Darkness explored through music in Earth Hour concert.
Pianist Frank Horvat presents an Earth Hour show March 27 at the Assembly Hall, featuring music from his latest CD 'A Little Dark Music' and a special performance in the dark.
Courtesy photo
If you spent Earth hour last year sitting in the dark waiting for the hour to pass, this year, pianist Frank Horvat is offering a unique alternative.
This coming Saturday will be the fourth annual Earth Hour, where people around the world are asked to turn off their lights and appliances in their homes for one hour for our environment.
It will also mark the premiere concert for Horvat's Green Keys Tour, where the second half of the concert will be entirely in the dark.
"I'm going to perform (the composition) 'Earth Hour' during the event Earth Hour from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. and it's literally timed to the second, and the last note and the last beat of the piece will end exactly at 9:30 when all the lights come on."
The Etobicoke resident also composed the piece in a darkened room and said it was done with the thought of what it's like to be in the dark, the feelings one can explore while in darkness and whatever that may entail for someone.
"It could be happiness, sadness, focus, spiritual, fulfillment, it could evoke many things," he said. "I wanted the piece to compliment the darkness, not be about darkness, it's sort of like a soundtrack to experiencing darkness and whatever emotionally may come from that."
Following the success of his first CD release I'll Be Good in 2007, Horvat will be performing music from his newest CD A Little Dark Music that was inspired by Earth Hour and his passion for the environment.
"I wanted it to be about something about a greater cause that's just not about me alone, so I thought the environment was something the greater society could relate to," he said, adding that since the music is based on Earth Hour it would be symbolic and significant to premiere the CD at that time.
A grassroots effort and a labour of love, Horvat has been composing this latest CD and planning this tour for the past seven months, including how to make it as eco-friendly as possible.
The tour will see Horvat visiting every province in Canada over a year, and he will be travelling as green as possible, taking public transit and Greyhound whenever he can. There will be no programs and instead the program will be projected on a video screen and the CD packaging is printed on recycled paper using vegetable inks.
Even the sponsors were chosen based on their environmental efforts.
"Any local or national sponsors that I approached had to have some type of strong commitment to eco-sustainability so I can help showcase companies that are really making an effort to do the right things," he said.
Horvat's eco-friendly tour is an extension of how he and his wife live their everyday lives. The couple are very environmentally conscious, rarely using their hybrid car, eating organic and local food, basically implementing every eco-option that's available to them.
However, while he hopes to raise awareness about the environment he said he's not trying to be preachy, but just hopes to inspire people.
"If there's anything I hope the Green Keys Tour will do, if it doesn't get people to change their habits, at least it can get people to think," Horvat said. "Just think about what you do in your everyday life, think about what you're about to throw in the garbage or that light you left on in the basement...it's a start."
The Green Keys Tour kicks off Saturday, March 27 at 7:30 p.m., at The Assembly Hall, 1 Colonel Samuel Smith Park Dr. Admission is free with first-come, first-served seating. CDs will be available at the show with 25 per cent of the proceeds going to the World Wildlife Fund. For more information visit www.frankhorvat.com/tour