Thursday night, as part of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s “Nights: Art, Music, Martinis,” program, Los Angeles’ String Theory Productions will be performing their own singular hybrid of classical music, rock and roll, choreography and sonic architecture to create an unforgettable experience for the audience.
Combining traditional instruments such as cello, violin, voice, guitar and percussion with unique instruments made of harp strings strung up, floor-to-ceiling throughout the spaces the band plays in, String Theory has been producing site-specific performances all over the country for the last eight years. Directed by Luke and Holly Rothschild and Joseph Harvey, String Theory cross and integrate multiple artistic disciplines simultaneously by building their handmade harps directly into their environment, playing traditional instruments, and incorporating choreography with the playing of the long-strings. Together, String Theory can perform any style from 15th-century Spanish Renaissance to avant-garde to rock and roll music.
Their distinctive style, which draws on the very space in which they are performing, allows String Theory to deliver a completely new performance every time, drawing out the “sonic character” of various locations such as large rocks in a Mexican desert last month, a crumbling brick theater in East Hollywood, or our very own Santa Barbara Museum of Art. They’ve just finished scoring their very first feature for HBO Documentary Films, but you can be a part of their interactive sonic journey at Nights, which this month will be celebrating the gods and goddesses of ancient Egypt represented in the museum’s collection of antiquities.