Evento

Telluride Chamber Music Festival

What: a performance of Dynamo: Thomas A. Edison, a life overheard, a song cycle by Larry London with words by William Smock

When: Friday, August 19, 2016 7:30 PM

Where: Christ Presbyterian Church

Who: Eileen Morris, soprano
John Duykers, tenor

The Telluride Chamber Players:
Roy Malan, violin
Susan Freier, violin
Nancy Ellis, viola
Stephen Harrison, cello
Robin Sutherland, piano
Larry London, clarinet

About the song cycle: Before there were Steve Jobs and Elon Musk there was Thomas Edison, the greatest inventor/entrepreneur of all time. Unlike the first two, he was a benign, grandfatherly figure with no messy personal life, no taste for patent lawsuits, self-promotion or high finance. Or was he? A new song cycle by composer Larry London, explores what it takes to accomplish great things in a globalized, fast-changing, media-savvy, free-market world: Thomas Edisons.

Edison bulldozed everything in his way, including his family, colleagues and investors. His greatest weaknesses as a man lack of sympathy for others, donkey-like persistence, scientific naiveté were his biggest assets as an inventor and businessman. The songs are sprightly, but they have an ironic undertone. They shine a light both on Edisons achievements and on the wreckage he left in his wake.

The concert will not last more than an hour. Families are urged to come.