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An outline of the project, showing the development history and future aspirations.

This project was made possible by support from the W.L.S. Spencer Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Welcome to Firebird Interactive, a multimedia exploration of the music, history, and personalities of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra through its interpretation of Stravinsky's Firebird Suite. Firebird Interactive is the first publicly available product of the Pittsburgh Symphony's music & technology committee, AccessMusic.

AccessMusic was born in 1998, the result of the Pittsburgh Symphony's unique Hoshin management technique. Comprised of musicians, staff, and board members, AccessMusic is committed to increasing the understanding and appreciation of the world's finest classical performances using new and innovative technologies.

AccessMusic began its experiments in December of 1999, contracting Terry Braun of Braunarts to produce a pilot work based on Stravinsky's music for the Diagalev ballet, Petrushka. The pilot work began with developing a new recording strategy and eight microphones were placed at strategic locations within the orchestra during rehearsals and performances, producing a unique recording, crafted specifically for use in multimedia.

 



The Petrushka pilot was developed to exist on CD-ROM and contains four central areas of exploration:

  • Background information on the orchestra and project


  • Background information on Petrushka


  • A video interview with the conductor Mariss Jansons

  • Interactive performance area, allowing close examination of the work using dynamic controls
 


The Petrushka pilot was a success, teaching the AccessMusic committee about what works, and doesn't work, when capturing recordings for multimedia purposes, and inspiring the group to learn from both their successes and failures as it moved forward with additional projects - projects that, with the right mix of content and technology, could be shared with the world.



In May of 2000, AccessMusic again commissioned Terry Braun of Braunarts to produce a project based on a second Stravinsky work for ballet, Firebird Suite. The goal of this project would be an Internet site for experiencing Firebird, which we have come to call Firebird Interactive.

Unlike the Petrushka experiment, Firebird On-line required new compression techniques to allow the World Wide Web to be the platform of the work. A special recording of the Firebird Suite was captured and it is included here in the 'Music' section.

 


Expanding on the successful interviews with conductor Mariss Jansons in the Petrushka pilot, Firebird Interactive adds interviews with musicians from different sections of the orchestra. This gives a unique aspect of personal insight to one's understanding of the PSO's performance, and helps the audience discover ideas and thoughts about the music that offer added value to the understanding and appreciation of the PSO's world-class performance. You can see and hear the six musicians talking and playing extracts from the Firebird Suite in the 'Behind the Notes' section.

 

The seven video interviews were recorded in Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts, the home of the orchestra. Background sounds of concert preparation have deliberately been retained in accordance with the informal nature of the interviews. The interviewees have been placed in magical Firebird surroundings. The background imagery is taken from photographs of a wooden representation of the mythical bird 'Guruda' and were specially shot by Terry Braun in Java. Using matting, keying and compositing techniques, this approach strengthens and underpins the bespoke look and feel for the entire site. The Before and After shots of concert leader Andrés Cárdenes shown below, demonstrate the substantial aesthetic difference that this technique creates.

A new section developed specifically to take advantage of the web's ability to stream media, is the 'Story' section. This section contains the narrative of the Firebird as well as an animated story using Flash software. The animation uses specially commissioned drawings by Roby Braun.
 

The Pittsburgh Symphony and AccessMusic hope that you enjoy Firebird Interactive as an educational, informative, and entertaining experience. We welcome your comments on Firebird Interactive or questions about our Petrushka pilot; please direct all mail to webmaster@pittsburghsymphony.org.

Thanks for visiting.
 

AccessMusic is:

  • Hampton Mallory, Cello, Committee Chair
  • Kevin DeLuca, Manager of Technical Communications, Committee Manager
  • Suzanne Perrino, Director of Education and Outreach
  • David Gillis, Violin
  • Martin Smith, Co-principal Horn
  • Harold Smoliar, Principal English Horn
  • Dwight Dietrich, New Leadership Board
  • Danforth Fales, Board of Directors
  • Perry Morrison, Board of Directors
  • James Wilkinson, Board of Directors

AccessMusic thanks Ray Clover, Heinz Hall Sound Technician, for his many contributions to this project.