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Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Volcano and Cello





There is a young cello artist I had the pleasure of hearing as my daughter and I strolled the streets of Alberta in Portland, Oregon during a FirstThursday Art Fair. This was a few years ago. Amid the creative booths and tables of very interestingly talented artists, Adam Hurst's music wove in and out of my psyche. His cello music is absolutely mesmerizing and I was enthralled with the hypnotic cords wafting through the night like clouds of incense. It is the most ethereal music I have ever heard...it takes you to a deep part of your heart.
Adam Hurst studied cello at Skidmore College while in high school and Brown University while in college. He holds a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design (1997). He taught cello at Providence College as an adjunct from 1998-2002 and continues to teach privately.
That was the same year that we took a trip to Mount St. Helens. Adam Hurst's cello was the perfect background music for our visit~ the volcano that erupted May 18,1980. Mount St.Helens is an awesome effect of nature. Miles and miles of fir trees line the mountains along the road corridors. It is a herring bone pattern. So vast you can't wrap your mind around it. Then the sullen emptiness of the many miles surrounding the volcano that still expires its breath, looking almost like a teepee with smoke signals emitting from its gaping sunken crest. No vegetation except for a few hardy plants that take over years after vast fires have killed everything in sight. The last words of 30 year old volcanologist David Johnston as he witnessed the explosion...only enough time to shout "Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!" echoes in your mind and the drone of the haunting strings of Adam Hurst's cello seem to meld together as if the music were written for this awesome power of nature. I would like to go back sometime soon..but meanwhile I shall listen to Adam Hurst's evocative, dream like emotional melodies. Occurences happen in Portland and the Pacific Northwest that transfix your life, I'm pretty sure of that! It happens to me every time.
http://www.gypsycello.com/ Here is his website for his newest work. You will enjoy it I'm sure.