Motion Pictures

Cutting-edge digital animation meets classical music during tonight's unspooling of Pictures at an Exhibition. As the 36-minute film rolls, Canadian conductor Yuli Turovsky will synchronize music with the "choreographed paintings," using the talents of both his violinist wife and the I Musici de Montreal chamber orchestra. "It's an extremely novel concept: Fine art and classical music made into a movie," says Paul Sykes, the show's producer. "I really feel there will be an explosion of this new art form."The movie-and-music merger premiered in Cannes, L.A., and Montreal in 2005, after the Turovskys' daughter, Natasha, created a series of surrealistic paintings inspired by the 19th-century music of Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky. As the legend goes, he composed Pictures at an Exhibition after the death of his best friend, painter Victor Hartman. "Modest became very depressed and wrote the music, based on his friend's folk paintings," says Sykes. "More than 130 years later, the art was placed behind the orchestra during performances, which progressed to the idea to make a short film."During a 6 p.m. pre-concert reception tonight, you can meet the Turovskys and scope out 15 of the film's images, including floating bells, broomsticks, gnomes, and a weird ballet of hatching chicks. You can also ask the couple about their next project. "With so much high-tech stimulation these days, the classical music world needs to go through an evolution for new audiences," says Sykes. "We don't want to change a single note; we simply add a new way to interact with these great compositions." Pictures at an Exhibition is at 8 tonight in the Cleveland Institute of Music's Kulas Hall, 11021 East Boulevard. Tickets are $25 to $50. Call 216-791-5000 or visit www.cim.edu.
Fri., Nov. 16, 8 p.m., 2007