Ivan Moshcuk, Royal Academy of Music
This paper presents a practice-led study centered on temporal and spatial continuity in the visual translation of musical performance. In question are two experimental concert films where I have functioned as both performer and filmmaker, entitled Vision Fugitive and Winter Afternoon. Both films were completed with a single camera and in counterpoint to traditional montage techniques, and are anchored by contrasting programs – the first features music of Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, and Cage; the second, music of Schubert. What happens when we abandon multicam conventions and decelerate the image to the extreme, thus creating long-form concert films where the camera is either carefully choreographed as a single flowing image, or deployed for the creation of a series of still frames of significant duration? In my research, I have attempted both methodologies, in addition to creating a process that coordinates performer, lighting, and camera in real time. I have also reevaluated and rebalanced the hierarchy between artform and director, with the aim of reimaging the dialogue between musical score and camera. Through the prolonging of the image to such extremes the viewer not only earns a chance to process an image rigorously, but also is given a new conception of the boundaries and structure of a musical program. Furthermore, this paper discusses the implications and problematic aspects these approaches pose for the further deployment of montage, and ultimately argues that such experimental methods have the capacity to bring the viewer closer to the immersive and ritual aspects of a live performance experience.
Biography: Pianist Ivan Moshchuk is emerging as a distinct voice in the sphere of classical music. His past performances have taken him to major cities across Europe, North and South America, and Asia, appearing on stages such as the Kleine Zaal of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Suntory Blue Rose Hall in Tokyo, and the Accademia Filarmonica Romana in Rome. Recent engagements have included concerts for the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the William Walton Foundation in Ischia, and Casa Menotti as part of the Spoleto Festival in Italy. In addition to his concert activities, he has devoted significant time to working across disciplines and filmmaking – his first short film, The Last Leaf (2021), captured the attention of independent film festivals worldwide and received an honorable mention at the Bordeaux Shorts Biennale (2022) as well as an award for Best First Time Filmmaker at the Tokyo International Short Film Festival (2021). Ivan completed advanced training in 2013 at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, graduating in the class of Leon Fleisher. He is currently a PhD candidate at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where in addition to guest directing several broadcasts, he has completed a series of experimental concert films as both performer and director for his thesis centred on filming music.