Released: September 27, 2011

Lincoln, Neb. - The University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Music and Hixson-Lied Professor of Piano Paul Barnes welcome the acclaimed violinist and Portals creator Tim Fain and members of his creative team to campus on Tuesday, Oct. 4 for a special preview of their performance piece. The Midwest premiere of Portals will take place at KANEKO, an open space for creativity in Omaha, Neb., on Oct. 5-6.

Tim Fain and Paul Barnes
Tim Fain (left) and Paul Barnes

The preview at UNL will take place on Oct. 4 at 5:30 pm in Westbrook Music Building, Rm. 119. The event is free and open to the public.

Portals is a multi-media performance collaboration conceived by Tim Fain as live music interacting with an original video and including a commissioned work by the award-winning composer Philip Glass. Conceived around the theme of human connection in the digital age, the finished work will receive its World Premiere at Symphony Space in New York City on Sept. 24.

The project has been featured in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Travel and Leisure and New York Magazine.

KANEKO's Experimental Studio has supported the project and served as film co-producer.

For the performance on Thursday, Oct. 6 in Omaha, Silicon Prairie News is teaming up with KANEKO to hold a "Live Social Media Meet Up and Party" at Nomad Lounge, while the performance takes place one building to the west in KANEKO, located at 1111 Jones St. in Omaha. They are seeking 25 individuals to blog their thoughts and reactions while watching the live performance of Portals on Livestream.

"Portals is about the way we communicate through social media," said Hal France, Executive Director of KANEKO. "We are inviting people who love social media to help us understand how this project could connect people to the arts."

To participate in the social media experiment, visit go.unl.edu/socialmediaportals.

Barnes, whose diverse musical career has included the world premiere of Philip Glass's Piano Concerto No. 2, will join Fain in performance on Oct. 4. The preview will also include video footage and an open discussion with filmmaker Kate Hackett; actor/narrator Fred Child, the host of NPR's Performance Today; pianist Nick Britell; writer Jacob Rubin; KANEKO Executive Director Hal France; and Fain.

October 4 Campus Schedule

For more information or to register, visit thekaneko.org/portals.
Download the schedule.

  • Music video with Kate Hackett, 4 pm - Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film
  • Theater Design with Roderick Murray, 4 pm - Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film
  • Collaborative Writing with Jacob Rubin, 4 pm - UNL Bailey Library, Room 229
  • Piano Performance with Nick Britell, 4 pm - School of Music, Westbrook Room 241
  • Film Composition with Nick Britell, 4:30 pm - School of Music, Westbrook Room 1.1
  • Portals Preview and Lecture Performance, 5:30 pm - School of Music, Westbrook Room 119
        FREE and open to the public!
  • Performance Reception hosted by UNL President JB Milliken, 7 pm - Sheldon Art Museum, Main Hall
        Audience welcome!

Glass's Partita for unaccompanied violin forms the musical core of Portals along with works by contemporary American composers Aaron Jay Kernis, Nico Muhly, Kevin Puts, William Bolcom, Lev Zhurbin and Laura Karpman. The video combines the work of Los Angeles filmmaker Kate Hackett and Benjamin Millepied whose distinguished career as a principal dancer and choreographer at the New York City Ballet includes the choreography for the Academy Award-winning film "Black Swan." Writer Rubin has incorporated the poetry of Leonard Cohen into an original script spoken on screen by Fred Child.

For more information about the Oct. 4 preview and the performances on Oct. 5-6, visit thekaneko.org or call (402) 341-3800. To view the official trailer for Portals, visit go.unl.edu/portalstrailer.