sal-Mar Construction, an instrument created by composer Salvatore Martirano. The concert was the closing event for the Center for American Music’s series celebrating American Music Month (which is actually November):

A Century of Stories and Sounds from the Stage: Music, Dance and Theatre in America 1880-1980 - Concerts, Lectures, Master Classes, and Exhibitions

Archived video of the performance can be seen here

Baseball Music Project

Jeff — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 20:33:50 +0000

On Friday November 12th, 2010, I had the pleasure of recording The Baseball Music Project, a musical/theatrical presentation of the music of baseball, narrated by Baseball Hall of Famer Dave Winfield. It featured the Champaign-Urbana Symphony conducted by Bob Thompson and took place in the Foellenger Great Hall at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

I approached the production like a soundtrack recording, with close miking on instruments or area miking on sections. Have a listen:

Orchestral Recording

Jeff — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 08:28:03 +0000

I have the opportunity to record each performance of the Champaign Urbana Symphony and Sinfonia da Camera, a chamber symphony orchestra led by Music Director/Conductor and world-reknown pianist Ian Hobson. Both orchestras call the extremely desirable acoustics of the Foellinger Great Hall at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts home.

Sinfonia da Camera, here under the direction of Fred Stoltzfus

Foellinger Great Hall Recording Control Room

Midas console

Recording a Sinfonia da Camera concert

Protected: I-Pan Recordings

Jeff — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 21:29:45 +0000

Protected: Ian Hobson Chopin Project

Jeff — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 01:03:15 +0000

Colwell Playhouse Audio Studio

Jeff — Mon, 10 May 2010 15:44:22 +0000

During January and February 2010, Andy Krumeich and I began work on a Digital Audio Station (DAW) based studio at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

Verses That Hurt

Jeff — Mon, 10 May 2010 14:58:05 +0000

Verses That Hurt is a Poetic/Theatrical/Musical performance that took place March 5th and 6th, 2010 at the Armory Free Theatre on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I collaborated primarily in the area of sound, but also contributed in the original development of the performance, along with the project’s originator, Grant Bowen.

A main element of my sound design for Verses That Hurt was the subway atmosphere. A main idea of the treatment of the performance space was that we wanted to place the audience actually in a subway station. The main environmental element of the experience of being in a subway station is its sound (or maybe its smell, depending on which city…).

Here is a short clip of the subway atmosphere and a train arrival that I created for this show.

More details on the show and sound design can be found in the documents and photos below:

Verses_That_Hurt_Documentation

Verses That Hurt System Diagram

New Philharmonic

Jeff — Mon, 10 May 2010 14:56:15 +0000

This semester, I have been assisting Jon Schoenoff recording the New Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of Music Director and Conductor, Kirk Muspratt.

On April 23rd and 24th, I had the opportunity to record the orchestra myself, which was a great learning experience. This example is from one of the concerts from that weekend:

This is the documentation for the concerts I was involved in recording:

New_Philharmonic_Recording_Documentation

New Philharmonic Recording System Diagram

The following photos are from the January concertized opera performance of Puccini’s Turnadot. The orchestra mic’ing was supplemented by microphones on the front edge of the stage to highlight the solo singers, and mics were placed in front of the choir and on the organ loudspeakers.

Soloist Mic Placement

Choir Mic Placement

Organ Mic Placement

XenakibloX

Jeff — Sun, 09 May 2010 02:27:11 +0000

Last year, my friend James brought up the idea of building woodblocks specifically for Iannis Xenakis’s Rebonds. Here’s what we came up with:

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

That’s my friend from Truman State University, Scott Quade performing on a set we made. Scott, like many others at the school, is a fantastic percussionist.

Anyway, James had some sketches of a set of blocks which belonged to a former teacher. Along with this, Kolberg makes “Power Blocks”, which are often used for the piece. There is a great video of percussionist Pedro Carniero playing Rebonds B. Carniero’s blocks are cool, but of course I’m partial to “XenakibloX”!

…next up will be designing and building a mounting system for the blocks.