Andy Lei

Spring Photos: Robert Ashley’s Crash

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On Saturday, March 3, 2018 a new generation of artists performed Crash (2014), featuring vocalists Gelsey Bell, Brian McCorkle, Paul Pinto, Dave Ruder ’05, and Aliza Simons ’09 from the music collective Varispeed, as well as Amirtha Kidambi. The six singers rotated through the three characters of the opera, with sound by Music Director Tom Hamilton and photos by Philip Makanna. This haunting masterpiece is the last opera written by American composer Robert Ashley. Throughout his five-decade career, he radically redefined the operatic genre.

Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.

Spring Photos: Thomas Buckner sings Robert Ashley and Alvin Lucier

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On Friday, March 2, 2018 Baritone Thomas Buckner, a longtime Robert Ashley collaborator, performed works written for him, including The Producer Speaks featuring John Spencer Camp Professor of Music Neely Bruce on piano, Tract, and The Mystery of the River arranged by Tom Hamilton; plus Litany, a new work written for this celebration by Alvin Lucier, John Spencer Camp Professor of Music, Emeritus. Assisted by Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Alex Waterman. Associate Professor of Music and Chair of the Music Department Paula Matthusen directed the chorus, and graduate music students Jordan Dykstra and Matt Wellins worked on recording and playback.

Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.

Spring Photos: Manual Cinema: Ada/Ava

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On Friday, February 23, 2018 Performance collective Manual Cinema created live film on stage, combining cinematic techniques, theatricality, handmade shadow puppetry, innovative sound, and live music. The Connecticut premiere of Ada/Ava (2013) used a story of the fantastic and supernatural to explore mourning and melancholy, self and other. Bereaved of her twin sister Ava, septuagenarian Ada solitarily marks time until a traveling carnival and a trip to a mirror maze plunges her into a journey across the thresholds of life and death.

Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.

Spring Photos: Masayo Ishigure: Koto 360°

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On Friday, February 16, 2018 A musical dialogue between the east and west, Koto 360° featured traditional Japanese instruments alongside classical guitar, tap dancing, and percussion. This concert included contemporary compositions by Hikaru Sawai, John Neptune, and a New England premiere by Celil Refik Kaya.

Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.

Spring Photos: West End String Quartet: Variations and Arrangements

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On Sunday, February 11, 2018 The West End String Quartet featured Wesleyan chamber music instructors Sarah Washburn on violin, Anne Berry on cello, and John Biatowas on viola, plus the group’s new violinist Marianne Vogel. The quartet was joined by clarinetist Charles Yassky and John Spencer Camp Professor of Music and pianist Neely Bruce who performed the world premiere of Chorale and Variations by Mr. Bruce, The Neutral Mask by graduate music student Jordan Dykstra, Two Folk Songs and an Abstract by Roger Király, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Quintet in A Major for clarinet and strings, K. 581.

Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.

Spring Photos: Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group: Citizen

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On Friday, February 9, 2018 Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group returned to Wesleyan with the Connecticut premiere of Citizen (2016), questioning what it means to belong and what it means to not want to belong. The work was inspired by the histories of iconic African-Americans who faced prevalent contradictions and irony connected to individuality, anonymity, freedom, and dignity in relation to their civic duties. A provocative dialogue emerged through a series of five intricately woven solos layered with haunting footage that suspended time and place.

Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.

Spring Photos: Opening Reception: A New Subjectivity

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On Thursday, February 8, 2018 A New Subjectivity: Figurative Painting After 2000, an exhibition composed entirely of paintings by women and attempting to categorize Expressionism in new terms, featured works by Gina Beavers, Katherine Bernhardt, Katherine Bradford, Jackie Gendel, Liz Markus, and Rose Wylie. Referencing cartoons, fashion spreads, and personal narratives, the artists addressed the fragmentation of individual subjectivity in a technological world. The new figuration is thereby performative, rather than prescriptive, and both absurd and sincere approaches to the subject matter were embraced by the artists.

Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.

Spring Photos: Opening Reception and Gallery Talk: Reclaiming the Gaze

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On Wednesday, February 7, 2018 seven Wesleyan University students in the class “Advanced Themes in 20th Century Afro-American Art”, taught by Professor of Art History Peter Mark, organized the exhibition “Reclaiming the Gaze” from the Davison Art Center collection. The show highlighted 42 prints and photographs by African American artists from 1930 to the present day, including works by Lyle Ashton Harris ’88, Romare Bearden, Glenn Ligon ’82 DFA ’12, Robert Pruitt, Betye Saar, and Kara Walker. Professor of Art History Peter Mark and Rielly Wieners ’18, one of the student curators of the exhibition, gave a gallery talk.

Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.

Fall Photos: A Screening and Discussion with Amanda Palmer, Michael Pope, and Students from “The Art of Doing”

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On Saturday, December 9, 2017 Wesleyan students in award-winning Visiting Filmmaker Michael Pope’s filmmaking class “The Art of Doing: Creative Project Production and Making It Happen” presented their final project, followed by a brief performance by singer/musician/writer Amanda Palmer ’98, Visiting Artist at Large in the College of Film and the Moving Image.

Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.