Meet the Artist: Composer, Saxophonist, Educator Andrew Raffo Dewar

Southern Constellations is an NEA funded curatorial project now in its second season at Elsewhere, Greensboro's living museum. The fellowship program brings six dynamic artist teams from across our region for special residencies at Elsewhere where they explore experimental art in the South. Composer, soprano saxophonist, ethnomusicologist, and educator Andrew Raffo Dewar was the fourth of 6 Southern Constellations fellow artists to work on site at Elsewhere. The Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts in New College and the School of Music at the University of Alabama spent weeks at Elsewhere creating a graphic and tactile score entitled “Material Music”, and we're sampling from a recent performance right now.  

When you think of Western Classical Music, you might picture a series of dots and lines on a page, but many artists over the years have worked on the translation from the visual to sonic realms (and vice-versa). Some 20^th century examples include Kandinsky's 1914 painting "Fugue," and his attempt to visually compose "improvisations" and "musical compositions" with his paintings. Earl Brown's “December 1952”: was an abstract image of lines that were interpreted by musicians. Andrew Raffo Dewar has taken these ideas one step further with his unique score.

David Ford spoke to Composer, improviser, woodwind instrumentalist and ethnomusicologist Southern Constellations fellow Andrew Raffo Dewar. He spoke with him about his graphic score Material Music performed by local musicians at Elsewhere, the living museum in the heart of downtown Greensboro. Elsewhere, is located at 606 S. Elm Street. They're open Wed - Sat from 1 - 10pm, and their NEA funded curatorial project Southern Constellations continues later this month when they'll announce this year's participants.