Frederic Rzewski - Coming Together

Featuring Kevin Craig West, vocal, and Rensselaer Contemporary Music Ensemble in a performance led by David Gibson. Video by Blair Neal. Recorded at EMPAC, Troy NY, Nov 18, 2008. Concert curated by Michael Century and co-produced with Laura Andruski, in the iEAR Presents series of the Rensselaer Department of the Arts.

/I think the combination of age and the greater coming together is responsible for the speed of the passing time. It's six months now and I can tell you truthfully few periods in my life have passed so quickly. I am in excellent physical and emotional health. there are doubtless subtle surprises ahead but I feel secure and ready.

As lovers will contrast their emotions in times of crisis, so am I dealing with my environment. in the indifferent brutality, incessant noise, the experimental chemistry of food, the ravings of lost hysterical men, I can act with clarity and meaning. I am deliberate--sometimes even calculating--seldom employing histrionics except as a test of the reactions of others. I read much, exercise, talk to guards and inmates, feeling for the inevitable direction of my life.//