Guild Hall is to present artist/architect/composer Christopher Janney’s performance piece on August 27, 2013, at the John Drew Theater located at 158 Main Street, East Hampton at 8 p.m.
The event will open with a live performance by The Persuasions (the “Kings of a Capella”). The evening is to consist of powerful, insightful entertainment including, Christopher Janney’s “What Is A Heart,” the film of his signature performance piece “HeartBeat,” is to also be screened. The film features Janney, The Persuasions, Emily Coates, Sara Rudner, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Freddy Janney. Janney is known for his work over the last 30 years on the interrelation of art, architecture, and music. The documentary explores his work with the heart, as well as making architecture more like music and music more like architecture.
In “HeartBeat,” Janney placed a wireless heart telemetry device on the former NYC Ballet dancer Emily Coates and scored live music to play to her amplified heart as it beats. Janney then had different musicians play over this unusual percussion track, all in “real time.”
In the newest version with Coates, the score is performed by Janney, “My father died of a heart attack when I was 29. Being a drummer, I mused about creating a piece dedicated to him using the mysterious human heartbeat. So began a musical/performance exploration I continue even today, thirty years later.”
Additionally, two of Janney’s interactive sound and touch sculptures from the “Sound is An Invisible Color” series, is to be on view in Guild Hall during the event.
Tickets are $20, $40, and $60, and they can be purchased at the theater box office, theatermania.com , or by calling 1-866-811-4111. A video trailer of the film “Heartbeat” and a CBS TV clip of Baryshnikov’s performance are available at
