ANARCHESTRA RESIDENCY
APRIL - MAY 2021
Through May 2021, 10 Forward will host a selection of instruments from Andrew Thurlow’s “Anarchestra” for a public residency. We are the first stop on this incredible collection’s tour from it’s birthplace of Tucson Arizona, as Anarchestra seeks a new and permanent home in New England. Participants will be invited play the instruments and record at 10 Forward from April 10th through June 1st. All are welcome to participate in this free residency (we especially encourage those who don’t consider themselves musicians to apply!)
Anarchestra is two things;
First, it is an orchestra of approximately two hundred unique musical instruments and a collection of works composed for them, built and written (with a few exceptions) by Andrew Thurlow (1954-) an American musician, composer, and theorist, designed to liberate players from preconceived notions of music and music performance. Together they represent the largest work of outsider musicianship since Harry Patch.
Second - and perhaps more importantly - Anarchestra is the thousands of people who play and have played on these instruments (and all are welcome), as well as the socio-musical ideas that inform their playing. Beyond the instruments themselves, Anarchestra exists as a type of new folk music: a philosophy of Instrument making and playing that removes the distinction between musicians and non-musicians and is open to all. Anarchestra does not just invite everyone to play music; it asks people to take an active role in defining what music is, both for themselves and for society.
