Iranian artists to celebrate John Cage’s centenary

 

The ceremony entitled “A House Full of Cage” will be held in a private home in the Amirabad neighborhood of Tehran. It has been organized by Shabneshini, an artistic circle, and the Yar-Ava ensemble.

 

Yar-Ava will perform compositions by Iranian musicians Mehdi Jalali, Shahrokh Khajenuri and Arsalan Abedian in a concert arranged for the pieces by the Iranians during the ceremony.

 

In addition, some video installations and a program of performance art will be held by Mani Qodratnama, Abuzar Kabiri and Ashkan Rahbari.

 

“We will come together to spend a pleasant evening and to enjoy watching what has been arranged for the night,” Shabneshini director Mahan Momeni said in press release on Tuesday.

 

“We want bridge the gap between artists and art fans by holding such events during a home party,” he added.  

 

“A House Full of Cage” will begin at 7 p.m. and continued until 10 at 16 Vali-e Asr Alley, Sindokht St. off Shahrivar St. in the Amirabad neighborhood.

 

Cage, whose inventive compositions and unorthodox ideas profoundly influenced mid-20th-century music, was a composer of unusual music pieces.

 

He always considered himself an innovator and discoverer in the field of music.

 

“4'33"” (Four Minutes and Thirty-three Seconds, 1952), a piece in which the performer or performers remain utterly silent onstage for that amount of time is among Cage’s best-known works.

 

His best-known works also include “Imaginary Landscape No. 4”, “Sonatas and Interludes”, “Fontana Mix” and “Cheap Imitation”.

 

The Tehran Conservatory of Music conducted by Nader Mashayekhi performed Cage’s “Four to the Sixth Power” in Tehran in 2007 during “A Night with John Cage”, a program which was organized by the Iranian literary monthly Bokhara.

 

MMS/YAW

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