Sitting with perfect posture in Brooks Concert Hall, Marena Ella Minelli ’17 lifted a violin to her chin and began to play, releasing beautiful streams of music with her bow.
Moments later, she placed the string instrument on a chair, picked up a video game controller and toggled the joystick producing an entirely different, but equally riveting, sound.
Minelli is a member of the Holy Cross Laptop Ensemble Federation, or H-CLEF, an unusual chamber group that juxtaposes everything classical and computerized. Laptops are propped on stands in place of sheet music. Hacked game controllers, like the one Minelli used, sit on amps. And electronic, other-worldly sounds float by stained-glass windows and echo through the high ceilings of the concert hall.
What exactly is going on?