On Friday, February 20, from 6-8pm, ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum and the Southern Oregon University Honors College will present “Making Music,” a project coordinated by SOU Professor of Music, Artist in Residence, and Honors College Instructor, Dr. Terry Longshore. In this inspiring project, Longshore and the 25 students of his “Making Music” course in the SOU Honors College are designing and composing a multi-media, multi-instrumental performance titled “Honor Memories,” and invoking SOU Honors College’s 5 values: Curiosity, Community, Critical Thinking, Creativity and Innovation, and Civic Engagement/Citizenship.
Spread throughout the entire museum, the performance will map out the 5 values in different sections of ScienceWorks, inviting the audience to wander during the performance and experience musical interludes interpreting the 5 values’ themes. Being a percussionist, Longshore says, “there will absolutely be a plethora of percussion instruments and sounds employed, but expect other sound worlds as well, including the instruments and installations present at ScienceWorks.”
Following on the success of November 2024’s “Full Circle: Turtle Wisdom,” a collaboration between renowned artist Betty LaDuke, Longshore, the SOU Percussion Ensemble, and the 2024 Honors College “Making Music” course students, attendees can expect to experience something that shares elements of that performance, but is also completely new. In “Full Circle: Turtle Wisdom,” the performers followed a graphic score composed by Longshore, while interpreting individual selections from LaDuke’s “Turtle Wisdom” series of artworks. Spread throughout the museum, each performer used a single gong with a multitude of playing techniques, coming together and breaking apart in waves of sound. “There may be similar moments in this new project,” says Longshore, “but also expect something very different. We are currently experimenting with a wide variety of percussion instruments, other musical and ‘found’ instruments, spoken and sung text, and more. Also, this time around all 26 of us are composing and creating the work together, truly ‘making music’ as a community.”
As part of SOU’s final Resiliency Plan announced in August, the Honors College will be discontinued. Students currently enrolled are being allowed to finish out their degrees, and the University has committed to offering the courses needed for them to do so. A difficult closing to their university career, the students are reflecting on their memories and incorporating those reflections into this project.
ScienceWorks will open at 6:00pm on Friday, February 20, for the event. Two performances will take place, the first at 6:30pm and the second at 7:30pm, each lasting 15-20 minutes. The museum will close at 8pm. Audience members are welcome to arrive at any time during the event, and are welcome to listen to both performances if desired. Admission is free for ScienceWorks members and SOU students and staff; all others are $10. A repeat performance of “Making Music” will take place at the SOU Percussion Ensemble’s concert titled “Toy Story,” taking place on Thursday, March 5, at 7:30pm in the SOU Music Recital Hall.