The Shanghai Quartet—violinists Weigang Li and Yi-Wen Jiang, violist Honggang Li, and cellist Nicholas Tzavaras—returned to Wesleyan for their Connecticut debut with pipa (Chinese lute) virtuosa Wu Man to perform “A Night in Ancient and New China,” featuring Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 11, Op. 95; traditional folk songs; and the Connecticut premiere of the new quintet "Red Lantern" by eminent Chinese film composer Zhao Jiping (Raise the Red Lantern, To Live, and Farewell My Concubine) in collaboration with his son Zhao Lin. The concert was held on Friday April 1st in the Crowell Concert Hall. Click here to view the full album on Flickr. Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.
Pamela Tatge, Director, Center for the Arts. Image by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.
It is astonishing to me that Friday April 1 is my last day at Wesleyan University, after nearly seventeen years. I wanted to send you a note to thank you for being patrons of the Center for the Arts. There is simply no way we can ever welcome artists to Wesleyan without the presence of an engaged and committed audience. You have no idea how wonderful it was for me to look out at you from the Crowell Concert Hall or CFA Theater stage, or to see you at an opening in the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery. I knew that you were there to join me in celebrating what the arts can tell us about other cultures and other worlds; how they can help us to make sense of the world in which we live; and how they can make us feel both the exhilaration and the sadness of what it means to be alive. I want to thank you, in particular, for the times you bought a ticket to a performance by an artist whom you didn’t know but, because we at the CFA felt it was an important artist or group, you took the risk.
In these last days at my desk overlooking the CFA Courtyard, I am reflecting on so many great moments when we shared such joy and excitement not only for visiting and faculty artists, but also when we marveled together at the virtuosity and creative power of Wesleyan students and all that they have to offer us.
I will miss my Wesleyan and Middletown families greatly, but as an alum and parent of a member of the class of 2016, I know that I will return often and continue to experience the arts as only Wesleyan can present them. I also want to take the opportunity to introduce Laura Paul, Interim Director of the Center for the Arts, who will lead the CFA in its next chapter. Together we have been planning a 2016–17 season of performances and exhibitions that I know you will enjoy.
If, by any chance, you are free this Friday, April 1, I will be in Crowell Concert Hall at 8pm to introduce the great Wu Man and the Shanghai Quartet. I would love the chance to say goodbye and thank you in person; if not, I hope you will come to visit me this summer at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Massachusetts (if you missed the announcement in January, I’m going there to be their new Executive Director)!
Thank you again for your generous support of the Center for the Arts.
A children’s concert by the Wesleyan University Orchestra under the direction of Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music Nadya Potemkina followed by a multi-station instrument petting zoo was held on Saturday, February 27, 2016 in the Crowell Concert Hall.
Click here to view the full album on Flickr. Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.
The Connecticut debut of Syrian vocalist/songwriter Gaida, one of the most “effusive and charming” (Timeout New York) singers on the world-music scene was held on Friday, February 5, 2016 in the Crowell Concert Hall.
Click here to view the full album on Flickr. Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.
The Wesleyan University Jazz Orchestra, directed by Adjunct Professor of Music and African American Studies Jay Hoggard, and Jazz Ensembles, directed by Noah Baerman and Visiting Assistant Professor of Music and Private Lessons Teacher Pheeroan akLaff, performed an end of the semester concert on Friday, December 11, 2015 in the Crowell Concert Hall.
Click here to view the full album on Flickr. Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.
Students from MUSC 109 “Introduction to Experimental Music” and special mystery guests staged their original work as part of a series of overlapping performances in their realization of John Cage’s “Musicircus” on Thursday, December 10, 2015 in the Crowell Concert Hall.
Click here to view the full album on Flickr. Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.
An evening of great gospel music by the 100 members of Wesleyan’s Ebony Singers under the direction of Marichal Monts ’85 was held on Monday, December 7, 2015 in the Crowell Concert Hall.
Click here to view the full album on Flickr. Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.
“Introduction to Dance” (DANC 111) and beginning dance students performed works of various styles, including Bharata Natyam (South Indian classical dance) on Sunday, December 6, 2015 in the Crowell Concert Hall.
Click here to view the full album on Flickr. Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.
Master drummer and Adjunct Professor of Music Abraham Adzenyah celebrated his final performance with his students after 45 years at Wesleyan on Friday, December 4, 2015 in the Crowell Concert Hall.
Click here to view the full album on Flickr. Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.
Hailed as “the future of chamber music” (Strings), groundbreaking string quartet Brooklyn Rider performed works by Franz Schubert, Bill Frisell, Vijay Iyer, Glenn Kotche, and a U.S. premiere by Assistant Professor of Music Paula Matthusen on Saturday, November 21, 2015 in the Crowell Concert Hall.
Click here to view the full album on Flickr. Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.
