Rama Vaidyanathan performs on October 21, 2012 as part of the 36th annual Navaratri Festival
Over the course of the next year, a campus-wide steering committee has put together a far-reaching series of global performances, talks and participatory projects, all with the intention of bringing us into an examination of the role of Music & Public Life. We will celebrate and study the sounds, words and spirit of music in public at the local, national and transnational levels, all designed to cross disciplines and to engage the campus and community-at-large. From performances by Middletown’s own Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem to the legendary Hugh Masekela; showcasing student research in the role of music in the current political campaigns; to the creation of MiddletownRemix–there are points of entry for everyone.
In September, we feature dance and theater companies who are exploring the role of the audience as actively engaged in the live creative process of the theatrical event. In ZviDance’s Zoom, patrons use their smartphones to integrate their own photos and text into the work; in Anonymous Ensemble’s Liebe Love Amour!, the audience is engaged in constructing the “performance script.”
As some of you may know, in addition to my work as the Press & Marketing Manager at the Center for the Arts, I am also a drummer/percussionist, composer and bandleader. Several of my projects are improvisational ensembles that feature the crossing of genre borderlines, including jazz, funk/fusion, and rock. I am always excited when Wesleyan features jazz artists—from Charles Lloyd (who was one of David Liebman’s teachers), Kenny Barron, Sherrie Maricle, Anthony Braxton, and Jay Hoggard, to Lionel Loueke, Taylor Ho Bynum and Noah Baerman—so I was happy when I heard that the summer programming committee had selected Mr. Liebman’s group as one of the evening performances this month, at the suggestion of Gene Bozzi. Mr. Liebman’s group has explored a wide variety of contemporary styles, ranging from bebop and free jazz to fusion and Brazilian.
At Wesleyan, Mr. Bozzi is a Private Lessons Teacher for percussion/drums, and the Music Department Chair at the Center for Creative Youth, a summer residential arts program here on campus. He is also the principal timpanist with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra (one of my previous employers). Over the weekend, Gene shared with me a bit about his work as a jazz sideman:
“I met Dave Liebman in the late 1970’s, when I was playing drums in a local Hartford group called Jazz Icarus. We were just out of college, and trying to get our ‘jazz chops’ together, but fortunate enough to score one night a week at Mad Murphy’s on Union Place. We would bring Dave in as our guest artist and give him all the money for the gig. It was like on the job training for us, we learned a lot. He would talk about his gigs with Miles Davis and Elvin Jones. I am thrilled that the Center of the Arts is bringing in artists of this caliber to perform and interact with our Center for Creative Youth students.”
David Liebman, Miles Davis, and Michael Henderson in 1973.
I first remember hearing David Liebman’s sax playing during the spring of my junior year of college in 1998. I was studying music at Syracuse University, and graduate student/saxophonist Chris Mannigan put Panthalassa: The Music of Miles Davis 1969–1974 – a Miles Davis remix album by producer/bassist Bill Laswell – on the stereo at a party. I soon sought out the original albums On the Corner (1972) and Get Up With It (1974). Mr. Liebman also appears on Miles’ live album Dark Magus, recorded at Carnegie Hall in 1974.
Writer Alan Bisbort talked to David Liebman this past Saturday morning, following Mr. Liebman’s return from a tour that had stops in Austria, Finland, Switzerland, and Italy:
Liebman thinks what makes a “classic” recording is something of a beautiful mystery.
“Look at [John Coltrane]. He recorded his Giant Steps and then played on Miles’ Kind of Blue within a month of each other. Both are totally different, both are now musical milestones. And yet, if he thought about how they’d be received he probably never would have gotten out of bed in the morning,” says Liebman laughing. “There was a lot of traffic for musicians back then. Each session was a musical challenge, but you are also making a living.”
Liebman promises a “variety of things” at the Wesleyan gig.
“It really depends on the audience, the vibe, the size and even the sound of the room. I don’t really know until I see all this,” said Liebman. “I’ll have my martini, then check out the crowd from backstage and draw up a set list. I can quote from a huge repertoire, everything from Ornette [Coleman] to [Antonio Carlos] Jobim to Cole Porter.”
You can read the rest of Alan’s article in the print edition of the Advocate on July 19 (or online here), and then head to Crowell Concert Hall that night to hear David Liebman’s group, which features guitarist Vic Juris, bassist Tony Marino and drummer Marko Marcinko.
David Liebman Group Thursday, July 19, 2012 at 8pm
Crowell Concert Hall
$22 general public; $19 seniors, Wesleyan faculty & staff; $10 students
Center for the Arts Director Pamela Tatge talks to Private Lessons Teacher Peter Hadley about directing the Wesleyan Wind Ensemble, who perform a spring concert on May 8, 2012.
In 2000, Angel Gil-Ordóñez was the new Music Director of the Wesleyan University Orchestra and Peter Hadley was a Ph.D. student. The two were talking and Angel said, “Peter, Wesleyan needs a wind ensemble and you’re the person to lead it.” They put up a sign for auditions and only one student showed up.
Flash forward, twelve years later (Peter has his Ph.D.): there are 39 members of WesWinds; approximately 50% are Wesleyan students and the remaining members come from the Greater Middletown community. “After that first semester, we decided to be inclusive. We didn’t hold auditions. To this day, we invite people to come to the first rehearsal and they self-select depending on the difficulty of the material.” One of the people he called on for help in the early years was his friend and colleague, Marco Gaylord, head of arts programming for Middletown Public Schools. “I tell Marco what instrumentation we’re lacking and he sends me wonderful students.” One was percussionist/pianist Eli Fieldsteel, now an accomplished composer. “So alongside Wesleyan students and Middletown high school students, we have a doctor, a retired music teacher, and other students whom I’ve taught from CCSU.”
A mother of one of the Middletown students sent me a note last week, and I asked if I might publish an excerpt. It was one of those rare emails that appear on your screen and for a few moments, you are transported:
“All I know for certain is that when I come to Weswinds, I often sit in the dark and cry. I can’t help it. I see my child sitting on that stage and l listen to all the musicians, and feel overcome.”
“As I prepare to go to another meeting where people struggle with why we must reduce arts funding, or why the arts are more needed today than ever, I find myself thinking about how I grew up in a hard place with little reason to think that anything worth having or doing would ever be mine. But because I attended an urban public high school with a strong arts program, I found theater. By my junior year, I had worked in a few theaters around the city and won a full scholarship and a way out. Thanks in part to a (very) little talent. But more importantly, I had access to the building blocks: exposure, context, training and opportunity.”
“I don’t take for granted the wonderment I feel when I sit in Crowell Concert Hall and watch this assorted community come together to make music. Our kids play instruments. And I feel we are all one tiny step closer to grace.”
“The humanities are for all of us. Whatever our kids do in this life, the experience of participating makes them and the world they will encounter the better for it. We can never let it just be the kids of privilege, however talented. Let it also be the children and future artists who beat the odds because at some point they, too, stumbled over the building blocks we positioned along their paths.”
“On May 8, family and friends will be attending the next WesWinds concert. Over the years, we have all come to expect to encounter unusual arrangements, moments that highlight superb musicians, and innovative ways to include all the greener musicians who sign on for the season. Last year Jay Hoggard played with them – and they left the hall after that concert on the balls of their feet, practically levitating up the stairs.”
“Thank you to Wesleyan for all their acts of inclusivity. Each Middletown student who purposefully steps onto campus, begins to imagine their future differently.”
“And thank you, Peter, for being gracious, skilled and undaunted. I’m so pleased that my kids (and the other Middletown musicians) are participating in this wonderful ensemble.”
Here’s hoping you are able to join us tomorrow night!
WesWinds: Sounds In Motion Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at 8pm
Crowell Concert Hall
FREE!
An exploration of form and emotion by the Wesleyan Wind Ensemble under the direction of Peter Hadley, featuring works by Maurice Ravel, Percy Grainger, Johan de Meij, and others.
On Saturday April 28, the Wesleyan Music Department and the Center for the Arts present the Jay Hoggard Quartet. CFA Intern in Arts Administration JoAnna Bourain ’12 interviewed Wesleyan Adjunct Professor of Music Jay Hoggard about his upcoming performance.
Jay Hoggard. Photo by Santina Aldieri.
On Saturday night, accomplished vibraphonist and Wesleyan music professor Jay Hoggard will be performing with the Jay Hoggard Quartet in Crowell Concert Hall. He will be joined by pianist and organist James Weidman and drummer Yoron Israel. His special guests include Wesleyan Professor of Music and saxophonist Anthony Braxton, master percussionist Kwaku Kwaakye Martin Obeng, bassist Santi Debriano, woodwind player Marty Ehrlich, and harpist Brandee Younger.
Professor Hoggard explained that he has performed with the Wesleyan Jazz Orchestra both officially and unofficially for the past 20 years. Saturday’s performance is different because the Jay Hoggard Quartet will be playing his original compositions. His excitement about the performance is infectious: “Performing in Crowell Concert Hall is like performing in my living room – I feel at home there.” He explained to me, “Teaching is my day job – I am also a professional musician who performs and tours.” Jay Hoggard’s performance will be an occasion for his students, both past and present, to hear him play his own work. Mr. Hoggard is also well known in town as the charismatic band leader who takes the Wesleyan Jazz Orchestra to give free performances in Middletown schools. Local families now have the chance to hear Mr. Hoggard’s music played as it should be played: in a major concert hall alongside his talented musician-friends.
Concerts like Professor Hoggard’s and other faculty productions are important because we (students) get to see how the faculty that have shaped us as artists work and perform. We are given the chance to understand how the skills and theory they have shared with us are called into practice in their own creative process. Faculty productions give us the opportunity to witness the necessary diligence and skill it takes to be a professional artist.
Perhaps, most importantly, these productions are the time in which we come to understand how impressive our faculty is and to reflect on how much knowledge we have gained from these substantial professors. Maybe I am feeling sentimental because graduation is just around the corner but faculty productions remind me of the inevitable transition from a student to a creative peer of our teachers. My confidence in making this transition is a testament to the arts faculty’s ability to share skills and information and their ability to cultivate creative students.
11th annual Wesleyan Jazz Orchestra Weekend Jay Hoggard Quartet Saturday, April 28, 2012 at 8pm Crowell Concert Hall Tickets: $15 general public; $12 senior citizens, Wesleyan faculty/staff, non-Wesleyan students; $6 Wesleyan students
As a part of the 11th annual Wesleyan Jazz Orchestra Weekend, the Wesleyan Jazz Orchestra, directed by Jay Hoggard, and the Wesleyan Jazz Ensemble, directed by Jazz Ensemble Coach Noah Baerman, will perform an exciting free concert of classic jazz compositions on Friday, April 27, 2012 at 8pm in Crowell Concert Hall .
CFA Intern in Arts Administration JoAnna Bourain ’12 interviewed Wesleyan Professor Neely Bruce about the importance of the Fernando Otero Quartet (Apr. 14).
Fernando Otero
The Fernando Otero Quartet mixes the sounds of classical music, improvisational jazz and tango. The result of this mixture produces music that is quite impressive—the lofty instrumentation creates the illusion of a vibrant narrative playing out. The Fernando Otero Quartet plays the work of the Argentine composer and pianist Fernando Otero, winner of the 2010 Latin Grammy for “Best Classical Album” for his album Vital. The performance will feature Pablo Aslan on acoustic bass, violinist Gabrielle Fink, and cellist Adam Fisher.
Neely Bruce, Professor of Music at Wesleyan, spoke to me about the music of the Fernando Otero Quartet. He explained that, “It’s exciting, it’s full of variety, it’s very dramatic, very rhythmically complex; it sounds like tango on steroids.” The music clearly conveys the sense of a narrative, a narrative that could really be anything — as Professor Bruce put it, “It could be a car chase or even two lovers.” When I asked Professor Bruce why people should see the concert, he explained to me that, “I think people should attend the concert because it’s dramatic music that has sudden shifts in moods that not everyone can cultivate these days — I think that he has a fresh voice that’s very distinctive. He’s also a virtuoso performer which in itself is a great thing to see.”
I deeply appreciate music that can appeal to both the trained ear and to the everyday person. It became evident to me after my conversation with Professor Bruce that Fernando Otero’s music manages to appeal to both my untrained sensibilities and Professor Bruce’s qualified ear. This inclusive quality mixed with a unique and interesting sound is surely to result in a very enjoyable concert.
Fernando Otero Quartet Saturday, April 14, 2012 at 8pm Crowell Concert Hall Pre-concert talk by Professor of Music Neely Bruce at 7:15pm Lecture/demonstration with quartet at 3:30pm in the Daltry Room (Music Rehearsal Hall 003) Tickets: $22 general public; $18 senior citizens, Wesleyan faculty/staff, non-Wesleyan students; $6 Wesleyan students
Center for the Arts Director Pamela Tatge reflects on the many events that have taken place this week.
Monday, April 2, 2012:
I had some wonderful conversations, emails and phone calls from students and community members who attended Chunky Move over the weekend. I will say that I thought it was one of the most successful integrations of visual art and dance that I’ve ever witnessed, and I was particularly pleased that Gideon Obarzanek said he’s never seen Connected look better than it did in the CFA Theater. For those of you who were there, thank you for supporting this important performance.
I had lunch with Gillian Goslinga in Anthropology and Jill Sigman, Center for Creative Research Visiting Artist to hear about “Ritual, Health, and Healing”, the course they are co-teaching in Dance and Anthropology as a part of the Creative Campus Initiative. It’s also a Service Learning Course and so they are taking their students to St. Nicks Alliance in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn on three Saturdays to conduct research with residents. It will culminate on Sunday, April 22, 2012 as a series of student performance works are presented alongside Sigman’s Thinkdance installation at St. Nicks. See a reflection by one of the students in the class, Hannah Cressy ’13, here.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012:
I attended the opening of the beautiful exhibition, Provincial Elegance: Chinese Antiques Donated in Honor of Houghton “Buck” Freeman, a collection of objects donated by Anna Lee ’84, that’s at the Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies Gallery through Sunday, May 27, 2012. I was so moved by Patrick Dowdey’s story of how Anna made the contribution to Wesleyan in honor of the great spirit that was Buck Freeman, whose family made, and continues to make, so many great things possible at Wesleyan. Jean Shaw, former director of the Center for the Arts, told me that not only did Anna graduate the same year I did, but that Anna worked at the CFA when she was a student!
Reception for Senior Thesis Exhibition Week One (3/28/12). Photo by Nam Anh Ta '12.
I also attended the second week of the Senior Thesis Exhibitions in the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery. If you’ve never taken the time to attend one of the Wednesday receptions from 4pm to 6pm, then you are missing one of the great “scenes” at Wesleyan. Hundreds of students flock to Zilkha to see their fellow students’ capstone project. All of us have the great opportunity to feel the pulse of contemporary art on our campus in all of its many manifestations, from JoAnna Bourain’s video animation installation [sometimes its hard 2 b a woman (i c u looking at me!!)] to Alex Chaves’ vibrant paintings [casual desire] in South Gallery. Exhibitions continue for the next two weeks, with receptions on Wednesday, April 11 and Wednesday, April 18, 2012.
Thursday, April 5, 2012:
Today I’m on a plane headed to Cleveland to do a site visit of Cuyahoga Community College’s Creative Campus project on behalf of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. The project features the prolific and generous violin virtuoso, Daniel Bernard Roumain (you may remember him downstage left playing solo violin for Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company’s performance in the CFA Theater in 2006). He’s written an opera based on Gilgameshand the composition has been offered on the web to anyone who wants to create their own work using his composition. He has truly democratized the creation process and tonight I’ll have the chance to see his ensemble perform alongside faculty, students and community members.
And I want to wish our senior thesis students in dance the best of luck on their thesis presentations in the Patricelli ’92 Theater, tonight through Saturday, April 7, 2012 at 8pm. Click here for more information about the concerts.
JoAnna Bourain ’12: How does your creative process work? Why are you drawn to certain subject matters? Do you derive your creativity from your own everyday experiences or is it more abstracted and observational?
Camille A. Brown. Photo by Matt Karas.
Camille A. Brown: My process is different for every piece that I create. I believe that the space is a living organism, so it’s important to have some sort of spontaneity when creating a new work. Sometimes I’m immediately drawn to music, a singer/composer/musician, or something that I’ve heard or was suggested that I research. From there, the music inspires the movement. Other times I have an idea in my head that I decide to explore in space. To be honest, the latter is harder because, now that I have the ‘perfect’ image in my head, the task is to marry the movement and concept with music. It must align perfectly! Since I love injecting aspects of theater in my work, I bring in an actor and dramaturge with whom I have close relationships to work with the company to fully portray characters with integrity. We have acting classes, group discussions; we allow these things to inform where the piece goes. It also challenges me to look at the work objectively. Having those extra sets of eyes from a different perspective is a jewel.
The dancers give the work breath. I am greatly influenced by their choices in space, their approach to the movement, how they grow within the work, making it their own. Their connection to space, the earth, their spirit. It all helps to show individuality within the ensemble works that I create.
As a choreographer, I am interested in that space between dance and theater where interdisciplinary work defies category and takes flight. Music is one of the main driving forces of my work. As an artist, it is imperative that I “drink” the music and move in a way that is the music. For me, there is no separation in my understanding of choreography; I move seamlessly between music, theater and dance. Informed by my music background as a clarinetist, I create choreography that utilizes musical composition as storytelling. I love investigating the silent space within the measure. Singers also influence me — how they each use their vocal tone and modulation informs me in how to use my body in creating multiple levels of expression.
I am interested in telling stories beyond just dance. I have always been fascinated with history — the past, the everyday lives of my ancestors. I love exploring an “understanding” of their lives, tying history to my personal experiences and bringing those things to life. I build dance vocabulary from a very personal place. Characters are facets of my life; my experience is a lens into the past and the present. The work of the company is strongly character based, expressing whatever the topic is by building from little moments, modeling a filmic sensibility.
The work comes from both personal experiences and observational ones. I am generally a private person, so most of the time you will not be able to pinpoint what is my true story versus the observational one. They’re kind of one-in-the-same. I like moving through concepts — becoming a character, and allowing my personal experiences to give a unique, personalized breath to the voice. I inject the personal in the pockets of storytelling.
JB: I have been watching your work online over and over again trying to pin down what is communicated to me in your choreography and performance. Words that come to mind are: power, speed, dynamism, narrative, communication, theater, history. If you had to choose words or messages that you try to communicate in your work, what would they be?
CAB:
Conscious
Theatrical
Unrestricted storytelling
Narrative
Earthbound movement
Spatial exploration
Dynamics
Weight shift
Plié- oh how I love the plié!
Celebrating history with a direct connection to the present
Communication
Healing
Release
Satire/humor
Spunk
Sass
Attitude
Peace
JB: Why do you think people should come to the performance?
CAB: This is a hard question because the answer I give will obviously be from a subjective place. Dance is what I live and breathe every day. It’s my movement through space and life as a whole. I would say people should come to the show to get an intimate view of who Camille is — who Camille A. Brown & Dancers are. Hopefully they will see our personal stories and that will provoke them to share their own. This is what sharing your work is about. I am looking forward to introducing my voice to Wesleyan.
13th annual DanceMasters Weekend Showcase Performance Saturday, March 10, 2012 at 8pm
CFA Theater
$27 general public; $20 senior citizens, Wesleyan faculty/staff, non-Wesleyan students; $8 Wesleyan students
The DanceMasters Showcase will feature performances by Pilobolus, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, and Garth Fagan Dance. Ms. Brown is the 2012 winner of the Mariam McGlone Emerging Choreographer Award. Ms. Brown will be teaching a Master Class at 1pm on Saturday in the CFA Dance Studio.
Tonight and Saturday night, the Theater Department and the Center for the Arts present Great Small Works, a New York-based theater collective that creates work about contemporary issues. CFA Intern in Arts Administration JoAnna Bourain ’12 interviewed co-founder Mark Sussman ’85 about his time at Wesleyan and about the production you’ll see this weekend.
JoAnna Bourain ’12: Great Small Works’ website lists the company’s major influences, many of whom I’ve encountered in my coursework at Wesleyan, namely Walter Benjamin, Bertold Brecht and Erik Satie. Tell me about some of your Wesleyan classes that influenced your creative process.
Mark Sussman ’85: At Wesleyan I was a double major in Theater and Religion. The theater side of my education was mostly in directing and design and I knew that after Wesleyan I didn’t want to join the workforce of the American Theater. After working in a collaborative setting at Wesleyan with groups like Second Stage I knew I wanted to have a company and to work collectively in a series.
I bring from my own years at Wesleyan an interest in working in a more collective situation- this comes from the late Fritz DeBoer (Theater Department) who really inspired me. Certain experiences that I had in the Music Department along with the atmosphere within that department were really important to my creative development – both experimental music and world music. Susan Foster and Alvin Lucier co-taught a class that was essentially about site specific performance art, as well as a class by Jon Barlow who taught the work of John Cage and Erik Satie that brought together a really interdisciplinary vision of art. These classes helped me to make connections to my experience in theater. All of those experiences have stuck with me and help me to inform my every day creative processes.
JB: Your website cites that Benjamin’s theory of the ‘state of emergency’ was an early catalyst for the first miniature theater piece. Considering the group’s beginnings in Bread and Puppet (a Vermont-based political theater company directed by Peter Schumann, who is speaking in CFA Hall on April 9) how do politics figure in Great Small Works?
MS: I think we imagine everything that we do as having a political aspect. I think the reason that we are really drawn to Benjamin (who I first read in a tutorial in the Religion Department) was due to the fact that he looked at both aesthetics and politics and their inseparable relationship. If you look at something like the Republican Primary, we see that images play such an important role in how people are politically perceived. In Benjamin’s essay, The Thesis on the Philosophy of History, he talks about the notion of a Marxist view of history in which a state of emergency is used to encourage and create the rhetoric of a crisis where, actually, that state of emergency is a constant in capitalism. It’s a falsification to even think of it as a momentary state of emergency rather than a constant. That idea was we eventually applied to the toy theater.
Jenny Romaine, during the first Gulf War in the late 90s, remembers how the war was portrayed as a catastrophe day after day, and was filtered through us in the everyday banal act of openingTheNew York Times. The idea was to communicate this sense of every day terror as it is read in banal everyday actions.
The toy theater is an outmoded form that is low tech, handmade and has associations with folk theater. It was a form we rediscovered from 19th century Europe that was a popular amateur form you would perform in the home. It was something kids and adults would do together. Very often the scripts were melodramas from London’s West End. The popularity of the form coincided with colored lithography and with mass communication and mass culture; it’s a form that existed between printing, book making and puppetry.
JB: Can you talk a little bit more about translating this particular process, a form that has more associations with the home than with the high-theater, into an actual show? I have read that you use a camera to project the miniature theater onto a screen in order to show the piece larger. This process creates an interesting tension between what the form stands for historically and what it becomes on the stage.
MS: We started these [miniature theater] shows before we were even a company. We found that using the toy theater was a quick and easy way to talk about big ideas- there is a weird inverse relationship between the scale of the show and the ideas. In [Toy Theater of] Terror as Usual, one of the shows we will be performing, we see the performers operating the puppets. In a lot of puppet shows you never get to see the puppeteers. You see us operating the puppets, singing and talking and making sounds. That Brechtian act of revealing the performers is a big part of the show. I think that still works when we use the video camera and the projection when we are creating it before you. The image is taken apart and constructed in front of you. For an audience, this shows how history is created and constructed.
JB: Why do you think that it is important that people see Great Small works?
MS: It’s interesting and fun and unexpected. It is interesting how you see an idea and stories. Much of traditional theater expresses characters differently than we do – we present a story within a larger set of ideas with an analysis. We provide a visually appealing message and a way to comprehend and digest complicated ideas in an accessible form.
Great Small Works Friday, February 3 and Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 8pm
CFA Hall, 287 Washington Terrace
Tickets: $15 general public; $12 senior citizens, Wesleyan faculty/staff, non-Wesleyan students; $6 Wesleyan students Each performance will be followed by a post-show discussion.
Cassandra Burrows, John Bell, Trudi Cohen, Jenny Romaine and Xavier will perform the works “Short, Entertaining History of Toy Theater”; “Toy Theater of Terror As Usual, Episode 12: Desert and Ocean”, a surreal serial drama using excerpted texts and images quickly cut from The New York Times, Hans Christian Anderson, Grace Lee Boggs, and Democracy Now!; and “Three Graces”, a “cantastoria” (picture-based storytelling work) in which three mythical graces – Harmony, Strategy and Splendor – float down to earth for an op-art romp inspired by Grace Paley, Grace Kelly, Grace Jones and Grace Lee Boggs.
This Sunday, the Karas String Quartet will premiere a new work by composer/arranger William Zinn, entitled Wesleyan Concertante. Mr. Zinn is the grandfather of Noah Heau ’12, a cellist in the Wesleyan University Orchestra, and a Center for the Arts Events Staff Member. Mr. Zinn approached Music Director Angel Gil-Ordóñez about the work, and Wesleyan’s Concert Committee then extended an invitation for the quartet to play it as part of the Music at The Russell House series. The quartet includes violinist Cyrus Stevens, pianist Ruriko Kagiyama, violist Michael Wheeler and guest cellist Julie Ribchinsky, Wesleyan Private Lessons Teacher. In addition to the world premiere by Mr. Zinn, the quartet will perform Mozart’s Piano Quartet in g minor and other works. Admission is free.
Karas String Quartet: Afternoon with Chamber Music Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 3pm The Russell House, 350 High Street FREE!
