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Organica at Royce Hall

Christoph Bull's multimedia mix of music, painting and video

By Mary Beth Crain

Published on June 05, 2008

If you haven't yet experienced an Organica, well, it is sort of climactic. The brainchild of that most irrepressible of organists, Christoph Bull, the multimedia event is, well, a lot of Bull, who can, and does, do just about anything at his instrument. There are also the regulars: "performance painter" Norton Wisdom, creating his masterpieces live to music, and videographer Benton-C Bainbridge, whose video pieces accompany Bull, instead of vice versa. And the guests: mezzo-soprano I-Chin Feinblatt, dancer Nehara Kalev, and up-and-coming organists Chelsea Chen and Maxine Thevenot. This year's Organica has a French theme; Bull honors the centennial of Olivier Messiaen with a performance of the composer's early organ work, Apparition of the Eternal Church, and his own improvisation, Messiaen Deconstructed, while Chen performs Messiaen's God Among Us, the majestic finale of his first great cycle for the organ, La Nativite du Seigneur. The program also includes French songs, the world premiere of Martin Stacey's Totentanz, and Marcel Dupre's Prelude and Fugue in B Major, performed by Bull to Bainbridge's original video work celebrating Paris and commissioned especially for this event by the Consulate General of France in L.A. Royce Hall, UCLA campus, Wstwd.; Sun., June 8, 7 p.m.; $18-$30, $15 UCLA students. (310) 825-2101 or www.uclalive.org.



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