Review: Jeffrey Roberts
Wind chimes, plastic grocery bags, empty water bottles, wine glasses, wine bottles, keys and tin cans as musical instruments? Resident composer Jeffrey Roberts kept audience members guessing as he used “found objects” and sounds from ordinary, everyday items and turned them into music. Members of the audience could be seen looking to one another, confused but intrigued, as the concert went on and different “instruments” were brought on stage.
The use of an ancient Chinese stringed instrument, called a guqin, paired with recorded sound added a traditional sound to the unique and modern concert. The concert could be described as delicate and powerful simultaneously, providing the audience with amusement at the instruments and tugging at their emotions with each note. Even if the pieces sounded fairly simple, the rise and fall of each sound provided the perfect stepping stone for emotions to change.
