Archive: Arts & Entertainment

Eye Elsewhere, a selection of black and white photographs taken by Evan D. Williams between 1999 and 2019, will be on display at the Mezzanine Gallery at Benjamin Peters (120 The Commons, Ithaca NY) from June 7-30, 2019. This show's main, eponymous series of selenium-toned photographs is a visual travelogue spanning all four hemispheres -- from the Cayman Islands to Finland and the Canadian Rockies to South Africa's Nelson Mandela Bay.

Also on display is Practical Reality, a sequence of portraits paired with redacted book pages; Useful Only For Dreamtime (Don't Confront Me With My Failures), a tetraptych of happy accidents arising from alternative process experiments; and White Box, which contains small prints that visitors can take for free.

Critically acclaimed New Orleans-based band Tank and The Bangas will be performing at the State Theater on June 5th.

The band unanimously won NPR's Tiny Desk contest with "Quick," a riotous single they released in 2017, which Bob Boilen proclaimed, "This band combines R&B with hip-hop's poetry and rollercoaster storytelling, with a flair and alchemy that could only come from New Orleans." Since the win, the band has toured non-stop selling out venues both stateside and abroad including festival appearances at Coachella, Bonnaroo, Newport Folk Festival and more.

The Cornell Jazz program, under the direction of Paul Merrill, presents two concerts to finish out the year. The Jazz Ensemble performs Thursday, May 9 at 8:00 pm at Barnes Hall. The concert includes music by Toshiko Akiyoshi, Weather Report, Pat Metheny, Francy Boland, George Gershwin, Neal Hefti, and more. The concert is free and open to the public.

Under the artistic direction of pianists Miri Yampolsky and Xak Bjerken, Cornell University's Department of Music presents Mayfest, its annual springtime festival of world-class chamber music. Held May 17–21, 2019, Mayfest will feature numerous guest artists from the world's finest orchestras, and will also highlight the exceptional talent of Ithaca-based musicians.

Bjerken and Yampolsky perform with local and international friends throughout the year, collecting ideas for musical partnerships and programs for Mayfest. Invited artists this year include a mixture of new faces, including violist Beatrice Muthelet, the principal of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra; oboist Dudu Carmel, the principal of the Israel Philharmonic; and French horn player Chezy Nir, the former principal of the Israel Symphony Orchestra. Returning friends include favorites cellist Zvi Plesser, who has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra and Berlin Philharmonic, among others; violinist Xiao-Dong Wang of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; and violinist Christina Bouey, known to Ithaca audiences as the Concertmaster of the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra.

The Cornell Wind Symphony, Chorale, and Chamber Singers combine forces at 3:00 pm in Bailey Hall on Sunday, May 5 to explore the musical works of Percy Grainger and Igor Stravinsky, who were born only two weeks apart in the summer of 1882. Director of Winds James Spinazzola crafted the program to highlight two masterworks, Grainger's Lincolnshire Posy (1937), and Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms (1930), the latter of which serves as a vehicle for collaborating with the Chorale and Chamber Singers under the direction of Stephen Spinelli.

Spinazzola adds that additional pieces on the program will give the audience even more to look forward to in a diverse concert: "Ron Nelson's Rocky Point Holiday (1969) is a virtuosic showpiece for the wind ensemble. Its title and ebullient character stem from the place of its composition: Rocky Point, Rhode Island, where the composer was on vacation. John Mackey's Aurora Awakes (2009) moves from a quiet beginning to an energetic conclusion showcasing the myriad instrumental colors in the modern wind band. The piece makes extensive use of a quotation of the famous guitar introduction to U2's 'Where the Streets Have No Name.'"

A musical washing machine, a desert howl, and tennis balls bouncing will be just a few of the acoustic experiences in the May 1 performance by Chris Hoff and Sam Harnett, co-creators of the 90-second public radio show and podcast "The World According to Sound." The 8 p.m. event, in Rhodes-Rawlings Auditorium, Klarman Hall at Cornell University, is free and the public is invited.

Hoff and Harnett will use an eight-speaker Meyer Sound system placed around the audience to create a surround-sound effect. "It's a powerful speaker array with some substantial subwoofers. It'll be War of the Worlds like you've never heard it before," said Harnett.

The acoustic jazz ensemble, Rhythm Future Quartet has a straightforward agenda: to keep the spirit of Gypsy jazz alive and expanding in today’s musical universe. The quartet will perform at The Canaan Institute May 4th with a jazz jam session afterward.

The virtuosic foursome, named for a Django Reinhardt tune, offers up a newly minted sound, influenced by the classic Hot Club of France, yet wholly contemporary. Led by violinist Jason Anick and guitarist Olli Soikkeli, the quartet performs dynamic and lyrical arrangements of both Gypsy jazz standards and original compositions that draw upon diverse international rhythms and musical idioms. With Max O’Rourke on second guitar and Greg Loughman on bass, Rhythm Future is dedicated to expanding the boundaries of a vital musical genre.

A new musical about Hurricane Katrina, written by two Ithacans, will be debuted May 4 and 5 as a staged reading at the Cherry Artspace in Ithaca. Katrina, A New Musical, was written by Liz Bauman and David Frumkin, and is being presented by Walking on Water Productions (WoW). Katrina tells the story of fictional characters living in New Orleans who struggle with the storm and subsequent flooding, made so much worse by the government's slow response and the racial and economic divides in that city.

"We have a talented and diverse cast who will bring this new piece to life," says Priscilla Hummel, founding artistic director of WoW and director of Katrina. "The staged readings will present the wonderful songs by composer David Frumkin, accompanied by renowned Ithaca pianist Molly MacMillan. Liz Bauman's story, which is based on actual news reports and events, is captivating and emotionally moving."

On April 20, 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig set off the largest marine oil spill in history. The blowout killed eleven workers, injured dozens of others, and caused lasting environmental and economic repercussions in the Gulf of Mexico. Nine years later, how has the oil industry and our reliance on fossil fuels changed? How do the stories of those directly affected help us to make sense of climate change and economic inequality?

Developed from hundreds of interviews with survivors of the disaster and the families of those who lost their lives, Leigh Fondakowski's "SPILL" explores the human stories behind the headlines. Cornell Performing and Media Arts PhD candidate Caitlin Kane directs performances of "SPILL" April 26–May 4 in the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts' Flex Theatre.

Homer's 'Odyssey' comes alive in Ithaca through "Arts Unplugged," a new series sponsored by the College of Arts & Sciences, kicking off April 26 with "The Odyssey in Ithaca." The daylong community reading of a new translation of Homer's Odyssey features campus and community members. Reading will begin at 8 a.m. and continue until 8 p.m. in the Groos Family Atrium in Klarman Hall on the Cornell campus. The event is open to the public; audience members are free to attend for any part of the reading at any time of day.

"This event highlights our local connection to Odysseus's native land and reminds us that so much of the 'journey' happens right at home—half of the poem takes place once he has reached Ithaca," said organizer Athena Kirk, assistant professor of classics. "We will hear this old poem through the voices and faces of today's Ithaca, amidst ancient statue casts and lunchtime banqueters, with listeners coming and going throughout the day: a modern reimagining of an ancient epic performance."

The Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers (DCJS) will present a pre-tour concert of Negro Spirituals at 7:30 p.m., Friday, May 10 in Ford Hall at the Ithaca College Whalen School of Music.

The memorial concert is in honor of Ithaca hero Dorothy Cotton, the civil rights activist who served as education director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She often delivered her messages of freedom and hope through music and lived in Ithaca, N.Y., for many years. "The DCJS, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, Ithaca-based organization dedicated to preserving the Negro Spiritual and its themes of sorrow, despair, and hope to promote racial healing and social justice," says Founding Director Dr. Baruch Whitehead associate professor of music education at Ithaca College.

On Saturday, April 27 at 7:30 pm at Bailey Hall, Cornell’s Chorus and Glee Club will collaborate with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra and soloists Tamara Acosta, soprano, and Sidney Outlaw, baritone, to present Brahms’ A German Requiem. Conducted by Cornelia Laemmli Orth, the work is celebrating its 150th anniversary, just as the Cornell Glee Club, under the direction of Robert Isaacs, commemorates its own sesquicentennial.

The largest of Brahms’ works, the Requiem is a mainstay of the choral-orchestral repertoire today that would have been seen as novel when it originated due to Brahms’ usage of historical musical forms updated with his own innovations. One such technique was the selection of texts that avoided specific references, instead creating universally applicable ideas of humanity. In addition to the choral sections, Acosta and Outlaw are featured; Acosta is on faculty at Ithaca College and has appeared with the Santa Fe, Sarasota, and Nashville Operas, among others, and Outlaw’s appearances include performances with the English National Opera, Metropolitan Opera, the Spoleto Festival, and more. A pre-concert talk with Orth will begin onstage at 6:45 pm. Tickets are $28 for adults, and $10 for students and are available at Baileytickets.com