Nightingale and the Tower, featuring the Sonic Butterfly

Nightingale and the Tower, by composer, director, and award-winning performing artist Rebecca Comerford, is an inter-generational futuristic fable about a young boy who challenges the dystopian norms by disobeying his mother and playing outside. Entering a magical forest, he finds a nightingale (thought to be extinct) and a super-computer tower operated by an empress that knows a little too much.

At the heart of this musical adventure through nature, technology, and art is the spectacular Sonic Butterfly, an acoustic, chromatic, long-string harp designed and performed by acclaimed musician and installation artist Andrea Brook. With strings more than 60 feet long that span out over the audience, the vast two-octave harp creates rich longitudinal vibrations with ascending overtones that will transform First Ward Park into a stunning immersive musical instrument. Its two resonating chambers have butterfly-shaped projection-screen or LED wings, adding visual splendor to this extraordinary sonic experience.

Local professionals and students collaborating in the fields of opera, dance, theater, and electronic composition join Brook to perform segments of Comerford’s electro-acoustic chamber opera. The UNC Charlotte College of Arts + Architecture and Charlotte Center City Partners are pleased to present an enchanting program that challenges us to consider how we can remain connected to our humanity and the natural world in the face of encroaching technology.