“Ricky Ian Gordon-Mark Campbell Musical Rappahannock ... - Playbill” plus 3 more |
- Ricky Ian Gordon-Mark Campbell Musical Rappahannock ... - Playbill
- Skidmore's Woodwind and Brass Festival will feature ... - Saratogian
- Classical Singer Seing Shen Yun for Third Time: 'I’m ... - The Epoch Times
- Q & A: Janie Hendrix - Seattle Weekly
| Ricky Ian Gordon-Mark Campbell Musical Rappahannock ... - Playbill Posted: 24 Mar 2010 07:40 AM PDT By Andrew Gans Co-commissioned by the Virginia Arts Festival, Virginia Opera, the Modlin Center for the Arts at the University of Richmond and the Texas Performing Arts at the University of Texas in Austin, the new Ricky Ian Gordon-Mark Campbell Musical Rappahannock County will make its world premiere in April 2011, as part of the Virginia Arts Festival. The world premiere coincides with the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War; in fact, the first performance on April 12 is the same day that Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter in 1861. Rappahannock County, according to press notes, is a "fictional song cycle inspired by diaries, letters, and personal accounts during the period of the Civil War, and explores the war's impact, from secession to defeat, on a community of Virginians—black and white, rich and poor, soldiers, nurses, widows, and survivors. The production is a multi-media event, enhanced by projections of Civil War photography, illustrations, documents, and other moving visuals and features five principal singers performing more than 30 roles, backed by an ensemble of 15 musicians." Casting and ticket information will be announced at a later date. Ricky Ian Gordon is also the composer of the Obie-winning Orpheus & Euridice and the opera The Grapes of Wrath. Mark Campbell penned all of the lyrics for Songs from an Unmade Bed, a theatrical song cycle with music by 18 composers, which was produced by New York Theatre Workshop in 2005. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Skidmore's Woodwind and Brass Festival will feature ... - Saratogian Posted: 24 Mar 2010 09:13 AM PDT
Tamar Wells, left, a member of the Borealis Wind Quintet will perform with her daughter, Skidmore senior Alicia Wells, at the first Woodwind and Brass Festival this weekend in the Zankel Music Center. (Image provided) Skidmore senior and French horn player Alicia Wells is unique among the student musicians who will participate in the college's first Woodwind and Brass Festival. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Classical Singer Seing Shen Yun for Third Time: 'I’m ... - The Epoch Times Posted: 24 Mar 2010 09:06 AM PDT "There's a lot of joy in the air and it feels really exuberant," she said. Ms. Silimperi has come to see Shen Yun three times and she was sure to bring friends along to the show, tonight, March 23, as she did in the past. As a professional classical singer, Ms. Silimperi had a lot to say for the music of Shen Yun. "They are wonderful singers, and I'm always impressed with the great power they have, and control, because I sing classical music, as well." As for the erhu, the singer said "the music was so emotional, which is always very impressive with that instrument." Particularly moving for Ms. Silimperi was "the spiritual aspect of it, you know, you can feel it. You just kind of let it sweep over you. And it's–there's this beauty of color as well as movement, and music." Her friends accompanying her to the show enjoyed the show very much as well, she said. "Especially, we love the backdrop with the movement on the screen. I mean, obviously technology has helped us a lot, here," she said, referring to the state-of-the art digital backdrops used in Shen Yun. Ms. Silimperi praised how the integration of choreography, music, and the animated backdrops "serve to give the whole. "It's very grandiose because it's big. And the backdrop is there. And I especially like the parts with many dancers that do like a corps de ballet. And having live music is really important." From personal experience, she noted something she observed at work in Shen Yun, "there's a great power, having that music behind you...having live music for a dancer means so much about the spirit. You can really enjoy it a lot more." The exuberance in the air that she felt must have been created by the many aspects of the performance coming together as a whole, Ms. Silimperi noted. "The integration of it is what makes it so special." When asked if she would see the show yet again, Ms. Silimperi said that the special appeal of Shen Yun that keeps her coming back, is why she continues to introduce the show to her friends. "I've brought different people each time because I wanted them to see what it was like," she said. "It's very unique for Americans…So, that's been a lot of fun, and everyone has enjoyed it, very much." Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company will be performing one more show in Seattle on Wednesday March 24. With reporting by Michael Green The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. Please see ShenYunPerformingArts.org for more information Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Q & A: Janie Hendrix - Seattle Weekly Posted: 24 Mar 2010 09:13 AM PDT When I ask Reggie, the imposing doorman at Waid's, a Haitian restaurant and lounge in the Central District, if there have been any recent incidents at the club, he shakes his head, his necessarily gruff exterior loosening to a half-smile. "Not anymore, thanks to me," he says with pride. The corner of 12th and Jefferson is an unusually quiet home for one of the Central District's most active nightclubs. A year ago, it wasn't uncommon to see several patrol cars outside Waid's, responding to rowdy loiterers or watching patrons exit after last call. Now Waid Sainvil, who opened this club four years ago and who often sits at the bar on weekday nights, says he calls the police whenever the slightest thing is awry. Frequent communication with the police—a constant presence on the thoroughfares of the CD after dark—is mandatory for keeping his club's doors open. Far from its jazz heyday of the '20s and '30s or the raw buzz of the hip-hop scene in the '90s, the Central District has shifted from being a predominantly African-American community with a significant nightlife to one with a scattered cultural identity that receives more attention for its crime than its music scene. Several city-funded projects, like the current restorations of Washington Hall and the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, are meant to provide more space for art in the CD. But some community leaders, who have seen the CD's local economy disperse, are concerned that increased attention and investment may mean that resources intended for the community will be overrun by those from outside. "Will it just become an extension of Capitol Hill?" asks Rahwa Habte, owner of Jackson Street's Hidmo Eritrean Restaurant. "Or is it going to stay true to its cultural roots?" In response to the vacuum created by a cocktail of gentrification, uneven development, and the closure of storied nightclubs, a few key individuals are working to revitalize the CD, providing the sounds and secure spaces of its current cultural eclecticism. Rahwa Habte, co-owner, Hidmo Eritrean Restaurant "When I opened, the Liquor Board told us specifically not to do hip-hop and not to cater to young people, which is kind of what I do," says Habte, whose father established the city's first Eritrean church. Hidmo hosts all-ages hip-hop open mikes, Guinean DJ collectives, monthly "Ladies First" events featuring all women performers, and a popular weekly African-music night with both local and touring musicians. Hidmo is now the only live music venue on a street that once housed a row of R&B clubs where Quincy Jones and Ray Charles played as teenagers. In addition to promoting all-ages shows, a new branch of the restaurant, the Hidmo Empowerment Project, convenes neighborhood forums about topics like youth violence and safety at the Garfield Community Center, drawing a solid intergenerational turnout. Among Hidmo's fans is Mayor McGinn, who hosted a pre-election meet-and-greet at the restaurant. Tendai Maraire, musician, Shabazz Palaces If any musical project best signifies the CD today, it's Shabazz Palaces; its interlocking, diasporic sound—Middle Eastern and African instrumentation with digital looping, rooted in hip-hop—defies easy categorization. Member Tendai Maraire says he "grew up" at the Langston Hughes PAC in the late 1980s, where as a teen he developed his traditional Zimbabwean musicianship while throwing underground parties for the burgeoning hip-hop scene. Maraire notes that he played at Hidmo's African Night with his family in the same week Shabazz Palaces packed out Neumos last January. In his opinion, Hidmo is "what a lot of venues in this city should be," citing its diverse programming and championing of unpretentious musicianship. "Hidmo keeps it real and wholesome, where my whole family can dance as if we were back home." Jacqueline Moscou, artistic director, Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center "We have lost institutions where we take care of our own. That is the common definition of community; we have lost that," Moscou responds when asked how the CD has changed since she moved to the neighborhood in 1979. "The investment has gone backwards. There's less work, more corporate footholds, and the black middle class has been displaced. Decisions are being made outside of the community now." Moscou, who has directed the Intiman Theatre's Black Nativity for the past 12 years, has high aspirations for Langston Hughes when its doors reopen in 2011. "My generation was the civil-rights generation, where we were breaking down the doors of institutions that were traditionally white, that we didn't have access to. Now there are no institutions here to break the doors down." She sees the opportunity to reclaim the Central District as the crucible of the African American artistic community, hoping to steward black artists "to reinstitutionalize, to have ownership, be the glue." She notes the generation after her is "based on entrepreneurship, like my parents' generation," and calls the grassroots restaurants-cum-nightclubs examples of "cultural survival." Waid Sainvil, owner, Waid's Haitian Restaurant and Lounge "I knew the neighborhood was bad when I bought this place. That was part of the challenge, part of the fun," says Sainvil, who came to Seattle from Haiti in 1995 and opened Waid's after working at various chic bars and clubs in Pioneer Square and Belltown. Waid's boasts a corner stage large enough for a full band and an elevated DJ booth. A wide spectrum of independent and international artists and fledgling promoters find Waid's a place to grow their grassroots niche. It hosts weeklies, like blues dancing, reggae, and 18-and-over indie-rock shows, that would otherwise happen in a garage. When the Haiti earthquake hit in January, Waid's was the first venue to throw a fundraiser, with all proceeds going directly to expats traveling back to assist their families. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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