Premiere World Premiere
Country of Origin United States
Description Bryce Dessner on the origin of The Long Count: The idea started with Joe Melillo (the executive producer of BAM) asking my brother and I to create something for their Next Wave Festival. I’ve been a fan for years, and have seen a lot of really amazing productions there. It was pretty daunting at first, the idea of presenting something in the opera house. We’ve played there with our band before; it sounds great, and people love going there. But if you’re going to get up and do something for seventy minutes without singing songs people know, it requires a whole other level of thinking about how to present that.
The idea for The Long Count and working with the Mayan creation myth came from Matthew Ritchie, the visual artist who we’re working with. Matthew loves working with music. He’s a large installation artist and does painting, sculpture, and now video.
Identifier 2009f.00950
