08.07.2021

TICKETS

MUSIC@MILL brings the expressive aulthentic energy of chamber music, cello choir, singer songwriter, Americana, Tango Nuevo and Western Swing to the remarkable old factory space of the Mckinney Cotton Mill, in safely socially distanced events. 

‘Hinges’

In this life beauty is passing. The flower in spring, the moment in a musical phrase, the person who truly sees you. They are beautiful because they will soon be gone yet awake a memory of what I truly desired all along. …The fragile nature of these beautiful moments I must say, is connected to us knowing consciously or subconsciously that they are fleeting, allowing us to briefly connect and quench the unknown longings within us, if only for a moment.

These beautiful moments come often at times of change, times of a new direction, of ends and beginnings: in short, turning points. Throughout my life I have always felt drawn toward finding and understanding these junctures, whether they be in history, a musical tradition, or my own life. By realizing and comprehending where the hinge of a matter is we come to a much more complete understanding of what lies ahead of us. Looking back awakens a nostalgia for what was, and yet we have the hopeful expectation of what may come.

In programing Music@Mill I went with the idea of the hinge, because this last year has been one of the most turbulent shifts in human history. Through transitions between sound worlds from Bach’s Goldberg Variations for String Trio to the heavenly intimacy of Schubert’s Cello Quintet, to Piazzolla’s Nuevo Tango to the Swanky sounds of Beatles ‘No. 1 Classics’ and the eternal spaciousness of Arvo Pärt by the Texas Cellos @texascellos to the Americana expression of singer-songwriters, we pass through different stories in sound, and experience the ‘hinges’ between chapters in close proximity. Like a rock album, the festival programming is hung together under an arch.

If we as a society, and as performing artists survive, and I hope we will survive! —We will enter a new era. A new era in culture and art, where Music@Mill played a small role in sustaining live culture. Remember— the Baroque era followed the bubonic plague!

Joseph Kuipers