Michael Jackson inspired many artists from pop music singers, to painters, from ballet dancers to classical music composers…
As a kid growing up in New York, composer Vincent Calianno was a fan of Michael Jackson’s landmark album “Thriller.”
That’s where his connection to the King of Pop began and ended.
Until 2012, when Jackson ended up the central character in a dream that inspired Calianno to compose “The Facts and Dreams of the World According to Michael Jackson,” a four-movement work that landed him a prestigious ASCAP Rudolf Nissim Prize in 2016.
In Calianno’s dream, a terminally ill Michael Jackson commissioned an architect to build a giant mausoleum with lush gardens. Throughout what the composer describes as this “big, ridiculous architectural wonder,” Jackson hid messages and inspirational proverbs for his daughter.
“He wanted to put these little engravings and hidden proverbs of the meaning of life so that when he died, his daughter had some memory space to not only remember him but to have direction in her life,” Calianno explained.
Calianno said: He did not realize at the time that Jackson had a daughter.
He also said the the only reference to Michael Jackson in his piece is in the title.
“That’s literally the only connection to Michael Jackson,” he said, dispelling any notion that you might hear nods to “Thriller” or “Billie Jean.”
The opening movement is gloriously bright and triumphant before the piece segues into increasingly darker undercurrents that grow more harmonically complex and introverted. “It moves really far away from this nice happy opening,” Calianno explained.
You can listen to the piece here:
The Tucson Symphony Orchestra will perform the piece three times this weekend in its “Ravel & Schubert” MasterWorks concert at Catalina Foothills High School.
