Uncle Vanya

Composer, Music Director

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In 2017 director Walter Meierjohann asked me to create a score for his Uncle Vanya at HOME Manchester. We decided to use a self-playing piano that was integrated into the set design, underscoring the play and accompanying the live accordion and singing.  

The ghostly presence of the instrument resonated with the choice of material, a deconstructed version of Fritz Kreisler’s Liebesleid, fragments of found and imagined Russian folklore, piano loops and atmospheres. 

The self-playing mechanism of the piano was triggered by a MIDI-protocol that was integrated into the QLab setup of the show. This allowed for the piano being the actual sound source on stage, a quasi extra musical character.