MUSHROOMS: ACCOMPANYING PROGRAM – PART 3

The pioneer of electronic music and nonstandard use of classical instruments; the author of the composition 4′33″, an extreme example of the use of silence in art; the composer of bold experimental music, a writer and a creator of audiovisual works; but also an original philosopher and a passionate collector of mushrooms. This is a brief description of John Milton Cage (1912 – 1992), a remarkable artist and promoter of mycology in the USA. The lecture about the life and art of the American colleague will be given by long-time Cage connoisseur, Martin Smolka, the co-founder of the music group Agon and an internationally recognized composer (author of the opera Nagano).

The lecture is organized by the theatre group HANDA GOTE research & development. In spring, its members embarked on a project looking at the phenomenon of mushrooms from different perspectives. The music and the personality of J. M. Cage will be one of the main topics of the show.
In the preparation phase the group decided to share some of its inspirational sources with the public. In April they invited the director and script writer Vít Janeček to introduce his film essay Fungus. In September there was a lecture and a mushroom identification session led by the graduate of the Music Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and member of the Mycological Society Václav Hálek.
The project MUSHROOMS will premiere on November 20, 2008.

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