Mixed Media

'Born in the Bronx' conference celebrates the early days of hip hop

    Afrika Bambaataa and other pioneers of hip hop will travel to Ithaca, N.Y., to speak at a two-day conference celebrating Cornell University Library’s acquisition of “Born in the Bronx: The Legacy and Evolution of Hip Hop,” a collection that documents the early days of hip hop with recordings, photographs, posters and more.

Events on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 will include music, performances and lectures by several of hip hop’s founders, and roundtable discussions led by prominent speakers from the hip hop and academic communities. Cornell University Library will host the event, which will highlight the one-of-a-kind historical materials.

“By paying tribute to those who laid the foundation, we tell our own history,” Bambaataa said. “Preserving hip hop’s early years will help future generations understand the places they come from.”

Bambaataa will address the symposium on Friday, Oct. 31 as part of a roundtable discussion featuring other hip hop pioneers such as Grandmaster Caz, Grandwizzard Theodore, Popmaster Fable, Tony Tone, Disco Wiz and Kool Lady Blue. Select artists will also perform in Alice Statler Hall that evening.

Noted hip hop historians will speak at the event, including authors Jeff Chang and Mark Anthony Neal, associate professor of black popular culture at Duke University. Hip hop photographer Joe Conzo will present his historic images of the Bronx during the conference. The event is free and open to the public.

"We want the community at large to celebrate hip hop's contributions to American culture through a better understanding of its origins, which are the focus of this unique collection,” said Katherine Reagan, curator of Rare Books & Manuscripts at Cornell University Library.

Johan Kugelberg, a collector, curator and writer in the field of popular culture, donated the materials to the Library. Kugelberg’s book, “Born in the Bronx,” chronicles the evolution of hip hop in the South Bronx, beginning in the early 1970s. The 2,000-piece collection includes the archive of Bronx photographer Joe Conzo, vinyl records and other recordings, handmade party and club fliers, and custom-painted textiles by artist Buddy Esquire.

(Image: Tony Tone, Afrika Bambaataa, and the chief rocker Busy Bee at the Zulu Nation Anniversary, Bronx River Projects, 1981. Photograph by Joe Conzo.)

Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival kicks off 10th anniversary season

The Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival will kick-off its tenth anniversary season with two evening concerts, a Family Music Fest concert, and the Festival’s first-ever Pro-Am Seminar. The Festival continues through August 19 with a mix of classical and jazz offerings performed by an engaging roster of artists.

On July 11, the concert Nature Calls, features Schubert’s popular Trout Quintet, a new arrangement of Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals and Heinrich von Biber’s Sonata Representiva, and George Crumb’s Voice of the Whale for three masked players.

“The program shows how composers from three different centuries portrayed animals in music,” says    Festival artistic director Linda Chesis, who will be performing in the concert. “The Farmers’ Museum is the ideal venue for this thematic concert. You’ll hear all sorts of animals, from cats, cuckoos, and swans to frogs, elephants and beluga whales,” says Ms. Chesis.

This concert, which will be held at The Farmers’ Museum Louis C. Jones Center at 7:30 pm, includes a pre-concert chat with the artists at 7 pm, and a post-concert reception with the artists, hosted by Brewery Ommegang. Artists include: Linda Chesis, flute; Gil Morgenstern, violin; Kathryn Lockwood, viola; Wilhelmina Smith, cello; Shirley Irek, piano; and Jeremy McCoy, double bass.

On Saturday, July 12 at 11 am, the Festival offers a kid-friendly introduction to the string quartet. Family Music Fest: What’s That Four? features the highly acclaimed Parker String Quartet. This event, which includes a post-concert instrument petting zoo, where kids can try out musical instruments, costs $15 per family.

The Parkers perform works by Haydn, Janáček, and Beethoven on Sunday, July 13 at 7:30 pm at The Farmers’ Museum. The Boston-based string quartet won both the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition in 2005.

“The Parker String Quartet is one of the very best young quartets performing today,” says Ms. Chesis. “The concert features a great Haydn quartet, one of Beethoven’s blockbuster quartets that marked the arrival of his heroic period, and the dramatic Janáček quartet inspired by Tolstoy’s novel, The Kreutzer Sonata.

Continuing its tradition of offering free community concerts, the Festival’s first-ever Pro-Am Seminar pairs accomplished amateurs with three professional musicians. “We see this as an opportunity to celebrate chamber music as a lifelong pursuit that can be enjoyed and shared,” says Ms. Chesis, who will be leading the Pro-Am Seminar with David Geber, cello, and Shirley Irek, piano. These concerts will be held in venues throughout the Cooperstown area, July 14-16.

“The individuals joining us for the seminar are truly amazing people, who have excelled in their professional life while dedicating time and talent to their love of music,” explains Ms. Chesis. Mark Ptashne, who holds the Ludwig Chair of Molecular Biology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, is a violinist who has performed at many festivals. Bruce Harris is an attending neurosurgeon at Cooperstown’s Bassett Healthcare who is an accomplished pianist. Matt Rosen, a managed healthcare consultant with a Ph.D. in sociology, plays cello and has participated in chamber music workshops in the US and abroad along with his wife, Geraldine Van Dusen. Ms. Van Dusen, a violinist, is a managing editor at St. Martin’s Press in New York City.

Also participating in the Pro-Am Seminar are three students from the Manhattan School of Music, where Mr. Geber is Dean of the Faculty for Instrumental Performance and Ms. Chesis is a member of the flute faculty and chair of the Woodwind Department. The students are Monica Davis, violin/viola; Leat Sabbah, cello; and Emily DiAngelo, oboe, who is also serving as the Festival’s intern and production manager.

After coaching sessions and rehearsals, the artists will perform at Pathfinder Village on July 14 at 7 pm, the Fenimore Art Museum auditorium on July 15 at 12 noon and July 16 at 12 noon. These concerts are free and open to all. The group also will perform for the residents of the Thanksgiving Home in Cooperstown.

Season continues through August 19

The Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival tenth anniversary season also features a Baroque concert on July 23, the Daedalus Quartet and clarinetist David Shifrin on August 3, Flute Fest at the Otesaga (another free community concert) on August 7, Chords and Strings with The Brasil Guitar Duo on August 9, Trio Solisti and Linda Chesis on August 13, Family Music Fest: Go for Baroque on August 16, Gala 10th Anniversary Concert: The Brandenburg Concertos on August 17, and jazz with the Brubeck Brothers Quartet on August 19. Evening concerts begin at 7:30 pm. Audiences are invited to attend 7 pm pre-concert chats with the artists on the following dates: July 11, 13, 23, and August 3, 9, 13.

Tickets and Information
Evening concerts are $30 for adults. Students (6-18) tickets for evening concerts are $15. Daytime Family Music Fest events are $15 per family. Pro-Am Seminar concerts and the Flute Fest at the Otesaga concert are free and do not require a ticket or reservation. Program subject to change.

For more information, call toll-free 877- MOOSIC1 (877-666-7421), or visit the Festival’s web site.

"Traditions In Action" at Hartwick College

"Celebrating the Earth: Traditions in Action" will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 19, the Yager Museum of Art & Culture at Hartwick College in Oneonta and will feature guest interpreters and presenters from the Hawk Circle in Cherry Valley.

The program will feature a series of interactive wilderness education programs, including the Native traditions of boiling maple sap, drum making and use, flint napping, rope making, and beaded necklaces. The program will provide a sense of immersion and reality, connecting visitors with how Native Americans used the materials at their disposal to create objects for use and beauty.

The event will also feature "Containers of Belief," a Yager Museum special exhibition exploring Native American objects made and used by Native people in their everyday lives. The exhibit considers the spiritual dimensions of the showcased objects from creation through use. Activities will take place in The Yager Museum and on Frisbee Field. Refreshments will be served, including foods using ingredients available to Native Americans.

The program has been created by the museum education course, a part of Hartwick College’s Museum Studies Minor. Four students in the class have worked together to create a program that will capture the imagination of their peers and the community. The students have planned virtually every aspect of the project, from creating the program of activities, developing a marketing plan, considering menu choices, and establishing a Facebook page for the Yager Museum on which current activities can be shared.

Hawk Circle Wilderness Programs began in 1989 as a one week camp experience for teens, in the Upper Hudson Valley. After eight years in the Upper Hudson Valley, they moved in 1997 to Cherry Valley where they offer camps and programs focused on making authentic crafts and sharing in wilderness experiences that can awaken a passion for learning, teaching and inner growth.

This program is free to all and is sponsored by The Yager Museum of Art & Culture, the office of Academic Affairs, and the office of Student Success. For more information, visit their website or call The Yager Museum at 607-431-4480.

Telephone:     607-431-4480
Web Site Address:     http://www.hartwick.edu/museum
Email Address:     museums@hartwick.edu

Great Composers & a World Premiere with the Binghamton Philharmonic tomorrow (4/5/08)

Binghamton Philharmonic Composer-in-Residence Carlos Sánchez-Gutiérrez (pictured, right) and Music Director José-Luis Novo stopped by for a live radio interview today. I hadn't had the opportunity to interview either gentleman before, so it was a treat for me. I could have kept them for an hour, especially on the subject of new music and its place in the concert hall and on our airwaves.

The new music in question today is ...Ex Machina for for Piano, Marimba and Orchestra by Carlos Sánchez-Gutiérrez , which was commissioned by the Binghamton Philharmonic. Guest performers for the work are marimbist Makoto Nakura and pianist Cristina Valdés.

Sánchez-Gutiérrez also appeared on WSKG TV's Expressions program last night, holding forth on the same subject. You can see that program online.

The concert tomorrow night in Binghamton University's Anderson Center also features Brahms Symphony No. 2 and Beethoven's Egmont Overture (which we inadvertently played twice on WSKG Radio today within the same hour--I played it with the interview then our network classical service coincidentally played it right after the 10am news. I hate it when that happens.)

Interestingly, Sánchez-Gutiérrez work is inspired by the kinetic sculptures of Arthur Ganson, who joins the composer for a pre-concert talk in the Anderson Center Chamber Hall an hour before the concert. The lecture is free for ticket holders.

--Gregory Keeler

www.binghamtonphilharmonic.org

composer Carlos Sánchez-Gutiérrez' website

sculptor Arthur Ganson's website

Essayist Vivian Gornick at Ithaca College

Acclaimed essayist Vivian Gornick will give a free public reading at Ithaca College on Tuesday, April 1, at 7:30 p.m. in Beeler Hall in the Whalen Center. Her presentation is part of the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series, sponsored by the Department of Writing.

Among Gornick’s many books are the memoir “Fierce Attachments,” the story of her lifelong battle with her mother for independence; “Approaching Eye Level,” a collection of personal essays on solitude, isolation and loneliness; and “The End of the Novel of Love,” a collection of critical essays that explore the meaning of love and marriage as literary themes in the 20th century. Her essays and articles have appeared in the “New Yorker,” the “Nation,” the “New York Times Book Review” and “Bookforum,” among other publications.

Gornick currently teaches creative writing at the New School. For the 2007–2008 academic year, she is serving as a Radcliffe Institute Fellow at Harvard University, where she is conducting research for a biography of the anarchist Emma Goldman and working on a memoir about an emblematic friendship that is framed within the context of contemporary urban life. She holds a bachelor’s degree in literature from the City College of New York and a master’s degree in literature from New York University.

For more information, visit the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series website, or contact Jack Wang, assistant professor of writing, at (607) 274-3493 or wang@ithaca.edu.

Concert Spotlight: The Tallis Scholars perform at Ithaca College

On Thursday, Feb. 28, the Tallis Scholars — an ensemble of vocalists specializing music of the Renaissance — will perform the second of three performances in the Ithaca College Concerts year-long season “Legends.” The concert will begin at 8:15 p.m. in Ford Hall in the James J. Whalen Center for Music.

The 2007–2008 season has been named “Legends” because it offers concerts by world renowned performers who have established themselves as popular and enduring figures. The season will conclude in April with the 30-year reunion tour of Tashi, the renowned chamber music ensemble.

Entitled “Music of Spain and Portugal,” the Tallis Scholars performance features the “Requiem” for six voices by Tomás Luis de Victoria. Music in Latin by several other Spanish and Portuguese composers rounds out the program.

The Tallis Scholars were founded in 1973 by Peter Phillips, their tireless and inspirational Oxford-educated director. Phillips has worked with the ensemble to create, through good tuning and blend, the purity and clarity of sound that he feels best serves the Renaissance repertoire, thus allowing every detail of the musical lines to be heard.

The ensemble has established itself as a leading exponent of Renaissance sacred music through its approximately 70 concerts a year and over 50 award-winning recordings on the Gimmel label. They are among the busiest ensembles in the world, with regular tours throughout Europe, North and South America, and the Far East.

Individual tickets are on sale at the Clinton House Ticket Center and at Ithacaevents.com.
For more information on Ithaca College Concerts, call (607) 274-3717.

Mozart's ‘La Finta Giardiniera’ at Ithaca College

Ithaca College Theatre and School of Music will mark their annual collaboration with a lively production
of Mozart’s Italian comic opera, La Finta Giardiniera. Performances will be held at 8 p.m. on February 19, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, and 29, with a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, February 24. All performances will be held in the Clark Theatre at Dillingham Center. The production will be sung in Italian with English supertitles.

Written in 1775 when Mozart was just 18 years old, La Finta Giardiniera tells the story of Count Belfiore and Violante, who were lovers until Belfiore stabbed Violante in a quarrel. Mistakenly believing Violante to be dead, Belfiore has become engaged to the very jealous Arminda. Violante, meanwhile, has disguised herself as the gardener Sandrina in order to confront Belfiore. As more complications arise, lunacy ensues, ensuring fits of passion of which only Mozart’s Italians are capable.

David Lefkowich, director of last season’s Ithaca College Theatre production of Handel’s opera, “Acis and Galatea,” returns to guest direct La Finta Giardiniera. Lefkowich has directed productions for companies around the country, including the New York City Opera, Florida Grand Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera. An experienced stage combat director, Lefkowich graduated Northwestern University’s School of Speech with a degree in theater and holds a certificate from Ecole-Jacques Lecoq in Paris.

The musical director is assistant professor of music and director of opera and musical theatre Mark Kaczmarczyk. His credits include “Grendel” at Lincoln Center’s “Mostly Mozart” Festival and
conductor of Handel’s Semele and Acis and Galatea at the Detroit Institute of the Arts. He has also performed as a bass soloist in productions around the country.

Two casts of La Finta Giardiniera will alternate performances. The cast includes vocal performance majors Danielle Edwards ’08 and Diana Yourke ’08 as Violante and musical theatre major
Daniel Greenwood ’08 and music education and vocal performance major Dan Prior ’08 as Belfiore. The cast also includes Christina Boosahda ’09, Hilary A. Bucell ’09, Garry McLinn ’09, Sara Mowery ’09, Alexis Murphy-Egri ’08, Megan Palange ’08, and Michael J. Quinn ’08.

The artistic design team includes assistant professor of theatre arts Brian Prather as set designer, Samantha Yaeger ’08 as costume designer, and assistant professor and chair of theatre arts Steve TenEyck as lighting designer.

Ticket prices range from $4.50 to $10 and can be purchased at all Ticket Center outlets, including the Ithaca College Theatre ticket office in Dillingham Center and online at www.ithacaevents.com. Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more by calling (203) 260-9508. For more information call (607) 274-3224, (607) 273-4497 or visit www.ithaca.edu/theatre.

Underground Railroad Exhibit on display in Binghamton

The Underground Railroad Exhibit is now on display in the 2nd Floor Gallery at City Hall in Binghamton. The exhibit, which is organized by the Freedom Trail Project Foundation, features artifacts and other visual portrayals of enslavement, resistance to it, and the paths many took to freedom.

“This exhibit allows us to examine a difficult part of our country’s history,” said Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan. “In moving our community forward, it is important for us to reflect the experience of enslavement, the legacy of racism, and the continuing struggle to achieve equality and justice for all people.”

Using a variety of materials, the exhibit takes audiences through the history of enslavement in North America, emphasizing that it was both a personal experience and a government-sanctioned institution.

“Slavery was a system of oppression,” said George Sands, the exhibit’s curator.  “Our exhibit displays how that system dehumanized all those who were affected by it. It is a lesson that ideologies of hate and social supremacy can gain wide-spread acceptance, and result in violence. As the exhibit suggests, we must keep that lesson in mind, and learn from it.”

At the exhibit’s beginning, diagrams illustrate the methods with which slave-traders packed ships past capacity with captives, which resulted in many deaths. Reprints of 19th-century newspaper articles on “runaway slaves,” and the rewards for their re-capture, demonstrate how people of African heritage were classified as property. Near the exhibit’s conclusion are short biographies of prominent abolitionists. And along the way are examples of the quilts whose designs served as a code for the Underground Railroad, the network of clandestine routes and safe houses used by the enslaved to escape to free states, or as far north as Canada, with the aid of abolitionists.

The exhibit also highlights the Southern Tier’s role in the anti-slavery movement. Binghamton and nearby cities were home to “stations” for the Underground Railroad. One of these places was a house located where City Hall now stands. The house’s owner, Dr. Steven Hand, had an instrumental role in the organization and operation of the Underground Railroad throughout the Southern Tier.  A plaque commemorating such local efforts to abolish slavery was installed at City Hall’s Hawley St. entrance in 2005.

With its grand opening on February 1st, the exhibition will kick off Black History Month, and then stay on display through March 28th. For more information on the Underground Railroad Exhibition visit the Freedom Trail Project Foundation or call 607-265-3441.

Light In Winter festival will use the arts, music and science to highlight "Identity"

The arts and sciences join together in Ithaca this weekend (January 18-20) as science and art intersect to explore the many facets of "Identity". Superheroes and superstars will intermingle with robots and poets, all examining the questions of who we are, where we came from, and where we are going. The festival will be held in Ithaca, New York and events will occur at a number of locations throughout town. Tickets are available at www.lightinwinter.com.

University of Chicago biologist Michael LaBarbera, University of Minnesota condensed matter experimentalist Jim Kakalios and noted comic book writer Roger Stern will hold an illustrated panel discussion focusing on the "whys" and "hows" of superheroes. Why can Superman fly, when we cannot? How fast can The Flash really run? With tongue firmly in cheek, these three experts will turn the scientific method on these questions and examine these imagined identities as no one ever has. (1/19/08, 1:30 PM, Statler Hotel, Cornell)

Hugh Masekela is a true music legend, a rare world music and jazz crossover success who has had several pop hits, including "Grazin' in the Grass" and "Bring Him Back Home", an homage to Nelson Mandela which became the anthem of the anti-apartheid movement. In concert, Hugh Masekela takes the musical route in exploring identity, using his trumpet and his band of Chissa All-Stars to find the places where jazz and world music meet, where flugelhorns and drums are the weapons of love, and where hatred can be eradicated with a single sweet note. (1/19/08, 8:00 PM, Bailey Hall, Cornell)

Neal Conan, host of NPR's "Talk of the Nation", is a leading expert on the cultural identity of Americans and how we, a nation of immigrants and explorers, came to be. His fascination of exploration led him to create a program entitled "First Person - Stories from the Edge of the World". With a multimedia presentation which includes the music of the world-renowned Ensemble Galilei, Neal Conan will read first-person accounts of travelers and explorers . These journeys changed the world, and shaped who we became. (1/18/08, 7:30 PM, State Theatre, Downtown Ithaca)

What do Robots Dream of? We create them and give them identities - simple or complex - but will they ever become independent beings or are they simply extensions of ourselves? Cornell engineer Hod Lipson is on the cutting edge of robot research and believes that thinking robots are not too far off. Ithaca College professor of philosophy Lee Bailey has written books on the potential moral dilemmas of creating these beings who are not us. With a performance by the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots - real robots who perform real music - this program promises both hilarity and poignancy, and will perhaps illuminate where we are going. (1/19/08, 3:30 PM, Statler Hotel, Cornell)

Composer and public radio personality Bruce Adolphe explores the artist's identity and how it intersects with music in his multimedia presentation "Red Dogs and Pink Skies", a celebration of the work of Paul Gauguin. Performed by a fantastic lineup of Ithaca College School of Music faculty musicians, pieces of music that were inspired by the colorful tropical works of Gauguin will be highlighted and narrated by Adolphe himself, with stories of Gauguin's life and how he finally found his artistic voice in the South Pacific. (1/20/08, 1:00 PM, Ford Hall, Ithaca College)

Additional presentations will include a musical dim sum - the Ying Quartet performs a selection of pieces by Chinese-American composers, an exploration of digital identities with Cornell communication professor Jeffrey Hancock, the polyethnic percussion and performance ensemble Cyro Baptista and Beat the Donkey, a traveling exhibit titled "THEM" from the Jim Crow Museum which explores images of hatred and separation, a performance and presentation Composer Michael Gandolfi and the Ithaca
College Symphony Orchestra which will examine how, by shaping nature, we shape ourselves, poetry workshops with Tompkins County Poet Laureate Paul Hamill, and additional art, science, sociology, and music workshops throughout Ithaca.

Behind the Art – Christopher Julian

Name:  Christopher Julian

Training/School: Binghamton University & Tompkins Cortland Community College

Community Involvement: Video Editing & Cinematography

Describe your ‘art’: I write, direct, produce, shoot and edit films and videos of a variety of different kinds including documentaries, narratives, promotional and commercial videos.

Who or what inspires your work? I was hooked on film ever since Star Wars at age 5. Since then it has been a very wide variety of filmmakers’ works that continue to reinvigorate my passion for the medium.

What is your proudest accomplishment so far? “Invisible Ink,” a two-hour narrative that took my co-writer and I over three years to finish. And “101 Ways to Retire—or Not!” a one-hour documentary about active retirement.

Who are your favorite local artists? The local music band “IY” has some of the best songwriting and musicianship around. The fab four of Ithaca!

Advice to aspiring artists: Do what feels right. Worry about money later...

Who are you listening to and/or reading right now? The music I’m listening to lately usually features dead artists J Nick Drake, Elliott Smith, Jeff Buckley. But among the living, I love Iron & Wine, Radiohead, and the Shins.

What is important to you?  Art of all kinds are the things that are most important to me. Filmmaking, music, photography, mostly.

Christopher Julian's documentary "101 Ways to Retire - Or Not!" will be broadcast on WSKG-TV on Thursday, January 17th at 8 p.m.

'Behind the Art' is a regular series that profiles the people behind the arts throughout our community. If you'd like to be profiled in 'Behind the Art,' email editor Crystal Sarakas.