Experience Refractor Piano Immersion at the Vortex Immersion Dome

Award-winning pianist and composer Peter Manning Robinson will enthrall audiences with two stunning aural and visual art experiences for one-night only, during his Experience Refractor Piano™ Immersion concerts on Saturday, May 6, 2017 at the Vortex Immersion Dome, located in the LA Center Studios, near Downtown Los Angeles. Performing live with his invention, The Refractor Piano™, Robinson is pioneering a new music form called “refracted music.”

Without using prerecorded tracks, triggered samples, external sounds, or MIDI instruments, the Emmy and multiple BMI award-winning composer creates a vast spectrum of new musical environments with just a refracted, acoustic piano. Robinson plays improvised but structured compositions within the “refractions” generated by his newly created instrument. The music combines elements of neoclassical composition and jazz improvisation that, when acoustically refracted, produce a truly original and transcendent live music experience. To learn more about the artist and the concert please visit www.petermanningrobinson.com and https://www.facebook.com/events/1192340224227868.
Combining immersive visual and aural elements, the concert will create a multi-sensory experience for the audience. In collaboration with filmmaker Klaus Hoch, the Refractor Piano™ co-developer and the project’s creative director, projection designer Hana Kimhas designed visual projection journeys that will expand the visceral experience of Robinson’s music.
In addition to performing, Robinson will also speak about his music and The Refractor Piano™. Performance will begin at 7:30pm and 10:00pm. Tickets are $20.00. All ages are welcome. Light refreshments will be served. This one-night only, dual-concert event will take place at Los Angeles Center Studios, in the Vortex Immersion Dome (entrance at 450 S. Bixel Street, Los Angeles, CA 90017). For venue questions only, you may call 866-792-1717.

For Experience Refractor Piano™ Immersion tickets and parking information.

This will be Robinson’s third Refractor Piano™ concert event since unveiling his and Hoch’s new invention last April at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, California. The highly acclaimed debut concert was followed by a second concert event in the fall of 2016 at MOCA, The Museum of Contemporary Art, on Grand Avenue, in Los Angeles.
“This concert is the next progression in the Refractor Piano™ evolution. Playing at the Vortex Dome allows me to expand both the aural and the visual elements to create an experience that truly immerses the audience in the performance,” says Robinson.
In Robinson’s hands, The Refractor Piano™, an adapTed Steinway piano, is capable of generating a remarkable array of never heard before sounds. While the music is composed and the performance process is well-planned, “refracting” the piano’s raw, acoustic sound makes each performance unique and never an exact reproduction. As Robinson performs, he rides the refractions as he bends and morphs the raw sound. The new textures he creates – the acoustic “refractions” – are used to generate the distinct “instruments” and “voices” heard in each composition. Using the keyboard, fingers, mallets, and other implements, Robinson uses the entire piano to conjure up his new music.
Combining visual and aural elements, the concert will create a multi-sensory immersive experience for the audience. In collaboration with Hoch, Kim has designed visual projection journeys that will expand the visceral experience of Robinson’s music.

Peter Manning Robinson, Pianist/Composer –

Peter Manning Robinson is a composer, pianist, and vegan chef who has won an Emmy and multiple BMI awards. He was born in Chicago and grew up in Vancouver, Canada as well as on the streets of San Francisco. Then, at age 16, he ventured to Los Angeles. Robinson started touring and playing in clubs at a young age and received formal music training from USC and Berklee College of Music in Boston.
He has performed and recorded with such jazz greats as Ernie Watts, Phil Woods, and Freddie Hubbard. Robinson has also composed for film and television. He first met creative collaborator Klaus Hoch when he composed the music for Flypaper, which Hoch wrote and directed. Additional credits include Without A Trace and The Crow. Robinson won an Emmy Award for KABC’s Above and Below and five BMI TV Music Awards for Without a Trace. He was also nominated for an OFTA Television Award for The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax. Members of The London Philharmonic, MusicaNova Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra have recorded his orchestral works.
In recent years, performing on his and Co-creator Klaus Hoch‘s newly created Refractor Piano™, Robinson is pioneering a new style of music called “refracted music.” Without prerecorded tracks, triggered samples, external sounds, or MIDI instruments, he creates innovative music that combines classical and jazz composition with improvisation and acoustic refraction for transcendent live musical experiences.

Klaus Hoch, Filmmaker/Creative Director/Producer –

Wearing many hats as creative director and producer, Klaus Hoch is a writer, filmmaker and musician who has collaborated with Peter Manning Robinson for the past seven years to create The Refractor Piano™. He and Robinson first collaborated on the feature Flypaper, which Hoch wrote and directed – a dark comedy crime film featuring Craig Sheffer, Robert Loggia, Illeana Douglas, and Lucy Liu. Hoch studied music composition with pianist and composer Wally Cirillo as well as guitar with jazz legend Joe Diorio. He earned an MFA from NYU in Film and Television and is a member of the Directors Guild of America.

Hana Kim, Projection Designer –

Hana Kim is an award-winning set and projection designer for theater. Recent design credits include: projection for Fallujah, directed by Andreas Mitisek (Long Beach Opera); scenic and projection for Dogeaters, directed by Loretta Greco (The Magic Theatre, San Francisco); projection for museum installation of Pearls of the Planet (Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles); and Em-ee-leh (Baryshnikov Arts Center, NY). She is a recipient of the Princess Grace Award in Theater Design and a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829. Her works were also featured in the architecture magazine Form, as well as the book Scene Design and Stage Lighting by Dick Block.