Music in the Garden

For the 42nd annual Bachman's / Marshall Field's flower show, we worked with landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy and the production team from Marshall Field's to develop a set of interactive music and sound experiences that could integrate into their large indoor garden.

This included four Yamaha Disklavier pianos playing different pieces that visitors could transform by using a touchpad station in front of each piano, a forest with actuated illuminated windchimes that respond to visitors blowing on pinwheels, a pretend underwater garden with "Music Shapers" that make environmental and musical sounds when squeezed, and music that ties those sounds together along with new material that is presented at the end of the experience.

Music in the Garden was open to the public from March 12-26, 2005 at the flagship Marshall Field's store in downtown Minneapolis. The show had more than 200,000 visitors, far exceeding previous attendance records for this annual event.

Press coverage:

Pioneer Press: "Sound garden" (free registration required)
WCCO: "Spring flower show blooms downtown"
Opera America Newsline "A conversation with Tod Machover" p.20 (pdf)
Marshall Field's press release (pdf)

Television news video clips:

mf-1-320.mov (9.9 MB)
mf-2-320.mov (15.5 MB)
mf-3-320.mov (13.5 MB)

Music clips (mp3)

Hallway - intro music (3:25)
Cello entrance (1:00)
Forest birds/flute (2:53)
"Sea Soaring" - finale (6:44)
Imaginary audio walkthrough (23:38)

Music by Tod Machover
Patti Monson, flute
Matt Haimovitz, cello