Surrealist Concert Piece

My piece was inspired by Gabriela Montero’s Performance Up Close performed on Tuesday, 2/11/20. Ms. Montero performed Robert Schumann’s waltz Carnaval, Op. 9, with improvisations based on audience input. The pieces of her show that I drew inspiration from were Carnaval, her improvisation of The Chordettes’ Mr. Sandman (1954), and her improvised piece intending to demonstrate her emotions surrounding the current unrest in Venezuela.

The primary aspects of my piece are an image of Ms. Montero performing in front of an audience, a group of dancers waltzing in the air located above the piano, an upturned umbrella backdrop, and an image of Nicolas Maduro leading a band of troops down the streets of Venezuela.

My artwork is best understood when viewed from the bottom up. I placed Ms. Montero’s performance at the bottom of the image with silhouetted audience members to draw the observer into the perspective of an audience member and emphasize that her performance’s impact inspired the overall piece. The flagship piece that attendees came to hear Ms. Montero perform was a waltz; this is why I placed the waltzing figures at the focal point of the drawing, a waltz is what people came to experience. When I was listening to her perform, her music enchanted me to the extent that I was able to see dreamlike figures dancing above her piano. As I had spent a large portion of the show entranced by the graceful images I saw floating in the air, I found it very fitting that, once she started taking audience input towards improvisations, she played an improvised version of Mr. Sandman. She, like the mythical Sandman, had used her ‘powers’ to bring me a dream. I implemented this serendipitous occurrence in the form of the umbrella backdrop. I decided to pay homage to original artworks and myths of the Sandman, which dictate that the Sandman carries an umbrella with him and uses it to project images into the minds of those he enchants. I drew my piece so that the subject of the image and performance it represents, Ms. Montero, is utilizing her piano to tap into the powers of the Sandman’s umbrella and present us with the dancing figures. Ms. Montero closed the show with her emotional improvisation inspired by Venezuela’s current unrest. I decided to finish my piece in the same way with an image of the state of Venezuela.

In her performance, Ms. Montero showed us marvelous imaginations and managed to fully engender the dream that is life as a Princeton student. Then, in the final moments of the night, she pulled back Sandman’s umbrella to show us a fragment of reality that many people either don’t realize is true or refuse to accept. Ms. Montero used her abilities to bring light to the situation in Venezuela, and I hope that my piece helps to further that enlightenment.