And that was the first Theremin Day
Yes! We did it, the first Theremin Day took place on the 24th of April 2010, at The Edge in Birmingham, and it was nothing short of a great success!
I had a very busy day myself, running the workshop, MCing the evening event, and performing, so I will leave some of the more in-depth coverage to blogs from people who attended:
Genzaichi | Hellocatfood | Digbeth is Good
I do however want to provide some personal insight into the event and a bit more detail on certain aspects. First and foremost, thanks to everyone that supported me and to those that came along and made it a great event. Much appreciated!
The workshop was a great success. With one exception, which we’re working on, everyone who attended the workshop went home with a noisy box. Here is a selection, thanks to Nikki Pugh:
People worked from the kits and instructions I put together to build their boxes, with only one minor mod required on the day. People brought along some fantastic enclosures and some people even added custom functionality on the day, wow!
The range of people making optical Theremins was a real highlight. Yes, thankfully the usual suspects were there and some of them completed the task in record time but there were also a number of people who had never soldered before, or who would ever previously have considered attending such an event. Their success in building a noisy box, and their reaction to the workshop and evening event was extremely rewarding!
The evening event went really well too. I was pretty nervous at the start but the Theremin videos we started proceedings with soon broke the ice. Here they are:
Theremin documentary (small section) – no link
Leon playing
Clara Rockwell
Mario
The 3 AM radio Theremin
Dana Countryman Ondes Martenot
Theremin Doll (small section)
Mario Bros controller
After these Pete Ashton took to the stage with his Thingamagoops and a variety of light sources, including his LED fingers. He also set up a mic for people who had made noisy boxes in the workshop to come and join in. Great fun!
I then set up the four torches for my performance of Steve Reich’s Pendulum Music, for four optical Theremins and four torches. Thanks to my helpers from the audience for dropping them so effectively. I was really pleased with how this went, and the reaction it received. Thanks to Hellocatfood for videoing it:
To top the evening off Ms Hypnotique provided a fantastic performance with a real Theremin! As well as some amazing Theremin playing, she provided the audience with a great insight into the world of Theremin. As soon as she settled in, I was able to relax a bit, and I thoroughly enjoyed her set!
Following Ms Hypnotique, I was able to have a beer and relax, at least until I was accosted by Getgood and Phantom Circuit for interviews. I was tired but also hugely excited by what we had achieved.
Thanks to everyone that turned up and a special thanks to the following people for their support : fizzPOP, Friction Arts, Ben Waddington, Capsule, Vivid, Tom Bugs, Pete Ashton, Ms Hypnotique and Kavita (my long suffering girlfriend). Hope I didn’t miss anyone! Your help was very much appreciated, both in the run up to, during, and after the event.
