{"id":18739,"date":"2025-12-26T12:12:39","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T18:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/?p=18739"},"modified":"2025-12-26T12:12:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T18:12:39","slug":"conrad-askland-performing-accordion-as-bandleader-for-cirque-du-soleils-crystal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/conrad-askland-performing-accordion-as-bandleader-for-cirque-du-soleils-crystal\/","title":{"rendered":"Conrad Askland Performing Accordion as Bandleader for Cirque du Soleil\u2019s CRYSTAL"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Har_22szI70?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p data-start=\"343\" data-end=\"531\">This video captures a moment from my time performing accordion while serving as Bandleader for <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Cirque du Soleil<\/span><\/span>\u2019s arena ice show <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">CRYSTAL<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"533\" data-end=\"902\"><em data-start=\"533\" data-end=\"542\">CRYSTAL<\/em> was Cirque du Soleil\u2019s first production created specifically for the ice, combining live music, skating, acrobatics, and large-scale touring logistics. Performing in this environment required constant musical awareness\u2014responding to movement on the ice, syncing tightly with technology, and maintaining consistency across a fast-moving international schedule.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"904\" data-end=\"1165\">The accordion is woven throughout the score, supporting the show\u2019s shifting moods and styles. From a musical standpoint, this work was less about spotlight moments and more about reliability, adaptability, and collaboration within a very large creative machine.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1167\" data-end=\"1380\">I\u2019m sharing this clip as a snapshot of the kind of projects I\u2019ve been involved in recently\u2014long-form productions where musical leadership, flexibility, and calm execution matter just as much as performance itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This video captures a moment from my time performing accordion while serving as Bandleader for Cirque du Soleil\u2019s arena ice show CRYSTAL. CRYSTAL was Cirque du Soleil\u2019s first production created specifically for the ice, combining live music, skating, acrobatics, and large-scale touring logistics. Performing in this environment required constant musical awareness\u2014responding to movement on the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,48,4142],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3C0LX-4Sf","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18739"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18739"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18740,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18739\/revisions\/18740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}