The Bow and the Brush is Dan Flanagan’s unique and exciting project of commissioning and composing music inspired by paintings and sculptures. The program will include works by Libby Larsen, Nathaniel Stookey, Cindy Cox, Edmund Campion, Peter Josheff, Jose Gonzalez Granero, Evan Price, Shinji Eshima, Jacques Desjardins, and Dan, himself. Each piece is performed alongside a projection of the artwork that inspired it. This performance is immediately followed by a tour including Boston University, Carnegie Hall, University of Rome Tor Vergata, and The American Library in Paris.
“Dan Flanagan is a true Renaissance man… an excellent violinist, versatile enough to serve as a blank canvas (in the best sense) for the diverse styles of all the composers. His generosity and intelligence informed the entire program, and his own compositions affirmed his talent and virtuosity.” -New York Concert Reviews
“When the pandemic shutdown began and we were all stuck at home, like so many musicians, I spent my time playing solo pieces on my violin. I felt happier than most because I did this while looking at the dozens of paintings on my walls I had gathered over many years. Combining the two was an inevitability. I began composing pieces inspired by these paintings, then commissioning my favorite composers to do the same. The feelings I experience when viewing a painting or hearing music seem to be generated from the same place, and therefore feel connected. The colors of paint relate to the colors of tone, and the texture of brush strokes relate to the articulation of bow strokes. Although I hadn’t planned on doing anything like this before the Covid shutdown, it now seems like the obvious result of my life thus far. I am particularly happy to be spreading the work of living composers and artists, performing these pieces everywhere I can.” – Dan Flanagan