The concert hall, to Nick Reeves, is “one of the last places where we experience societal relations in silence and solitude.” He explained that in the Information Age, in a crowded and fast-paced New York, many people take in music and art while concurrently performing other activities.
The East Meadow resident has been the choir director at Holy Trinity Orthodox Church for 15 years and is a professor at Adelphi University, where he is gearing up for a concert on Oct. 19 that will give guests a combined experience of film and music.
For more than a year, he has been working with Moscow conservatory composer Vladimir Grobik to create “Sounds of Cinema,” a concert experience that aims to unify cultures in “a space where we could think about these ideas in a different flow of time,” he said.
The concert features the American branch of the Russian Capital Symphony Orchestra as well as three Adelphi students. Luke Sullivan is premiering his score for the 1902 film “Trip to the Moon,” Kevin Lubin is premiering his score for the original “Alice in Wonderland” silent film and Julio Ulloa, who also studies digital production and film, will be premiering his documentary to the score that will be performed by the orchestra.
Ulloa’s documentary covers issues like deforestation, pollution, poaching and other issues that affect the environment and wildlife.
Reeves chose a song for Ulloa and, in it, he heard a “beautiful, ignorant happiness,” he said. “The type of happiness when you know something’s wrong.” As an environmentalist, Ulloa thought of problems plaguing our ecosystem that, he added, aren’t impossible to deal with when a community works together. “We can’t go back to the way things were, but we could make it less of an issue so we still have an Earth to live on,” he said.
Reeves’ music career primarily stems from his involvement in church choirs like the group he directs at Holy Trinity. And he was a part of the Westminster Choir College in Princeton before getting involved with composition, voice and piano.
Reeves said that his work with the church choir differs from his work outside as all music in his orthodox faith is a cappella. “What plays a necessary role is not to sway or influence people to a different emotional state, but to educate,” he said, adding that his concert work is more ambiguous, involves richer harmonies and is more frenetic and dramatic.
Reeves recently started his own musical family as well and is married to Deborah Elizabeth, a French teacher who used to play cello and sang in his choir, and the father of four-month old George. His concert, “Sounds of Cinema” will premiere on Oct. 19 at 7:30 at Adelphi University. For more information, visit https://events.adelphi.edu/au_event/the-sounds-of-cinema/.