For more than a decade, SoundBox—SF Symphony’s brilliant immersive performance series in its cavernous, refitted load-in space—has plunged attendees into cutting-edge contemporary music experiences, with entrancing video animations, a pristine Meyer Sound Constellation surround-sound audio system, and some of the best musicians in the world doing things you’d never expect, like playing video games, to make fascinating music. Yes, there are cocktails.
This all takes place in a casual, lounge-like setting that remains one of my favorite nightlife experiences. This installment, SoundBox: Dream Awake (8:30pm, Fri/6 + Sat/7, 300 Franklin, SF) is curated by Alexi Kenney, a daring violinist who’s a member of “inverted quartet” Owls, and no stranger to creating dazzling multimedia programs.
“Dream Awake” promises a lucid journey “into a realm infused with nocturnal energy and psychedelic fantasy. Experience the unnerving and visceral confusion of waking life, the wild fear and frenzy of a shadowy nightmare, and a finale warmed and calmed by the clarifying rays of the rising sun.”
Just the makings of a typical night out, right? I spoke with Alexi about his SoundBox moment, who he’s working with, and the power of vivid dreams.
48 HILLS Hi Alexi, thanks so much for taking some time. How did you come to curate this SoundBox edition?
ALEXI KENNEY: I’ve been hearing about SoundBox since its inception from friends and family who’ve attended and raved about it over the years. It’s a privilege to get to step into the role of curator, especially with a prompt that’s so open-ended. Really anything is possible due to the flexibility of the space and ability to utilize virtually any instrument in any configuration. I’ve been experimenting with more theatrical programming for years in my own solo work, so this has been a really fun project to put together. Not to mention that SF is my home, so it’s extra special to perform here.
48 HILLS As a longtime raver, I’m incredibly eager to enter “a realm infused with nocturnal energy and psychedelic fantasy,” as the SoundBox description puts it. What inspired “Dream Awake,” and what were your main influences or thoughts in putting the program together?
ALEXI KENNEY The inspiration behind Dream Awake came from a few places. First, I see music as an escape from reality, a moment where time can feel suspended, even distorted, and you enter a different kind of mental space away from the chaos of normal life, which isn’t dissimilar to dreaming. The music I was drawn to for this program all shares that sort of surreal quality, in that liminal space between things.
The actual title of the program came from a piece for violin and soprano called “Kafka Fragments” by Gyorgy Kurtag. A lyric in one of these fragments is: “asleep, awake, asleep, awake—miserable life.” While that sounds pretty bleak, I love how it both tells you something literal and profound at the same time, and does so with a bit of dark humor. The trajectory of the program takes us through an evening—falling sleep, entering a wild dream sequence, and then coming back to consciousness.
48 HILLS The SoundBox programs are notoriously secretive. Can you tell us a little bit about who is performing and what we can expect in terms of the music?
ALEXI KENNEY New music is something I’m deeply passionate about, and so I really wanted the majority of the music for the show to be by living composers. There are pieces by Dylan Mattingly, Andrew Norman, Nina Shekhar, Peter Shin, and Paul Wiancko, each of whom are either friends or acquaintances of mine, which is exciting and meaningful. Rounding out the program are pieces by Kurtag, Knussen, Ligeti, Terry Riley, Saariaho, and Xenakis. I really love each of the pieces on this program, and hope audiences will come in expecting to hear something they’ve never heard before.
I actually wouldn’t be surprised if some people have never heard any of the pieces on the program, and I find that incredibly exciting, especially when everything is so, so great. I’ll also be joined by my friend, soprano Lucy Fitz-Gibbon, who is from the Bay Area as well and with whom I’ve collaborated a lot over the years. She is such a storyteller when she performs, and always gives a raw intensity and ferocity, which I absolutely love.
48 HILLS Obviously ambiance is a huge part of dreaming—working with lighting designer Luke Kritzeck and video designer Adam Larsen must have been a dream in itself.
ALEXI KENNEY Adam and Luke are the best in the business. We worked together a couple years ago to bring lighting and projections to a program I did with New Century Chamber Orchestra here in SF, and the process was seamless and fun. I’m a very visual person and love being heavily involved in aesthetic choices, and working with two true artists like Adam and Luke makes it easy and fun to align visions, have these conversations, and build something dreamy and fantastical. I can promise some fun staging, lots of varied color and design, and of course some haze.
48 HILLS Finally, in the preparation for all this, have you had any good dreams of your own lately, awake or not?
ALEXI KENNEY I’m a vivid dreamer, and I love finding dreams and fantasy in real life as well. My favorite thing is waking up disoriented after a particularly adventurous dream, and that feeling is what I’m trying to access for everyone in my SoundBox. In these times, who wouldn’t want a bit of lucid dreaming to get us through life?
SOUNDBOX: DREAM AWAKE 8:30pm, Fri/6 + Sat/7, 300 Franklin, SF. More info here.
