When collaborating, I understand the importance of surrounding myself with talented people. In this case, two of my multimedia quartet's undeniable MVPs are director/screenwriter/actor Gil Luna, the genius who made Ploutonion's short film and poet Jason W. Johnson. The latter’s "The Night Watches" is essential to every emotional beat of both the music (scored for amplified clarinet, electric violin, electric cello, and fixed-media electronics) and the film, defining the air of tension in the first two thirds and the moving undercurrents of the final sequence. Luna's approach is beautifully tactile, making this science-fictional story genuine. We may not be able to fully relate to the female protagonist's narrative, but we can appreciate the image of a young woman remembering a romantic dinner with the one she loved. Neither Johnson's nor Luna's imagery is very fluid, and is rather like the choppy blockbuster cinematography that we’re used to seeing in sci-fi. What is most important, however, is that it feels like everything here is of one vision—cinematography (by Kenneth Luba), direction, acting, poetry, score, etc. Please watch by going to the Media page.
Ploutonion Quartet Becomes Score for Indie Film!
ZANE GILLESPIE
After six years as Minister of Music at Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church (UMC) in Holly Springs, MS, I was recently called to continue to work to address public engagement in music participation as Director of Music Ministries at First UMC in Water Valley, MS. I am a Composer, Theorist, and member of both The College Music Society as well as The Poe Studies Association (PSA). I am also an active pianist and vocalist, specializing primarily in church music. My paper entitled ““Mesmeric Revelation”: Art as Hypnosis” has been published by the international, peer-reviewed journal Humanities. In addition, another paper of mine entitled “A Model of Triadic Post-Tonality for a Neoconservative Postmodern String Quartet by Sky Macklay” has been submitted to the peer-reviewed Music Theory journal Perspectives of New Music. At the end of February 2015, I served as Chair for the session entitled “Aesthetics and Philosophy” at The Fourth International PSA Conference in New York City. On June 21, 2014, my Quartet for Alto Saxophone and Strings, a commission from concert saxophonist Walter Hoehn, was performed as part of Concert V of the Eighth Annual Belvedere Chamber Music Festival held at Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Memphis, TN. Characteristically neo-romantic (in the original sense of the word), my music earned me the Nancy Van de Vate Award for Composition three times from the University of Mississippi Department of Music. A native of Pontotoc, MS, I hold degrees from the University of Mississippi (BM; MM), and the University of Memphis (DMA) where I was the 2011 recipient of the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music's Smit Composition Award. I live in Memphis, TN.