12 Minutes Max is a monthly experimental performance series featuring short works by local artists in many disciplines.
One Sunday a month, we present three original pieces in a varied mix, chosen from music, dance, film, theater, performance art, writing, and the like — each 12 minutes or less. The whole event is short and sweet, taking about an hour.
Following each event, we serve coffee and cookies in an informal gathering, a chance for conversation with the artists.
The Nielsen Asplund Duo, trumpetist Ryan Nielsen and pianist-composer Christian Asplund, will play a set of quirky avant jazz pieces composed recently by Christian Asplund that employ unique comprovisational strategies. Nielsen is a renowned trumpeter who has played with Delfeayo Marsalis, Bob Moses and many others. Asplund has been a cornerstone and instigator of Utah's experimental music and avant jazz scene for over 17 years. Nielsen teaches at UVU and Asplund teaches at BYU.
Documentary filmmaker and famous DJ David Payne, AKA DJ DaiOuJou, and his more famous friend and colleague, DJ Falchion B will present an excerpt and minor plot curve gleaned from a longer film: Seattle Adventure 2: The Greatest Story Ever Told. This film intends to ask the question, can you trust the people in the bands that you play with? Especially if they're from another city? Who CAN you trust?
Alexandra Barbier will present Take This with You, a piece that encompasses several experiments that invite spectators to collaborate with performers, providing multiple ways to engage with and experience performance. The structure of the work is improvisational and the final product is heavily influenced by the performance location and audience contribution. Various versions have been performed at Commonwealth Studios, Memory Grove Park, the Urban Room of the Main City Library, the U's Marriott Library, and the Hayes Christensen Theatre in the Marriott Center for Dance. Previous iterations have had five to thirteen cast members, and have lasted from 20 minutes to three hours. Alexandra is a graduate student in Modern Dance at the University of Utah.
This program is modeled after 12 Minutes Max, a performance laboratory originated by On the Boards in Seattle.
AGE GROUP: Teens All Ages Adults
EVENT TYPE: Performances & Presentations Music Arts & Creativity
NOTE: The Main Library's Rooftop Terrace is closed through 2020 for repairs and renovations.
Salt Lake City's Main Library, designed by internationally-acclaimed architect Moshe Safdie in conjunction with VCBO Architecture, opened in February 2003 and remains one of the most architecturally unique structures in Utah. This striking 240,000 square-foot structure houses more than 500,000 books and other materials, yet serves as more than just a repository of books and computers. It reflects and engages the city's imagination and aspirations. The structure embraces a public plaza, with shops and services at ground level, reading galleries above, and a 300-seat auditorium.
A multi-level reading area along the Glass Lens at the southern facade of the building looks out onto the plaza with stunning views of the city and Wasatch Mountains beyond. Spiraling fireplaces on four floors resemble a column of flame from the vantage of 200 East and 400 South. The Urban Room between the Library and the Crescent Wall is a space for all seasons, generously endowed with daylight and open to magnificent views.
