Performing Arts Initiative presents “Illuminated Cello” at Bingen Theater

“Start the new year off with a bang”, said Hardham. “This creative collaboration is sure to take us all on a kinetic adventure that we will remember for a long time after!”

Lancaster is an electro-acoustic cellist and composer. He has composed more than 50 full-length works for concert, dance, theater and film but while his formal training has been in the classical genre, his raw personal approach to music combines pop music, technology and innovation.

Lancaster takes the nuances of the entire instrument, twisting the wooden cello body into drum sounds and isolating the quiet tones of the strings into complex emotions, said a press release. As he plays, Lancaster uses sampling devices and layers the sound of his own cello, playing and altering as he riffs spontaneously, all while playing with a custom pink bow.

“I am inspired by contemporary dance and find that it matches my desire for improvisation”, Lancaster noted. “I take my inspiration for music from visual mediums. Dance compelled me to play in different ways.” He began performing and composing in Europe and South America as well as working as band leader for the Bill Jones Dance Company in New York. In 2010, he had the privilege of performing his music for President Obama at the Kennedy Center Honors.

Since 2018, Lancaster has made his home in Hood River, performing regularly with the Columbia Gorge Orchestra Sinfonietta and touring internationally. At the Bingen Theater performance, he will be playing tunes from his repertoire in addition to some new compositions recorded recently in Los Angeles.

Hardham is a long-time videographer and lightshow artist whose roots in the art form date back to the late 1960s and tours with bands like the Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Grateful Dead. His work with the Heavy Water Lightshow in planetariums across North America and Europe during the 1970s and early 1980s is legendary, said a press release. Together with business partner Michael Friend and Laughing Deva Productions, he has produced a string of award winning videos for regional Columbia Gorge clients.

In 2020, shut in and frustrated by the pandemic, Hardham felt a strong need to return to his roots as a light artist. “I’ve been gathering videos and photos for years, I always had this idea that I could get back into doing lightshows. There is a huge interest world-wide in projection art, and I’ve had a lot of support from the online community.” After a number of live shows at the Bingen Theater performing with the rock group Funkship Columbia, Hardham saw Lancaster perform as part of a CGOA performance at the St. Paul Cathedral in The Dalles.

“I was blown away by Chrissy’s improvisational style and radical sounds. I knew this was the person I needed to work with! The lightshow is essentially an improvisational visual art form, happening in the moment, and in performance together we riff off each other — Chrissy can watch what I do and he can respond with his cello, which changes my choices of matching visuals. We challenge each other.”

A special guest video appearance by contemporary dancer Nika Kermani of NK Studios is integrated into the visual performance.