A landmark exhibition, Jasper Johns: ‘Something Resembling Truth’ featured more than 120 extraordinary paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings by one of America's greatest artists. Discussed through the lens of Jasper Johns’ collaborative and fruitful friendships with composer John Cage and choreographer and dancer Merce Cunningham, exhibition curator Ed Schad, pianist Adam Tendler and vocalist Joan La Barbara unveil the meaning behind Johns’ work in the exhibition.

Along with an investigation into “Something Resembling Truth,” Tendler and La Barbara dig deep into their own experiences with John Cage and the complexities interpreting and performing Cage’s vast landscape of musical composition.

Joan La Barbara, composer, performer, sound artist and actor, is renowned for developing a unique vocabulary of experimental and extended vocal techniques (multiphonics, circular singing, ululation and glottal clicks, her “signature sounds”), influencing generations of other composers and singers. Awards and honors include the Foundation for Contemporary Arts John Cage Award; Premio Internazionale Demetrio Stratos for experimental music; DAAD-Berlin and Civitella Ranieri artist residencies; the Guggenheim Fellowship; seven National Endowment for the Arts awards (Music Composition, Opera/ Music Theater, Inter-Arts, Recording, Solo Recital, Visual Arts); and the American Music Center’s Letter of Distinction for her significant contributions to contemporary American music. La Barbara’s numerous commissions for multiple voices, chamber ensembles, orchestra, interactive technology, and sound scores for dance, video and film have included a score for voice and electronics for Sesame Street, broadcast worldwide since 1977. She has collaborated with visual artists Matthew Barney, Judy Chicago, Ed Emshwiller, Kenneth Goldsmith, Bruce Nauman, Steina, Woody Vasulka and Lawrence Weiner, and premiered landmark compositions, including Morton Subotnick’s chamber opera Jacob’s Room and multimedia works Hungers and Intimate Immensity; Robert Ashley’s operas Now Eleanor’s Idea, Dust, Celestial Excursions, Improvement and Concrete; Philip Glass and Robert Wilson’s Einstein on the Beach; Morton Feldman’s Three Voices; Steve Reich’s Drumming; and John Cage’s Eight Whiskus and Solo for Voice 45 from Song Books.

A “remarkable and insightful musician" (LA Times), Adam Tendler is a recognized figure in new music and leading interpreter of American composers. Between 2005 and 2006, Tendler appeared in all fifty United States in a grassroots recital tour he called America 88x50, which became the subject of his memoir, 88x50, a Kirkus Indie Book of the Month and Lambda Literary Award nominee. Tendler has recorded performances and masterclasses for the digital music platform, Tido, collaborated with Edition Peters on a new edition of John Cage's In a Landscape, released the premiere recording of Edward T. Cone’s 21 Little Preludes, and his forthcoming album of piano works by Robert Palmer will appear on New World Records in 2019. An active presence in all contemporary music genres, Tendler has also performed the complete major piano works of Aaron Copland, and collaborates with the John Cage Trust and Edition Peters in presenting Cage’s work internationally. His second book, tidepools, will be released this winter.

Crew Credits -

Production:
Creator and Executive Producer - Hernan Diaz Alonso
Producers - Marcelyn Gow/Reza Monahan
Director - Reza Monahan
Director of Photography - Sean Morris
B Camera - Robert Moreno
C Camera - Heather Trawick
Lighting - Charles Butler
Sound Engineer - George Wymenga
Production Assistant - Michel Erler

Post-Production:
Story Producer - Ben Neufeld
Editors - Ben Neufeld/Reza Monahan

Soundtrack A: Ars Sonor "Timethod"
License - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

Soundtrack B: "Dream" by John Cage Performed by Adam Tendler - Copyright © by Henmar Press Inc. Used by kind permission of C.F. Peters Corp. All rights reserved.

"Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano" by John Cage Performed by Adam Tendler Footage Copyright © by Henmar Press Inc. Used by kind permission of C.F. Peters Corp. All rights reserved.

Joan La Barbara Footage Courtesy of the Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Additional Images and Video Provided by:
The Broad Museum and the Artists

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