Five Hundred Twenty-Four
Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis / video installation / 30 mins
Five Hundred Twenty-Four features singers from twenty one choirs who are all counting numbers in an iterative process: one person sings “one,” then two people sing “two,” and so forth, to 524. Each choir was filmed separately, and the audio was woven together while the video features each choir individually. This work marks the formation and dissipation of a new group made up of pre-existing groups who usually operate separately behind closed doors in different corners of the region. Although the singers may have not been all in the same room, they become one collective musical body digitally. While the piece is sung with a collective voice, every individual is uniquely tasked to begin and end counting at their specific number. The score is a roll call, an audit, a measurement performed by the measured.
Five Hundred Twenty Four features: Cleveland State University Chorale , Lutheran East Gospel Choir, Youngstown State University Choir, Oberlin Choristers - Cantate Musica, Case Concert Choir, St. James Gospel Choir, Singing Angels, Windsong Feminist Chorus, Shaker Heights High School Choir, Cleveland Institute of Music Children's Choir, Summit Choral Society Singers, Good Company Vocal Ensemble, Akron Derbytown Barbershop Chorus, Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Cleveland Choir, Settlement Singers Active Adult Choir, Learwood Middle School A Capella Choir, Learwood Middle School 7th Grade Choir 1, Learwood Middle School 7th Grade Choir 2, Learwoood Middle School 8th Grade Choir 1, Learwoood Middle School 8th Grade Choir 2 Girls and Threshold Choir Cleveland. Commissioned by FRONT International.