Yale Concert Band to Perform in the Dark

The Yale Concert Band, under the musical direction of Thomas C. Duffy, will team up with the Columbia University Wind Ensemble for an unusual joint Winter Concert on February 23 at 8 p.m. in Woolsey Hall.

The concert is free and the public is welcome.

As part of the program, the Yale musicians will perform a theater piece titled “Cave of the Winds” by Russell Peck. This piece is played from memory on a stage bathed in black light and fog. The premise is that the members of the band are blind and can communicate only through touch and sound.

The composer has said, “In the Cave there is no sunlight. Everyone has lost his sight, wearing sunglasses over their atrophied eyes. Plants [stand] about in the Cave, nourished by vapors and black light. The musicians of the Cave never read music. How could they? All music is by feel…”

This concert will be repeated at Columbia University on March 4.