arts
Making a Splash
Agarita joins forces with San Antonio native Nadia Botello for an aquatic concert at Alamo Heights Pool BY KELLY NELSON
A
garita’s latest concert is literally immersive. The roving chamber quartet is known for playing in unique venues — including its mobile Humble Hall — but has outdone itself for its next performance. Attendees would be advised to pack their swimsuits for the free concert on Friday, May 6, which will be held at the Alamo Heights Pool. For each of its concerts, Agarita works with another artist or group to create a musical performance that often incorporates other artistic disciplines, from poetry to glass-blowing. This time, the ensemble has collaborated with multi-dimensional artist and San Antonio native Nadia Botello on a new, two-part composition that required the musicians to The city of San Antonio would not exist if find a particularly out-of-the-box venue. it were not for the San Antonio River, the Botello’s Ojo de Agua is a series of two works Edwards Aquifer and the sundry springs and that meditates on San Antonio’s waterways creeks throughout the area,” Botello told the and which are intended to be listened to Current. above and below water. With Ojo de Agua, she “As we navigate through drought, the poses the questions: “What might the river be ever-expanding built environment, pollution saying for itself?” and “What does it mean to and other major concerns ... What kind of really listen to a body of water?” experience and questions can we provoke for Botello approaches the queries both literan audience — listening in a pool with water ally and figuratively — Ojo provided by these systems de Agua incorporates — and what might that Agarita + Nadia Botello audio from recordings mean for the attention Free taken via hydrophone as to and care of our local Friday, May 6 well as interpretations of waters?” 6:30 p.m. scientific data related to Ojo de Agua: I is a longAlamo Heights Pool local waterways. form underwater sound 250 Viesca St. The final layer of the installation that combines experience is down to recorded improvisations agarita.org the listeners, who must performed by Agarita choose how they take in with hydrophone recordthe experience. Do they stay on dry land and ings from notable sites along the San Antonio listen to sound waves in the air? Or do they River. With U.S. Geographical Survey (USGS) immerse themselves in the pool, where the water data from the San Antonio River and music will be transmitted through the water? Olmos Creek, Botello generated graphical interpretations of measurements related to the health of the waterways which Agarita Material and cultural history members Daniel Anastasio, Marisa Bushman, Ignacio Gallego and Sarah Silver Manzke used A ninth-generation Tejana and fourth-genas the basis of their improvisations. eration San Antonian, Botello previously Unlike the rest of the evening’s program, combined her passion for local bodies of the audio of Ojo de Agua: I will only be played water with sonic pursuits when completing into the water, so it will require immersion to her MFA in Music/Sound at Bard College. Her get the full experience. The piece is a marmaster’s thesis, “Yanaguana Frictions,” is a athon three to four hours long, but it’s not large-scale installation centered on more necessarily meant to be absorbed all at once. than 12,000 years of material and cultural Instead, the length is intended to make it history of the San Antonio River. so that listeners “never experience the same “Water is our most important resource.
Bonnie Arbittier
moment twice,” according to Botello. The installation will be played for an hour at the May 6 concert, starting at 6:30 p.m.
Evoking a shape Following Ojo de Agua: I, Agarita will perform live at 7:30 p.m. The program is centered on Botello’s Ojo de Agua: II, which will be performed by the quartet and transmitted underwater simultaneously. While pieces of music usually hinge on following — or breaking — the rules of music theory, in Ojo de Agua: II Botello lets the river make the rules. Using a custom machine-learning process, she translated patterns found in a decade’s worth of San Antonio River USGS water data into the composition and arrangement for the quartet. The end result is a piece of music that evokes the “shape” of that decade of data. In addition to Botello’s Ojo de Agua: II, the concert will feature works by Claude Debussy, Antonín Dvořák, Timo Andres, Philip Glass, Jessica Meyer and Chris Rogerson, all of which will be piped underwater via speakers so listeners can experience the full performance from both above and below the surface. While Botello’s Ojo de Agua is high-minded, it isn’t intended to be didactic. This collaboration with Agarita engages with big ideas, but the pool performance is also meant to be fun. “My hope is that the audience can come experience something unique, accessible and perhaps leave with a few questions of their own,” Botello said.
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