Archive: Arts & Entertainment

"Habla/Speak" is a family-friendly exploration of what it means to be Latino or Latina in our community. The storytellers are sometimes heart-rending, sometimes heart-warming, and take the audience through public events and private musings on what Latinidad means to them in this snowy upstate town. Performers tell stories from their lives, share music, dance, poetry, and invite the audience to have tamales in a family celebration of a young girl's quinceañera (turning fifteen).

Collaborators on this show include children, young adults, and elders from downtown Ithaca, as well as student co-creators from Ithaca College and Cornell. IC Teatro, helmed by professor Annette Levine, and Teatrotaller, advised by professor Debra Castillo, join with Cornell's Department of Performing and Media Arts to present this show, which is the result of a year-long project to gather stories from a wide range of community members through story circles and theatrical games and workshops.

The 9th Annual Benefit My State Concert will feature ALMOST QUEEN: The Ultimate Queen Experience on Saturday, April 27th at 8pm.

Almost Queen is THE most authentic QUEEN live show since the days of QUEEN themselves. A deliberate four piece band, Almost Queen delivers a live performance showcasing signature four part harmonies and intricate musical interludes. Donning genuine costumes, Almost Queen recaptures the live energy and precision that is the ultimate Queen experience.

When the titans of industry oppress the kids on the street, it's time to strike – and also sing and dance, in Running to Places’ (R2P) production of the Broadway hit “Newsies.” The cast’s energy and zeal in this Tony Award-winning musical blockbuster will appeal to the whole family. The show runs Feb. 15-17 at the State Theatre of Ithaca.

The musical is based on the 1992 film, which was inspired by the Newsboys Strike of 1899 in New York City. Newspaper hawker Jack Kelly (Ari Cummings) and his fellow homeless “newsies,” including the disabled Crutchie (Riley Kwortnik), struggle to cope when publisher Joseph Pulitzer (Dalton Cornell) increases their cost for the newspapers they sell. Vaudeville theatre owner Medda Larkin (Elbonique Stevenson) lends her support, and the newsies declare a strike against the titans of industry. Sparks fly between reporter Katherine Plumber (Sisi Stallmann) and Jack as she covers the newsies’ struggles. When things go quickly sour, newsie Davey (Jasper Fearon) rallies the crew, but with a violent intervention by the police, the strike and the newsies’ very survival hangs in the balance.

This February 21–March 3, The Cherry Artists' Collective, Ithaca's home for innovative performance, presents its fourth full production of the 2018–19 season. Testosterone, by Rebekka Kricheldorf, is a hilarious and unsparing satire that has seen productions in Germany, Argentina, Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela and Cuba.

The Cherry is producing the play for the first time in English, in a translation by Neil Blackadder commissioned for this production. Subtitled "a dark parable," the play probes class, toxic masculinities, and the limits of liberal do-goodery in extreme times. The German periodical Nachtkritiken said Testosterone brings "fast-paced antics and multi-layered satire that will not disappoint."

A deceitful, pious man abuses his professional status to defraud and swindle trusting citizens in 'Tartuffe, written by French playwright Moliere in 1664. This enduring play, which challenges ideas of authoritarianism and hypocrisy, is brought to life by Cornell students in a performance venture at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts.

Department of Performing and Media Arts associate professor Beth F. Milles directs, in association with acting teacher, performer, and senior lecturer Carolyn Goelzer, and PhD candidate Kelly Richmond, who is the student assistant director and dramaturg.

The Cornell Department of Music presents two Midday Music concerts for those seeking a lunchtime musical break.

On Thursday, February 21 at 12:30 pm in Lincoln Hall room B20, pianist Richard Valitutto performs a program entitled "Old North," featuring contemporary solos by North Carolinian composers Caroline Shaw, Thelonious Monk, William Duckworth, and Hunter Johnson, plus a work by John Cage composed at Black Mountain College. Valitutto, a student in Cornell's DMA keyboard studies program, is a Grammy-nominated piano soloist, chamber musician, and composing/improvising creative with a focus on contemporary keyboard performance.

On Sunday, February 10, 2019 the Ithaca Gay Men's Chorus (IGMC) will perform their Winter Concert, "Ithaca Gay Men's Chorus Does Broadway" at 3:00 PM in the First Baptist Church, located in Ithaca's historic Dewitt Park at 309 North Cayuga Street.

IGMC will perform a variety of Broadway songs from recent and beloved Broadway shows, including melodies from Falsettos, Newsies, Wicked, Rent and more. Special guest artists will be the St. Paul's Festival Chimes, directed by Dorothy Preston, and joining in the Broadway show tune celebration.

Tompkins County Public Library will host a Gallery Night on Friday, February 1 for from 6:00pm to 8:00pm. TCPL will be celebrating the capstone work of 2018 Artist in Community, Frances Gallardo, with an exhibit of the work created during her tenure.

Titled "Terramovil," her work explores elements of movement, passage and transience expressed through a series of lichen-like sculptures with designs composed of hybrid 'micro ecosystems' of buildings and natural organic aerial views.

A Far Cry stands at the forefront of an exciting new generation in classical music. The 2019 GRAMMY-nominated chamber orchestra "brims with personality or, better, personalities, many and varied" (The New York Times). A Far Cry was founded in 2007 by a tightly-knit collective of 17 young professional musicians and has developed an innovative structure of rotating leadership both on stage and behind the scenes.

Matthew Hall performs a program entitled "William Byrd, Father of Music" at 3:00 pm on Saturday, February 2 at Barnes Hall. In this concert, Hall plays harpsichord and organ music from various periods in Byrd's life to trace his development as a composer and performer. Byrd's life spanned the reign of seven English monarchs in the most tumultuous century of the kingdom's history. In the midst of this, Byrd single-handedly built Elizabethan musical culture, which was widely acknowledged in his time.

In an apparent reference to the irony of a Catholic at the heart of Elizabethan musical culture, a contemporary called him the "Father of Music." Besides his public service and musical path-blazing, he was loved and admired by his students, colleagues, and patrons, Protestants and Catholics alike.

In late 2018, The Cherry Arts received not one but two major grants from New York State.

A 2018 Regional Economic Development Council initiative (REDC) awards announcement in December included a major award enabling the Cherry to 'expand its Artistic Director position from a part-time, project-funded position to a full-time, salaried position'. According to its website, REDC is "designed to enhance and transform the cultural and economic vitality of New York State communities through strategic, competitive grantmaking."

The Quinn Bachand's Brishen Quartet will perform at the Canaan Institute on Tuesday January 29th 2019 beginning at 7:00 pm followed by a jam session. Brishen plays Gypsy Jazz and Swing.

Brishen, Romany for 'bringer of the storm', is what Quinn Bachand, one of Canada's most outstanding young musicians, and his band serve up with their original western and euro-gypsy swing homage. They introduce a space where virtuosity meets vibe, leaving you with a sense of jubilance and nostalgia. With understated mastery and intuition, the group dedicates itself to musicality and the root of trad jazz and swing with the goal of bridging the gap between early Western and Euro Swing. Quinn Bachand's fascination, respect and commitment to tradition is clearly audible, setting him apart from the rest with an effect that is awe-inspiring.