Ideas and inspiration from Andy Strain

Recently, Lincolnites were treated to performances by Andy Strain and the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra where Andy shared some of his unique talents on the trombone, improvisation, and interpretations of music and light using video-game technology. Now, he is sharing a little more with Lincoln readers through an interview about some of his experiences, inspiration, and advice.

How long have you been playing the trombone?
I've played since I was 12. I'm 33. wow! 21 years! I started on the baritone horn, and switched to trombone because I wanted to play jazz in middle school. I never really thought I'd still be playing all these years later! Sure glad I am!!

How did you first get the idea to work with video game technology and trombone performance together?I had seen graffiti artists using laser pointers to paint with projected light on buildings, and I wondered how that would fly with the trombone. At Mills College where I was working on my Masters degree in Free Improvisation, I teamed up with a computer musician and programmer to put together an experimental duet. We used both visual and audio tracking to create live projected imagery and processed sound. It was all improvised stuff. What we performed at Kimball last week was a simplified and more refined version of that project.

Andy Strain performs trombone for children and adults.

Photo credit: courtesy of Andy Strain

How long have you been working with Yotam Mann and Jerry Smith?
I've been working with Jerry for about a year now - we met at a performance a few years back, and I really liked his work. So I asked him to join me. When we realized we needed more help, we found Yotam through a friend. We work amazing as a trio, and I'm excited to see what comes next.

What draws you to performing for school children?
There is a certain and fantastic energy surrounding young people and sound. They are curious, as I am, why music can make us feel certain ways. With young people, it's not about perfection, but detail. It's about showing them what honesty sounds like and looks like in performance. When young people experience new sounds for the first time, so do I. And when we have a discussion about it, young people are unafraid to ask questions and get involved. We are using the addition of projected light as a tool to help young people relate to and perhaps better understand existing classical music, modern music, and improvised music.

What advice do you have for children to learn more about music?
Follow your ears! Try to imagine the birds and the cars on the street as music. try to imagine classical music as birds and cars. It's okay to like any kind of music out there - find what you like, and listen to the bass, the melody, the words, the loud, the drone, the fun, the rhythm… and then listen to how they all relate to each other. Hint: they are just like people - sometimes they work in harmony and sometimes they work against each other. I think music holds a lot of clues to life!

What advice do you have for adults who aren't familiar with Classical music?
Be a child again, unabashed, and without fear. When you hear something you like, find more of it. If you see a good concert coming up in town, listen to the music they will perform as much as you can before you hear it live. And lastly, if you encounter music that is difficult to focus on, challenge yourself to find something inside it that is interesting, even if it's the lonely triangle player in the back.

'Lights and Music:' Andy Strain brings musical magic to Lincoln children

Andy Strain and the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra introduced children and families to the "magic" of music and imagery during the March 20, 2011, concert.

Credits: Amy Flamminio

Yesterday, March 20, 2011, Lincoln was treated to the performance of trombonist Andy Strain with the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra. This concert was titled “Lights and Music,” and the audience was full of families with children. Beforehand, the Sheldon Museum of Art was open to children who wanted their face painted or visit the “musical petting zoo,” a few instruments that the children (and adults) were invited to try playing.

Andy Strain, a Lincoln native and UNL alumni, currently resides in California and has made it his mission to reach out to elementary school children with his music. According to Strain’s own program notes, “the trombonist: a roaming occasionally down-trodden, troubadour of sound. The trombonist especially enjoys playing music for young ears (which, unscientifically speaking, can be opener than older ears). More importantly, the trombonist believes in miracles, which are sort of like magic.” In his performance, Strain makes those “miracles” take place for his audience.

Andy Strain visits Morley Elementary School

Strain combines his musical efforts with the technological and visual work of Jerry Smith and Yotam Mann. Together, they create a stunning visual and musical picture. The most fascinating part of the concert was the performance of Pablo de Sarasate’s “Zigeunerweisen” or “Gypsy Airs.” Originally written for a violin solo, Strain performs this virtuosic piece with his trombone. Upon his trombone, he has tied a ping-pong ball with infrared lights in it—this is where the work of Smith and Mann come into play. Suddenly, instead of just hearing the music, we are treated to see images projected on a screen that help visualize the music. Strain’s program notes enlighten us:

“We took a video game camera that watches for infrared light (something our eyes can’t even see!) and turned its lens onto a trombonist, who not a lot of people can see either. Then, we took a ping-pong ball filled with infrared light and attached it to the trombonist’s trombone slide. Then, we got these really cool guys named Jerry and Yotam to write a computer program that uses that camera to track the ping-pong ball of light…Together, they figured out how to do cool things with infrared tracking. For example, the trombonist can play a lullaby for a digital butterfly, serenade dancing leaves, or offer a bouquet of sound to that girl on a hill.”

The effect held the audience, young and old alike, quite spellbound. “Gypsy Airs” was certainly the most fascinating part of the concert as Strain’s trombone/ping-pong ball concoction controlled a moon as it danced across the night sky, growing larger or smaller as the volume of the music swelled or diminished.

Best of all, Strain encouraged the children in the audience to go home and listen to classical music themselves, and to imagine or draw pictures according to what they feel or hear in the music. It’s never to soon to experience the magic of music!
Lincoln children can thank Andy Strain for bringing this magic a little closer to them this weekend.