How can music be expressed in color and line?

How can painting be translated into sound?

Who is music for?

Brushstrokes is a Deaf-inclusive chamber music performance that invites hearing audiences and musicians to experience music through embracing the visual, spatial, and sensory richness that Deaf culture naturally values. Developed with the Children’s Center for Communication/Beverly School for the Deaf, Brushstrokes reimages what a concert can be, and affirms that music is for everyone.

Nancy Rourke, a Deaf, Indigenous artist and activist, will begin the program by creating a painting live. The musicians of Arpeggione will interpret Rourke’s art through Soundpainting, a method of group improvisation using gestures based on ASL. The program will continue with chamber arrangements of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto and Haydn’s Symphony 104, performed on historical instruments. Hearing artist Stephen Bates, a musician and synesthete, will create a live painting inspired by the music, and we will feature artwork by students from the Beverly School for the Deaf. Specialized ASL music interpreters will be signing throughout the performance.

Arpeggione Ensemble:

Thomas Carroll, clarinet

Andrea LeBlanc, flute

Anna Griffis, viola

Emily Hale, violin

Lauren Nelson, viola

Jacques Wood, cello

April Sun, fortepiano