12 Minutes Max

12 Minutes Max is a curated monthly experimental performance series, presented by the Salt Lake City Public Library, featuring new original works by local artists in many disciplines: dance, music, film, theater, writing, performance art and the like. Each event includes three varied performances, with a short Q&A after each piece. It is modeled after the program originated by On the Boards in Seattle.

The City Library will present a live stream 12 Minutes Max on Sunday, March 21, at 2pm. Please join us using this link. The program will be archived on Vimeo after the broadcast and can be viewed later as well.

Violinist Maya Miro Johnson and Composer Devin Maxwell will present PH12 for violin and electronics. The piece exists as a study in memory, music-making, and overtones.  It was commissioned and performed by May Miro Johnson and recorded at the Vieve Gore Concert Hall at Westminster College. Devin Maxwell currently teaches music composition and technology at Westminster College, is director of the Utah Youth Symphony and Ensembles Young Composers Program, and runs the Vu Symposium on Electronic, Experimental, and Improvised Music based in Park City, UT. Maya Miro Johnson is a composer, conductor, violinist, interdisciplinary artist, and member of the performance art duo ~ [pronounced two], currently attending the Curtis Institute of Music.

Performance artist and painter Kristina Lenzi will present Breaking Monotony, a performance art video piece about “breaking monotony, freeing oneself from isolation and connecting to the reality of the natural world.” Kristina has performed in the United States and in Europe, and is the curator of the Annual Salt Lake City Performance Art Festival, which will be celebrating its eighth season on April 2nd and 3rd.  Kristina would like to thank Laina Thomas for being her trusty videographer for this piece and over the years.

Deseret Experimental Opera will give us an inside look into the making of their most recent production, Hundred Years Hence, an original libretto by local artist Max Barnewitz, which explores themes of identity and out-of-placeness in the tale of local award winning blind lace maker Elsie Pierath and the fictional contemporary M. It premieres the weekend of March 19 and 20 with live performances at Gilgal Sculpture Garden (more info. at https://www.deseretopera.org/hundred-years-hence). The production includes Rachel Grider performing the vocals of Elsie Pierath. At 12MM, we will see a video taken during the choreographic process, featuring Atticus Riemo, Rachel Luebbert, Emma Sargent, and Craig Mitchell as the cast, Alexandra Barbier as the choreographer, with music by Nora Price. DEXO is a nonprofit organization, founded in 2013, producing unconventional operas across and about the Wasatch Front, that foster a cross-disciplinary community of artists.