Le Boeuf en Concert

Written By Ling DeBellis

Inspired by Latin American sounds and classic cinéma, dive into the story behind "Le Boeuf en Concert," a film collaboration with violinist Connor Chaikowsky.

Le Boeuf en Concert will premiere online at A440.live on February 12, 2021 at 7:30pm CST and February 13, 2021 at 1pm CST.

LIVESTREAM LINK: https://www.a440.live/artists/5f5692ce0c7dd5168c8cf32a

Sponsored by Lisle Violin Shop in Houston.

Last summer, fellow Rice University student, Connor Chaikowsky, contacted me to inquire about joining forces to produce some kind of “mixed-media” collaboration, something that combined art and sound. Initially, the project hoped to tie in a connection to science — especially awareness towards climate change — but we later scrubbed science and opted instead to focus on “unconventionality” in every sense of the word.

The project draws heavy inspiration from Brazilian and Latin American works, both visual and musical. Darius Milhaud’s “Le Boeuf sur le Toit, Op. 58” (Ox on the Roof) served as Connor’s original revelation long before I joined the project. “Brincando Com Theo” by Léa Freire and “Salsa for BBWL” by Peter von Wienhardt were also already on the repertoire list, making for a spicy, upbeat extravaganza. Connor had a vision, and I was here to make that vision a reality.

Originally envisioned to function as any typical recital, albeit streamed live due to the coronavirus pandemic, I feared the technical demand of a one night — essentially, a one-shot take — of a live performance. Especially if we were to add “mixed-media” over the performances. And over Zoom or some streaming platform. It was a good thing when Rice University cancelled the live recital date. I laugh now when I say that we couldn’t have done it in one night; Connor’s performance had to be pre-recorded and mixed-media added on top later. Staunch classical fans may find this project simply “out of the box,” and a break in live performance tradition, but I find the pandemic has weirdly been good for projects like Le Boeuf en Concert. The uncertainty of current times has left people more open to unconventional things — or at least, so it seems.

Violinist Connor Chaikowsky and pianist Tomás Jonsson play Sergei Dreznin’s “Circus Fantasy” alongside edited footage from Soviet film Circus (1936).

Before I knew it, I had fallen in love with Grigori Aleksandrov’s 1936 classic Soviet film Circus. Soviet icon Lybov Orlova plays an American circus actress named Marion Dixon who finds refuge and social acceptance in the USSR after giving birth to an African American son out of wedlock. An unusual — and somewhat dense — plotline to begin with, the film would become a gem of early European cinéma and give rise to one of the USSR’s unofficial anthems, “Wide is My Motherland” (“Широка Страна Моя Родная”). Years afterward, Russian composer Sergei Dreznin would compose “Circus Fantasy,” essentially a hybrid classical-jazz variation on Isaak Dunayevsky’s entire score from Circus. It was Connor’s vision to reunite Dreznin’s composition with footage from its original inspiration.

It began with a silent pairing of select scenes from Circus, projected live behind Connor and accompanist Tomás Jonsson’s recordings. But something just wasn’t jiving. Timing the live recording with pre-edited footage was unwieldy on a good day, and inevitably, the footage and the performance always got off track somewhere. Deeper than that, however, was that these first takes lacked intrigue, utterly devoid of Circus’ monochrome beauty. There was Connor and then there was Circus. They were separate. And I wanted both aspects to capture you. It sounds so simple, and intuitively, you’d think they’d mix quite easy together. But how do you cohesively condense a full length film into about 9 minutes while also showcasing the musical performance? The answer is editing. Filmmakers will tell you editing can make or break a film — now, I really believed it. I had the edited footage already ordered to the performance, and all I had to do was overlay it against Connor’s recording. Second by second keyframe masking was indeed time consuming in some spots, but the final product really did merge both spectacles. It is a combination of old and new, in the sense that it brings out Soviet cinéma’s lofty grandeur and compliments it with a new way of viewing classical music. Circus itself is unconventional, but to pair it with a genre that’s too often misconceived and ignored, it’s exciting to explore new ways of creating mixed-media art.

Later, I was fortunate enough to virtually interview “Circus Fantasy’s” composer Sergei Dreznin — in Russian, of course — and he himself embodies “unconventional.” His passion for music is eclectically evident, spontaneously breaking into song and piano ditties to make a point. He finds life and excitement in the glory days of Soviet cinéma, wanting to pull listeners into Circus’ unique message. Russian culture is more than just Chekhov and Rachmaninov — it too can have a spunky and lively flare that rivals Le Boeuf en Concert’s neighboring Latin American tunes.

In the end, Le Boeuf en Concert is a pretty big feat. Considering the global pandemic and the seemingly unending uncertainty, I am in awe of all the folks who came out and pulled this project together. It took a team and a shared drive to be unconventional, to be un-ordinary. It was about having fun and experimenting. I often feel intimidated explaining the project to people — there’s just so much woven into it, a greater meaning with every detail. Honestly, it is something out of a dream, a wacky animal that you’ve never seen before.

So, come. Be a Boeuf with us.

Le Boeuf en Concert premieres February 12 at 7:30pm CST on A440.

Le Boeuf en Concert Ensemble & Crew (pictured L-R). Front row: Jerry Hou, Daniel Cho, Emily Richardson, Ellice Gao, Ynez Kerley, Angie Fan, Julie Park, Allison Smith, Ling DeBellis, Nicky Sohn, Lauren Ross, Tiffany Cuaresma. Back row: Alex Garde, Roy Park, Chris Laven, James McAloon Jr., Isabelle Nichols, Paul Novak, Roscoe Bussel, Connor Chaikowsky, Jake Darnell, Angela Ryu, Max Vinetz, Giancarlo Latta, Tomás Jonsson, Nick Lindell, Nathan Hsu.

“Anatomy du Boeuf.” Promotional Poster for Le Boeuf en Concert. 2021

Ling DeBellis
Previous

Spermatozoa
Next

Grandpa Kemper’s Outhouse