‘Reality opera’ THE NEWS brings together a pop-culture video mashup with a live orchestra

‘Reality opera’ THE NEWS brings together a pop-culture video mashup with a live orchestra
JacobTV
‘Reality opera’ THE NEWS brings together a pop-culture video mashup with a live orchestra
JacobTV

‘Reality opera’ THE NEWS brings together a pop-culture video mashup with a live orchestra

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Dutch composer Jacob Ter Veldhuis, aka JacobTV, looks beyond traditional instruments and vocal elements when composing songs. He’s long brought in sonic and visual elements of popular culture into his work. His latest work, THE NEWS, takes the continuous barrage of images, talking heads, bombastic commentators, politicians and political events, and even the vanity-driven pop stars that we’re exposed to daily, and constructs these images and sounds into a concert of social commentary he calls a “reality opera.” He explores contemporary politics, culture and news through this mashup of the 24-7 barrage of media we’re exposed to.

THE NEWS is a collaboration with the Fulcrum Point New Music Project, who perform live along with the backdrop of images and sound put together by Ter Veldhuis (Fulcrum Point performed on Eight Forty-Eight a few months ago; you can watch a short video of their work here.)

We speak with Ter Veldhuis, and Fulcrum Point’s Stephen Burns about THE NEWS, its inspiration and message, and about how they worked together to bring this multimedia explosion together for their audience.

THE NEWS gets its world premiere this Friday in Pittsburgh. It then comes to Chicago for two performances on Friday, May 4th at the Park West.