Brickyard Broadcast – Premiere Event Nov. 12

The Department of Music presents the NC State orchestras and choirs with the Concert Singers of Cary, performing the world premiere of a new work by composer Lisa Bielawa entirely in virtual reality on a digital Brickyard built by the NC State University Libraries.

Missed the live premiere event? You can watch the panel and Q&A here.

Then you can access the performance of Brickyard Broadcast using the button below.

If you have questions, be sure to take a look at the troubleshooting instructions.

Instructions for Brickyard Broadcast

Creative Team

Musicians

Texts

On premiere night, join NC State Department of Music faculty Peter Askim, director of orchestral studies, and Nathan Leaf, director of choral activities, and composer Lisa Bielawa for a live, online panel discussion.

You’ll then enter the virtual reality (VR) Brickyard environment built by the NC State University Libraries to experience the world premiere of Brickyard Broadcast, performed by the NC State orchestras (Raleigh Civic Symphony and Raleigh Civic Chamber Orchestra), the NC State choirs (State Chorale, Vox Accalia and Singing Statesmen), and the Concert Singers of Cary.

Following your experience of the performance, join Askim, Leaf and Bielawa again for a question and answer session.

Tune in at 6pm right here for the live discussion and Q&A via the Twitch stream above (you can click on it to load Twitch in a new window if you prefer). When you’re ready to experience Brickyard Broadcast, click the “Launch Brickyard Broadcast” button above. Instructions for navigating the VR hub are provided below.

Instructions for Brickyard Broadcast

Creative Team

Musicians

Texts

Brickyard Broadcast in the news

Broadway World preview
The Washington Post
The Technician: A virtual concert, the first of its kind
AR Post
Cary Citizen

Brickyard Broadcast Creative Team

Brickyard Broadcast by Lisa Bielawa is commissioned and presented by North Carolina State University Department of Music, with additional support from the Raleigh Civic Symphony Association and the Concert Singers of Cary.

Lisa Bielawa, Composer and Producer
Dr. Peter Askim, Director of Orchestral Studies, NC State University Department of Music
Dr. Nathan Leaf, Director of Choral Activities, NC State University Department of Music
Jason Evans Groth, Digital Media Librarian, NC State University Libraries
Colin Keenan, University Libraries Specialist, NC State University Libraries
Kyle Langdon, University Library Specialist and Audio Engineer, NC State University Libraries
Colin Moore, Operations Coordinator, NC State University Department of Music
Ian Boyd, NC State University Library Specialist
Sarah Hassan, NC State University Libraries Pentair Fellow

Special Thanks to Rhiannan Berry for their Avatar Customizer, used under MPL-2.0 License. This work utilizes the following 3D models posted by Google Poly licensed under CC BY 4.0: Trumpet, Bass, Flute, Violin, Elm Tree, Pine Tree, Drum.

The Texts

“There it was, there it is, the place where during the best time of our lives friendship had its home and happiness its headquarters… We agree that until it has had a poet, a place is not a place.” 

From Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner, Copyright © 1987 by Wallace Stegner. By arrangement with Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc.

“…The suns I see and the suns I cannot see are in their place,
The palpable is in its place and the impalpable is in its place…
Not I, not anyone else can travel that road for you…
Happiness not in another place, but this place…not for another hour, but this hour…
…All else thus far known giving place…
(Talk honestly, no one else hears you, and I stay only a minute longer.)
Do I contradict myself? 
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large – I contain multitudes.)
Who has done his day’s work and will soonest be through with his supper?
Who wishes to walk with me? ”

Walt Whitman

“It takes a multitude to make such a stillness.”

H.G. Wells

“Made in haste, not made in haste, made in darkness, not made in darkness, made in a place, made in a place…
Five, five are more wonderful than a million. Five million, five million, five million, five million, five are more wonderful than two together. Two together, two together…
A song, if a sad song is in unison and is sung, a sad song is singing. A sign of singing…
So the main is seen and the green is green…There are some things a place can not show…
…nobody is more famous than an oaken piece of wood…
…a refusal to sing is one thing, to go on with a song is not wrong…
It’s not possible to sing by way of songs, it is not possible to sing by way of songs….
Please place me where there is air. I like to be free.”

Gertrude Stein

“Then on a stately Oak I cast mine Eye,
Whose ruffling top the Clouds seem’d to aspire…”

Anne Bradstreet

“Where contemplation finds her sacred Spring;
Where heavenly Music makes the Centre ring…
Now here, now there…”

Phyllis Wheatley

“Some…songs cannot be sung.
A song has a few rights, the same as other ordinary citizens. If it feels like walking along the left-hand side of the street…and sitting on the curb, why not let it? If it feels like kicking over an ash can, a poet’s castle, or the law… will you stop it? Should it not have a chance to sing to itself, if it can sing? To enjoy itself without making a bow, if it can’t make a bow? If it happens to feel like trying to fly where humans cannot fly, to sing what cannot be sung, in short, who shall stop it?“

Charles Ives

“Buildings, pictures and sculpture seem to be born, like the flowers by the roadside, to sing themselves into being…Wherever the cypress rises, like the touch of a magician’s wand…Simple geometry; the graphic soul of the thing…
…every tree a tower above the great calm plains…serene…as they lie….beneath a wonderful sweep of sky…
…Voices and vision everywhere…Imagination is our human divinity.”

Frank Lloyd Wright

The Musicians

Step into the Brickyard Broadcast

Step-by-step troubleshooting for this unique virtual performance

Note: Brickyard Broadcast can be experienced on a computer or mobile device, but a computer and the following provisions will allow for the best audio experience.

• Connect your mouse and stereo headphones.
• Open this page in the Firefox web browser (Firefox gives the best stereo audio experience and is the suggested browser to experience Brickyard Broadcast).
• Click the button below (available at 6pm on Nov. 12) to enter the VR portal.

• When the page finishes loading, click the pink button that says “Create a room with this scene.” This opens a private showing of the performance. It may take a moment to load.

• At the bottom of the screen, click the pink button that says “Enter Room.”

• Accept or customize your avatar.

• Click ‘Enter Now’ to confirm your audio settings.

• Use your arrow keys to move around the scene. Click and drag the mouse to look around. Notice the effect on the soundscape. Travel throughout the scene and observe the changing soundscapes responding to your movement.