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

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