In this RTV episode, Noa Guy performs “Drops of Consciousness,” a series of concert documenting her recovery from a severe brain injury, with Thomas Buckner, Antonio Pio Fini, and Saul Macwillians.
In Part I and II, Noa explores the long journey back from a world of darkness and pain and the birth into a new reality. Part III is not a linear continuation of the last two chapters. This performance is a celebration of acceptance, love of life, and the realization: I am not my injury. With the support of her friends, Noa explores the hidden possibilities embedded in the impossibilities caused by her injury. She can not walk without crutches, but she can move without them. The piano has revealed to her a whole new and mysterious sound world.
Noa Guy: composer, piano, voice, movement
Thomas Buckner: voice
Antonio Pio Fini: movement
Saul Macwillians: sound environment design
Performance date: 06/01/2010
Episode release date: 06/24/2010
Born in Israel in 1949, Noa Guy studied in the theory department of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and continued to evolve privately by composing original pieces along with a composer, Abel Ehrlich. In the early 70’s, Noa studied composition and electronic music with Boris Blacher in the Hochscule fur Musik in West Berlin. Then, she moved to Norway where she made two fantastic kids and continued her explorations. After returning to Israel in 1975, Noa worked with Karlheinz Stockhousen for three years and took master classes with Luciano Berio and Milton Babbitt. After collaborating with Heinz Holiger, Noa received a scholarship from the Scola Cantorum in Basel to compose the electronic score that would later be performed by a renowned English tenor, John Potter, in the Nettlefols Festival of Contemporary Music. She later became a sound artist for Ward Swingle on his visit to Israel. From 1985 until 1993, Noa was the musical director at the Jerusalem Music Centre (JMC), where she headed the master class program, and acted as a sound engineer and an assistant director to all the television productions at JMC. Throughout all these years, Noa continued to compose and perform with international accolades. In the early 90’s, Noa was invited to NY to work under the tutelage of Isaac Stern.
In October of 1993, while driving her and a colleague to New York, Mr. Stern crashed the vehicle inflicting on Noa a severe head injury that changed her life. The resulting brain injury prevented Noa from traveling back to Israel and seeing her family. Furthermore, she was unable to play, listen to, or compose any new music. For 13 years, she tried to find innovative ways to overcome her many physical and mental obstacles, and this performance at Roulette marked the first time when Guy broke her long imposed silence.