Music in art museum enhances experience
Music makes art more powerful, according to McKayla Sundberg, a freshman majoring in music performance.
This is part of why musicians like Sophie Spreier, a senior majoring in string performance, perform in the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art.
The performance is the first of four that will take place this semester on every third Thursday of the month at 3 p.m. Spreier will play her cello for today’s performance.
Nadra Haffar, the education curator of the museum, said they have had regular musical performances in the museum since last semester.
“It was initially started when the museum was closed for part of last semester,” Haffar said. “It was sort of a time that students could count on that they could come in, but now that we’re back up and open, they still want to continue it.”
According to Haffar, the performances were originally scheduled for the first Friday of the month at 4 p.m. However, she and James Michael Bankhead, the head of the music department, decided that this semester the schedule would be moved because many students leave campus on Friday afternoons.
Haffar said she is somewhat concerned that 3 p.m. on Thursdays might conflict with class schedules.
“So we’re just going to keep shifting it around semester by semester to see what the best day and time is,” Haffar said.
Sundberg, who played the harp for the event last month on Dec. 6, said when she played there, her instrument was placed in the middle of the entryway. Chairs were set up so people could sit and listen to the performance if they wanted to do so.
“And they totally did,” Sundberg said. “Everyone who walked in sat and ate refreshments and listened to the harp play.”
Spreier, who performed in the museum as part of a trio last semester, said she likes the museum as a space. She said the way it is structured gives it a unique sound that can be heard bouncing off the walls in other rooms.
“That’s what’s so wonderful about it,” Spreier said. “It’s such a huge space that you can kind of experiment with your instrument because every space is different.”
Spreier said the space is especially nice for stri
nged instruments, which are sometimes difficult to project loud enough in a larger area.
“So it’s always exciting when something really amplifies your instrument,” Spreier said.
Sundberg said on the day she performed, Carly Ewell, another harpist, also played. During the performance, Sundberg was able to look around the art museum. She said having music in the background directs the mind and helps think about what the artist was feeling when the work was being painted.
An example Sundberg gave was a geometric painting in the museum, which was about the atomic bomb in Japan.
“I was listening to some really dissonant music at the same time I saw that,” Sundberg said. “So I thought that the power of the painting was much stronger while I was listening to the music.”
Haffar said she is working with Great Harvest Bread Company to provide refreshments during the performance.
– topherwriter@gmail.com