Ander Mikalson
Score for the Big Bang
Thursday, November 9, 2024. 5:30 pm
Simons Center Lecture Hall 102
Ander Mikalson discusses her eight-minute Score for A Big Bang featuring speculative sounds the cataclysmic Big Bang might have generated, in the form of a musical score. The composition and performance are sparce, highlighting choral voices and a pipe organ to sonify the 13.8-billion-year-old Big Bang event that scientists have theorized. The resulting concert, held in a church, is documented in a short film accompanied by two meticulous hand-drawn scores. Both parts of the work contain delicate human touches, humor, and a whimsical quality that underscores much of the artist’s oeuvre. Score for a Big Bang was created with the collaboration of Dr. Mark Whittle, Professor of Astronomy at The University of Virginia and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, Caroline Shaw.
Based in New York, Mikalson holds a B.A. from the College of Creative Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara (2005) and an M.F.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University (2012).
