“DB6-1AMNYSubway” Brenda Hutchinson, Daily Bell 2008 project

The life work of Brenda Hutchinson (literally “life work”, based on the cultivation and encouragement of openness in her own life and in those she works with) covers a range of action from abstract electronic music to year-long pieces such as her ongoing project, “dailybell2008”, a commitment to the simple action of ringing bells at sunrise and sunset every day for a year and sharing the awareness of that moment with others.

In public collaborations such as the “The West 4th Street Quintet”, Hutchinson records people that she encounters on the street, listening and witnessing; in more personal explorations and performances she works with family and loved ones working through grief and loss or fear. A recent turning point is “SoundTracks”, a score/invention and collaboration with her friend artist Ann Chamberlain, whose memory was seriously compromised due to end stage breast cancer. “SoundTracks” enabled Ann to draw by means of programmed sounds, intimate and personal elements of her daily life. Brenda Hutchinson has currently completed hospice and palliative care training to explore extending the potential benefits of the project to others. The “SoundTracks” drawings were shown as part of “Possibility of Action, the Life of the Score”, an exhibition exploring musical notation curated by Held-Subirà and produced by MACBA June-October 2008).

For “Lines of Sight #6”, Hutchinson converses with San Francisco composer/performer Jon Brumit, founder of Neighborhood Public Radio, about the thread of “collaborating with strangers” that runs through their work, and premieres a work in progress with The Cardew Choir directed by Tom Bickley.