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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2008 > February
February 2008
Weekend pix: Go gallery hopping
There’s a slew of good gallery shows to catch this weekend.
It’s your last chance to see the beguiling show by Mads Lynnerup at Lora Reynolds Gallery. In “If You See Anything Interesting Please Let Someone Know Immediately,” Lynnerup deftly undermines the quotidian to point out its follies and ironies.
“Monitor” by Mads Lynnerup.
Opening Saturday at Art Palace, Eric Zimmerman — who also has work in Austin Museum of Art’s New Art in Austin — shows some impressive new graphite drawings. A superior draftsman, Zimmerman uses topographical maps, visionary architecture and nature illustration as touchstones for drawings that question our need to fixate and describe space.
“Atlas #13 Spirit Over Matter (For Thomas)” by Eric Zimmerman.
New at D. Berman Gallery are the sleek minimalist paintings of Denny McCoy, who takes his inspiration from his Wimberley environs.
“Cypress Creek” by Denny McCoy.
Around the corner from D. Berman, check out Women & Their Work, where Houston artist Katy Heinlein shows her draped fabric installations.
“Unknown Pleasures” by Katy Heinlein
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Long Center: Grupo Fantasma to play free concert opening weekend
Powerhouse cumbia-funk band Grupo Fantasma will play a free concert at the new **Long Center for the Performing Arts to cap off the center’s opening weekend March 6-9.
Grupo Fantasma will hit the stage at the new Dell Hall — one of two Long Center venues — at 8:15 p.m. March 9, at the end of the center’s “Sneak Peek Weekend.” Dell Hall seats 2,400.
Other performers that weekend include Tosca String Quartet, Will Taylor & Strings Attached, Austin Poetry Slam, Aztlan Dance Company, Austin Classical Guitar Society and Austin Shakespeare Festival.
See here for a complete list of “Sneak Peek” events, including building tours of the new $77 million complex opening at West Riverside Drive and South First Street.
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Buckley to stay on as ALO conductor
Austin Lyric Opera’s general director Kevin Patterson announced today that noted conductor Richard Buckley will stay on as the opera’s principal conductor through the 2009-2010 season.
Buckley was artistic director of ALO from 2003 until he stepped down from the position in 2007 and took the helm as principal conductor. Buckley is also currently principal conductor for Opera Cleveland.
“I am extremely pleased to have Richard continue with ALO as principal conductor,” said Patterson. “Under Richard’s leadership the orchestra has matured to a very high level artistically. He continues to play a significant role in aiding Austin Lyric Opera to achieve our mission of presenting operas of the highest standard that enrich the lives of this community.”
“There is no doubt that Richard has added a new dimension to the playing of our orchestra,” Patterson said.
During his tenure as ALO artistic director, Buckley staged an ambitious new production of Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” and also the critically-acclaimed American premiere of Philip Glass’” Waiting for the Barbarians.”
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Review: ‘Overwhelming Underdogs’
“Overwhelming Underdogs” certainly does overwhelm, but not entirely with losers. Austin theater vet Joe Hartman’s new one-man show, produced by The City Theatre at Arts on Real, ranges from manic to sappy to sing-song to awkward. It can wipe out an audience with sheer brute-force energy, but “Underdogs” isn’t without its sweet touches as well.
“Underdogs” first half presents a series of nine vignettes with six characters, ranging from a perennial failure in a spelling bee and to an OCD office worker on the hunt for her yogurt’s thief. Some, like a woefully misplaced meditation guru, rely too heavily on frenetic ranting. Hartman’s quips get lost in a stream of noise when two characters go for back-to-back shouting matches.
Others, though, capture the spirit of the underdog and the easy empathy of the audience. It’s a smart choice to end with Armuhd Bursae spelling out worlds such as “victory,” “vulnerability” and “defiance.”
The second act follows Cathy Dresden, a 1950s chanteuse, along her downward spiral of a career and love life until she’s performing (and waiting) at the Burger Barn. The starlet parody, while not entirely original, is livened up by Hartman’s classic song-and-dance act.
Like all of Hartman’s creations, though, Dresden can find the silver lining. While nothing particularly works out for her, Dresden proudly (and Hartman ably) sings “I’m going to live until I die.”
(“Overwhelming Underdogs” continues at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 5:30 p.m. Sundays through March 16 at Arts on Real, 2826 Real St. $5-$20. 524-2870, www.citytheatreaustin.org.)
Joey Seiler is an American-Statesman freelance critic.
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Texas Association of Museums names new director
The Texas Association of Museums today named *Ruth Ann Rugg *as its new executive director.
Rugg replaces Jack Nokes who retired the post in December after 12 years at the post. The association is the largest state museum membership organization in the nation with over 700 members.
A native of Fort Worth, Rugg received her education at Texas Christian University. She began her museum career in 1980 at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, where she worked in public affairs. Rugg continued her experience in communications at the Amon Carter Museum from 1991 until 1999. In 2000, she advanced to Director of Interpretation at the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, Dallas. There she helped shape the international observance of the 40th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination. Later she served as acting director for 15 months, 2004-2005. Pursuing her interest in historic preservation, in 2007 Rugg became founding director of the Texas Regional Office of Partners for Sacred Places, a nonprofit organization that works with historic houses of worship.
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Ballet Austin headed to Kennedy Center
For a third time, Ballet Austin has been invited to perform at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Ballet Austin will perform George Balanchine’s 1959 ‘Episodes’ with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet, a dance company produced by the Kennedy Center.
Ballet Austin officials made the announcement Thursday night when they also revealed the company’s 2008-2009 season.
Ballet Austin will travel to Washington D.C. in October to perform the ballet in four performances in the Eisenhower Theater along with the principals of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet. The Suzanne Farrell Ballet will then travel to Austin to perform with Ballet Austin as part of it’s biennial “Director’s Choice” program on Oct. 24-26, held this year at new the Long Center for the Performing Arts.
Ballet Austin has twice before performed at the Kennedy Center. In 2002, the company performed to seven sold-out houses with Mills’ staging of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” In 2004, the Kennedy Center commissioned “The Taming of the Shrew” from Mills.
The invitation to Ballet Austin comes in only the second year of the Kennedy Center initiative which pairs companies to allow larger ballets such as Balanchine’s ‘Episodes’ to be performed for more audiences.
Suzanne Farrell is one of the most noted ballerinas of the 20th century. In 1959, she was selected to study at George Balanchine’s School of American Ballet and became his muse. ‘Episodes’ is an homage to modernist composer Anton Webern.
Ballet Austin has also presented works at New York’s Joyce Theater and participated in international festivals including Le Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationals de Seine-Saint-Denis in Paris and Le Festival des arts de Saint-Sauveur in Montreal. In the summer of 2005, at the invitation of the U.S. State Department the company performed in Italy and Slovenia.
Ballet Austin’s 2008-09 season will include:
—“Not Afraid of the Dark,” Sept. 20-21 at the Paramount Theatre
—“Director’s Choice,” Oct 24-26, 2008 at the Long Center for the Performing Arts — Balanchine’s “Symphony in Three Movements” featuring The Suzanne Farrell Ballet
—The 46th Annual Production of “The Nutcracker,” Dec. 6-23, 2008 at the Long Center for the Performing Arts
—Stephen Mills’ “Hamlet,” Feb. 13-15, 2009 at the Long Center for the Performing Arts
—To be announced, March 19-29, 2009 at the Austin Ventures Studio Theater, Butler Dance Education Center
—“The Magic Flute,” May 8-10, 2009 at the Long Center for the Performing Arts
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And the winners are…
Last weekend, three up-and-coming choreographers competed in Ballet Austin’s “new American Talent/Dance,” a with each creating a new 20-minute ballet for the company’s dancers. Sidra Bell, Viktor Kabaniaev and Amy Seiwert presented their work at the Paramount Theatre in four shows.
A panel of judges — Virginia Johnson, editor, Pointe Magazine; Christopher Stowell, artistic director, Oregon Ballet Theater; Dermot Burke, artistic director, Dayton Ballet — awarded $15,000 in prize money distributed as follows:
Kabaniaev — $6,500
Seiwert — $6,000
Bell — $2,500
Then for each show, the audience could vote by cell phone for its favorite to receive a $1,000 prize. Audience awards:
Bell — $3,000 (Thursday, Saturday and Sunday performance)
Kabaniaev — $1,000 (Friday performance)
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Salvage Vanguard Theater announces new season
Salvage Vanguard Theater has announced its 2008 lineup.
“Hamilton Township” by Jason Grote. Summer 2008. Based on a true story, “Hamilton Township” combines memoir, surrealist horror and a New Jersey folk tale to tell a morality play about adolescence, the nature of evil and the worst party in the history of ever. Directed by Jenny Larson.
“Unbeaten” by Shannon McCormick with Graham Reynolds. Fall 2008. An improvised play about professional football that takes place within the parameters of a game of football—one hour, offense and defense with a score by award-winning Austin composer Graham Reynolds.
“The Difference Engine” by Dan Dietz. September 2008. Celebrated playwright, ex-Austinite and Theatre Communications Group grant recipient Dan Dietz returns to his old stomping grounds to present his newest work. The workshop production explores the computer’s humble beginnings.
“The Intergalactic Nemesis.” May 2008. On May 9 at the Paramount Theatre, catch the return of “The Intergalactic Nemesis,” Salvage Vanguard’s all-time hit, a campy pseudo-1930s radio play.
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Museum unveils designs for new building, adjacent office tower
The Austin Museum of Art today unveiled preliminary designs for its $23 million new building as well as the 30-story office tower that will share the downtown Austin block with the museum at Fourth and Guadalupe streets.
In addition, museum officials announced that Bettye and William Nowlin, longtime museum supporters, have donated $3 million toward the project. It is the couple’s largest gift to any capital campaign. Bettye Nowlin is currently the museum’s board president.
“We chose to make this gift because this project is affordable, achievable and what’s right for Austin right now,” said Bettye Nowlin at a morning news conference at the museum’s galleries at 823 Congress Ave., the site the museum has rented for the past 13 years.
The new museum is being developed in partnership with Hines Interests LP, a Houston-based development firm, which plans a 30-story 425,000-square-foot office tower on the west side of the block.
Mayor Will Wynn, who was on hand for the announcement along with City Council Member Brewster McCracken, said that the new museum was important in providing “the backbone for a vibrant downtown.” “The longterm prospects of that quadrant of downtown are really exciting,” he said.
(Rendering courtesy Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects.)
Both the museum and the office tower will be designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects. Fred Clarke, a principal with the firm, said that though the design for both buildings is in a preliminary stage, the structures both would feature transparent glass on the first floor to “connect to the outside.”
The 40,000-square-foot, three-story museum would have an entrance facing Republic Square Park to the north. The third floor would also include a north-facing balcony. The fourth-story roof would also be usable space, possibly with a rooftop garden. Current plans call for the museum to have 10,000 square feet of exhibit galleries plus 2,900 square feet of education activity areas. A south-facing green space behind the museum might include a sculpture garden. The museum and the office tower would be connected by an enclosed walkway but otherwise will be two separate buildings.
Representatives of Hines Interests said they planned to develop their office tower as the first LEED-certified office building in downtown. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system is a federal government program that certifies buildings according to their level of sustainability and environmental efficiency.
Clarke said he proposed a sleek tower clad in a “rich tapestry” of transparent glass, opaque glass and metal that would be “extremely light” in appearance. “This project is about establishing a very 21st-century presence in Austin.”
The museum selected Hines after 14 developers submitted proposals. Hines will purchase the property from the museum. Museum officials declined to disclose the sale price of half of the prime downtown lot. However, museum director Dana Friis-Hansen said said that the Nowlins’ gift plus the undisclosed amount from the sale of the land as well as several anonymous gifts and monies left over from previous capital campaigns leaves just $9 million for the museum to raise to reach out of the $23 million goal.
Friis-Hansen said the $23 million will cover hard and soft construction costs, transition expenses and $2 million for the museum’s operating endowment. The museum currently has an annual budget of $4.1 million.
Ground is expected to be broken in 2009 with completion of both buildings projected for 2011.
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Review: Mark O’Connor
Mention the words “violin recital” and all but the most avid classical music enthusiasts are likely to run for the nearest honky-tonk. Virtuoso performer and composer Mark O’Connor’s affability made his recent concert of all original works at Bates Recital Hall anything but a starched white affair.
O’Connor is one of the most sought-after performers in the world, a student of violin legend Stéphane Grappelli whose collaboration with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and double-bassist Edgar Meyers has earned him a Grammy. His soft-spoken demeanor belies the intensity of the performer inside, but by the end of his first selection a week ago, a long-form ragtime number he announced as the “M&W Rag,” there was no doubt that he was the genuine article.
The performance had something for everyone in the audience. For violin aficionados, including a large contingent of UT violin students, there were the extremely technical numbers such as “Eighteen Years Ago,” an amalgam of classical and American fiddle melodies that was a pure exhibition of skill. The middle section was composed of lightning-fast melodic themes that made Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee” feel like a stroll in the park.
O’Connor’s caprices, a set of six etudes that are quickly becoming modern violin canon, were also a spectacle of unbelievable skill. And though the pieces felt mechanical and showy at times, O’Connor’s mastery of the violin was truly humbling.
By contrast, O’Connor’s solo arrangement of his “Appalachian Waltz,” one of his most popular works, was a beautiful contrapuntal duet played with incredible sensitivity.
O’Connor’s arrangement of “Amazing Grace,” which was partly inspired by a police shooting of an African American man, conjured images of a soulful gospel choir led by Jimi Hendrix. Underneath the song’s familiar refrain was a strange dissonance that emerged fully in an eerie and unsettling middle passage that would have sounded at home in Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.” The piece’s solemn funeral ending was punctuated by a long, howling moan coaxed from every inch of the bow. O’Connor’s warm, emotional playing proved him to be more than a mere technician.
Rather than a cobbling together of various showpieces from disparate genres, O’Connor’s compositions are a seamless blend of gilded classical technique and the grass-stained melodies of the American fiddle tradition, a strange combination that makes you sit up straight, yet still want to stomp your feet.
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Review: Speeding Motorcycle
“Speeding Motorcycle,” the musical based on the life and id of Daniel Johnston currently playing at Zach Scott, is best viewed as just that — a look at the songwriter’s unconscious as he struggled with mental illness, creativity, love and a knack for writing songs that just flat out don’t sound quite like anyone else’s.
On a nearly bare stage with a rock band providing the music, three actors play Joe the Boxer, the hollow-skulled Johnston stand-in. Cary Winscott plays the skinny one in glasses, Kyle Sturdivant is the big one and Joe Falladori is the tall one. Most of the characters are based on Johnston cartoons, but because fantasy and reality mix so freely in Johnston’s art, bits of Johnston’s autobiography slip into the dream-logic production.
Joe falls for a girl named Laurie (Adriene Mishler) who ends up with an undertaker (Scott Shipman) — all true and all subjects of Johnston’s music.
Those looking for the full story, or who want to see the show but have no idea who Johnston is, should check out the excellent documentary “The Devil and Daniel Johnston.” (It’s actually hard to imagine what people who don’t know anything about Johnston would think of the production.)
The iconic frog with eyestalks cartoon (here called Jeremiah the Frog) makes an appearance, as does Captain America. All the Joes sing in a variation on Johnston’s thin, reedy voice.
But Zach Scott regular Susan Abbott has a bazooka of a voice, as does the Houston opera singer Paul Sanchez; both are in smaller roles and the music springs to life when they sing. The best musical moment might be the brilliant gospel take on “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Your Grievances,” which features both Abbott and Sanchez. And the Christ allegory is hard to miss. As one character puts it, “Death is over if you want it,” not just a reference to John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “War is Over (If You Want It)” but also the central tenant of Christian faith.
Winscott takes the ballads (“I Had Lost My Mind,” “Dream,” “Peek-A-Boo”) while Sturdivant and Falladori take the broader moments, but infuse them with pathos (“Dem Blues,” “My Baby Cares for the Dead”). Produced and directed by Jason Nodler of Houston’s Infernal Bridegroom theater group, “Speeding Motorcycle” had a strong run in Houston, scoring national press for its avant-garde yet whimsical take on Johnston’s music. Austin has enough hard-core Johnston fans that filling seats for the entirety of the run shouldn’t be much of a problem.
Now, where can I get my own frog costume?
“Speeding Motorcycle” continues at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays through April 13. Zachary Scott Theatre Center’s Kleberg Stage, corner of West Riverside Drive at South Lamar Boulevard. $28-$43. 476-0541 ext. 1, www.zachscott.com
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Review: Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company
Ballet teachers usually reprimand students who play on the barre during class. With the new show “The BarreTenders: Where Every Pun is Intended,” Kathy Dunn Hamrick’s KDH Dance Company turned bad behavior into amusing dance Saturday afternoon at the company’s home Café Dance.
“BarreTenders” plays with the shape and function of the long tube that surrounds every dance studio with charming and sometimes lovely results.
In the opening section “Velvet” Lisa Nicks checked off every imaginable trick with a long white tube that she transformed from pole vault to spyglass. Nicks made the bar another body part. A favorite moment: She poked the pole forward, sliding toward it like a drunken skier. Erica Santiago is Nicks’ opposite as a dancer; she is long and tall where Nicks is tight and compact.
But the two make a pleasing pair in “Bathers,” the program’s closer, which best demonstrated Hamrick’s ability to be more than cute. In swimsuits and summer dresses, the company moved as though underwater. Santiago’s long, soaring arms were perfect for imagining the backstroke as dance vocabulary.
“Pink” had the most narrative drive of the night. Marlo Harris first threatened the other four dancers; her individuality led them to cling to each other. But then she became their leader, pulling them into a kinetic full-group dance. “Tango” also followed the individual versus community theme. As awkward comedian, Nicks became the outsider on the inside, trapped among tangoing couples, unable to quite catch the rhythm of the circle around her.
The hour-long program repeats Saturday. See KDH Dance for more information.
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance critic.
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Review: Ballet Austin’s ‘New American Talent/Dance’
Ballet Austin’s ‘New American Talent’ series is one of the more innovative programming ideas in dance. The program, performed this weekend at the Paramount Theater, draws collaborators from across the nation and engages audiences in the craft of choreography. Nationally-renowned jurors select three choreographers to choreograph on the company. Once the choreographers finish their works the audiences gets a piece of the competition, voting for their favorite via cell phone at the end of each performance. The program’s reach is wide and deep.
This year’s choreographers, Viktor Kabaniaev, Amy Seiwert, and Sidra Bell, all made works that were pleasant to watch, but none delved far into ballet choreography’s possibilities.
Seiwert took the most risks. Her piece “The Danger of Speaking” put four couples against a voice questioning current American politics. The men repeatedly snagged the women’s nude tops, never letting them pull away. Alone the women slid across the stage on their pointe shoes’ edges. Tension was apparent, but it seemed strange that the dance was so beautiful. Then the Patriot Act began scrolling up the back screen. The words against dancing bodies disoriented the eye and pointed to the affects of policy on people. Yet, again why were these dancing bodies in graceful couples?
Opening the program, Kabaniaev’s “Weather” built an maelstrom of swirling dancers, arms flailing. But with the exception of Jaime Lynn Witts, who had outstanding performances Friday in “Weather” and Bell’s “Substrata,” the storm’s intensity was oddly monotonous.
In Bell’s piece, the dancers’ bodies tensed all the way through their fingertips. Bell’s introductory film said the piece was about speed (all the pieces were proceeded by short videotaped interviews with the choreographers), but the dance never whipped itself into a frenzy.
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance critic.
author=Clare Croft
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Long Center mini-site launches
Stay tuned to coverage on the opening of new Long Center for the Performing Arts at our new mini-site:
http://www.austin360.com/longcenter
Updates, blog blasts, new photos — we’ll post it all there.
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Long Center: Pitching to be perfect
Last night, the Austin Symphony Orchestra wasn’t but a few minutes into a rehearsal at the new Long Center for the Performing Arts when like fairy godparents, Joe and Teresa Lozano Long slipped in.
The Austin power philanthropists, who gave $22 million to the $77 million two-venue civic performing arts center, had apparently snuck back into town on a quick break from a two-month round-the-world cruise.
Suntanned and relaxed-looking, they beamed with pride as they tiptoed around the Dell Hall, the 2,400-seat main venue, gleeful smiles never leaving their faces. After trying out seats in couple of different places in the orchestra section, they crept up to the mezzanine.
“Peter, you sound great!” shouted Joe Long from the mezzanine when symphony conductor Peter Bay paused for a break.
“We’ve never had sound this good in Austin,” Long said a few moments later after he and his wife had checked out the balcony and one of the parterre boxes.
That’s for sure.
Although tweaks are still being made by acoustician Mark Holden of Jaffe Holden Acoustics, the Dell Hall already sounds pitch-perfect.
Featuring a classical theater design with parterre, mezzanine and balcony levels essentially wrapping around the orchestra level seating, the Dell Hall provides immediately more intimate seating than any other major theater in Austin.
Add to that some sharp architectural acoustic design that gently directs the sound around the hall instead of giving it harsh angles to echo off of, and you’ve got a theater that sounds both clear and warm.
It certainly did last night.
Cherrywood paneling, hand-buffed Venetian plaster walls and a series of motorized cloth banners and tracked curtains add to more audio quality.
An especially clever feature are the “transparent” balconies that allow sound to move through openings rather than get trapped underneath a balcony and deaden as sound frequently does in most traditional venues. Last night, from behind the last row seats in the upper balcony, the symphony sounded as bright and warm and detailed as it did from the best seats on the orchestra level. Utterly impressive.
Also on hand at last night’s closed rehearsal was Conspirare director Craig Hella Johnson. The Grammy-nominated choir will not only take part in the Long Center opening festivities in March, but come June, Conspirare is destined to blow the roof off the place with Verdi’s dramatic “Requiem,” the ultimate power choral music if there ever was any. Johnson, who also tried out the sound from different seats throughout the theater, said he was “impressed” with the Dell Hall and found it “very intimate.”
The Long Center will open with a Sneak Peek Free Open House March 6 to 9 with performances, tours and all kinds of activities including a presentation of “The Earth Harp,” a monumental stringed instrument by New York-based multimedia performers MASS Ensemble.
Austin Symphony Orchestra will make its Long Center debut April 4-5 with guests Minneapolis Guitar Quartet. Then in May the symphony will do Beethoven’s majestic Ninth Symphony.
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Artist Boot Camp
Time to for some reality questions and answers.
This Saturday, the Austin Museum of Art is hosting an afternoon day of informal workshops geared directly to the pratical nuts and bolts needs of local visual artists.
“Artists Boot Camp” will consist of 4 consecutive 45-min sessions with curators, gallerists, professors,and experienced artists talking about the five things they look for in an artist’s work and taking questions.
The program is presented in conjunction with **New Art in Austin: 20 to Watch,” the museum’s third triennial exhibit of emerging local talent.
The program is free with Museum admission ($4 students with ID; $5 everyone else). Sign-up for sessions at least 15 minutes before they begin.
Workshop sessions:
12 to 12:45 p.m. — What do museums, non-profits, alternative space, commercial gallery directors/curators want?
Diane Barber, Curator/Director, DiverseWorks, Houston; Anastasia Colombo, Associate Director, d berman Gallery, Austin; Dennis Kois, Director, Grace Museum of Art, Abilene; Arturo Palacios, Director, Art Palace Gallery, Austin; Risa Puleo, Assistant Curator of American & Contemporary Art, Blanton Museum of Art; former director, The Donkey Show, Austin.
1 to 1:45 p.m. — Advice on selecting works for a submission, making digital images, writing your resume and artist’s statement
Eva Buttacavoli, Director of Exhibitions and Education, Austin Museum of Art; Sean Gaulagher, artists and former co-Director, Volitant Gallery, Austin; Mark Smith, UT lecturer and co-director, Flatbed Press, Austin.
2 to 2:45 p.m. — Thoughts on what writers want — and what you want them to get about your work
Amanda Douberley, catalog writer for New Art in Austin and writer for Austin Chronicle, Art Papers, and Glasstire.com; Rachel Koper, writer, Austin Chronicle; Ivan Lozano, writer, Glasstire.com.
3-3:45 p.m. — How to find resources for residencies, grad schools, and other programs to broaden your scope
Ron Berry, Artistic Director, Refraction Arts and founder, Fuse Box, Austin; Megan Crigger, Art in Public Places Administrator for the City of Austin; Meredith Powell, Executive Director, Art Alliance Austin; Margo Sawyer, Professor, Dept, of Art and Art History, UT-Austin.
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Ballet, blogging — and baseball?
Call it an innovative pre-show show.
Ballet Austin has invited the three contestants from its upcoming “New American Talent/Dance” to blog about their experiences as they each create new dance works and compete for $19,000 in prize money.
“NAT/D” — which riffs on Arthouse’s long-time juried competition of new visual art talent — selects three emerging choreographers from a pool of applicants, then gives each choreographer $5,000 in production money along with full use of Ballet Austin’s professional dancers and studio facilities to create. This weekend, the contestants — Sidra Bell, Viktor Kabnaiev and Amy Seiwert — will compete for $15,000 in money from a panel of dance professionals and a $1,000 audience favorite prize awarded during each of four performances. Audiences vote by cell phone after each show.
You gotta watch the videos on **Kabaniaev’s blog. The Russian-born San Francisco-based choreographer and dancer not only has plenty of sneak peak preview of his newest work as well as previous dances he’s made. He’s also got some crazy footage of him throwing out the first pitch at a Houston Astros-St. Louis Cardinals game.
Bell’s blog and Seiwert’s also have some footage and stills of what they’re presenting this weekend.
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Umlauf inspires a tattoo
Oh my. Seems the influence of the famed late Austin sculptor Charles Umlauf still rolls on in ever-more interesting ways.
Nellie Plourde, curator of the Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum reports that the museum just got one of the more odd, um, acquisitions by way of photo, in its history.
Jeff Baker, an Omaha, Neb., police officer, had a tattoo of Umlauf’s 1985 sculpture “St. Michael and Lucifer” inked on his arm. Baker did so as a sign of his devotion on his conversion to Catholicism. St. Michael is the patron saint of police officers.
Plourde notes that Umlauf sculpted many saints, prophets and other religious figures throughout his long career, both for churches of various denominations and for private collectors.
“St. Michael and Lucifer” was originally intended for a private school but never was completed after the commission fell through. Umlauf made a number of studies for the commission, and there are several bronze castings of each of these studies, including the one that is now on view at the Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum.
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Blanton appoints interim director
Ann Wilson, associate director of the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas since May 2004, has been appointed interim director of the museum, effective March 1, the university announced today.
Wilson steps into the temporary position just as longtime director Jessie Otto Hite retires at the end of this month after more than 30 years with the university museum.
Prior to joining the Blanton, Wilson managed marketing and visitor services at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, for seven years. Prior to that she was manager of public relations and marketing at Atlanta’s High Museum of Art. Wilson was appointed Peer Reviewer for the American Association of Museums in 2007, and is an alumna of the Getty Center’s Museum Leadership Institute.
“Ann Wilson’s long professional experience with art museums and her familiarity with the Blanton Museum make her uniquely qualified to see the museum through a seamless interim period while the College of Fine Arts seeks the next great director of the Blanton,” says Douglas Dempster, dean of the College of Fine Arts.
Long Center to host first show Feb. 14: Antone’s musicians to take the stage for public sound check concert
Testing, testing, 1-2-3.
Before it throws open its doors for its grand opening March 6, the Long Center for the Performing Arts is hosting a public one-night-only concert Feb. 14 at 8 p.m. with the Antone’s House Band All Stars so it can fine-tune the acoustics on the Dell Hall, the 2,400-seat main venue of the $77 million two-theater facility.
The 90-minute set will feature singer Malford Milligan along with guitarists David Grissom and Derek O’Brien, drummer Barry “Frosty” Smith, Larry Fulcher on bass and keyboardist Riley Osborne.
Tickets are $5 and can be purchased online at www.thelongcenter.org, by calling 474-5664 or at the Long Center box office, 701 W. Riverside Drive, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays-Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. Tickets include a free drink.
Free parking is available at the Palmer Events Center parking garage.
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Review: Texas Early Music Project
The program presented Saturday by the Texas Early Music Project under director Daniel Johnson, “Monteverdi: Letters and Laments,” was both scholarly and fun to hear.
Johnson assembled a varied and strong program that explored the best of the 17th-century Italian master’s secular vocal music, including selections from the operas and from the Madrigals, Books 7 and 8. Relatively familiar pieces were the prologue and choruses from “L’Orfeo,” and, from the Madrigals, Book 8, “Gira il nemico” and “Lamento della Ninfa.” One piece that was simply magical was the lullaby from “The Coronation of Poppea,” sung by Stephanie Prewitt.
Part of this composer’s innovation was simplifying the musical texture to give a singer additional interpretive latitude, but that means that every note counts. The singing wasn’t always well tuned, and several times an interpretive choice resulted in crude vocal sound.
After intermission, the proceedings at First English Lutheran Church were brought gracefully yet distinctly to a halt by Jenifer Thyssen’s performance, abetted by harpist Elaine Barber, of a “love letter” from the Madrigals, Book 7. Monteverdi’s setting of course has pitches and note values, but there is no obvious rhythmic structure. This puts all of the responsibility on the singer. For an artist such as Thyssen, it’s an opportunity. She could not have been better prepared, and for about 10 minutes, with voice and look and a couple of gestures, she transported us to the residence of a 17th-century Italian lady. It was a performance to be cherished.
Among the other singers, tenor David Stevens and bass Gil Zilkha were in especially good voice. The skilled instrumentalists were violinists Laurie Young Stevens and Boel Gidholm, Chris Haritatos on cello, Scott Horton playing theorbo and, along with Barber, harpist Becky Baxter.
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Review: Jaston Williams’ ‘Cowboy Noises’
What’s a most universal and essential way humans have to communicate to each other?
Sound: Laughter, screams, moans, giggles, cries, gurgles, burps, oohs and ahhs.
“Cowboy Noises,” the thoughtful, funny and moving new solo effort by ‘Tuna’ co-creator and star Jaston Williams, journeys through several decades and multiple continents to probe the meaning of sound and the power it holds in human relationships.
Williams is simply one of Texas’ best storytellers. And he veritably owned the stage Friday night at Paramount Theatre in one of two shows of his latest autobiographical solo play.
In 2003 Williams bared all in “I’m Not Lying” as he plumbed his earliest years in West Texas, painting lyrical — and hysterical — portraits of those who influenced his life.
He starts from essentially the same place in “Cowboy Noises.” Yet, with an even more poetic stroke, he evokes the eccentric denizens of a small West Texas town in the early 1960s, his teenage awkwardness and the disconnect with his rugged, tight-lipped father. The cynosure of these memories? Sound. His father’s guffaws. The hum of his first car. The first time a Beatles’ song sent Williams into a reverie and sent him one step past his father’s understanding.
Sound remains the glue that binds Williams’ further stories. A trip to Argentina uncovers what happens when one refrains from sound and remains silent. Williams’ journey to China to adopt a child reveals how importantly sound — sound beyond language, that is — connects us.
The stage held but a simple set with a few chairs and props. And Williams used but a few gestures and moments of pantomime. But really, he needed little to keep the audience rapt with his image-packed elegies. And if the stories seemed to meander as Williams moved through time and geography, it didn’t matter in the end. His are tales so charmingly wrought we’ll follow them wherever they go.
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Review: Conspirare’s ‘I Dream A World’
Superlatives defy most concerts by Grammy-nominated choir Conspirare.
And ’ Dream A World,’ the latest program put together by artistic director Craig Hella Johnson, proved no exception Thursday night, the first of four presentations in Austin and San Antonio.
The only choir from the United States invited to participate in the World Symposium on Choral Music this July in Copenhagen, Conspirare tried out some of the music — all by American composers — they’ll perform this summer.
Johnson’s always insightful creative programming really sparkled with ‘I Dream A World’ (the title is taken from a Langston Hughes poem). Appalachian folk songs and traditional spirituals joined modern classics and inventive choral arrangementsof popular songs that all together formed a thoughtful and sophisticate kaleidoscope of this nation’s varied musical landscape — the perfect profile to present abroad.
If Samuel Barber’s ‘Adagio for Strings’ stands as one of the most emotionally effecting pieces of 20th-century classical music, the choral version of the haunting work — ‘Agnus Dei — shimmers even more with fragile simplicity and emotion. And Johnson and Conspirare mastered every tender, delicate moment in an achingly affective performance.
Eric Whitacre’s ‘Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine’ was a magnificent modern eight-minute mini-opera with its mesmerizing multiple harmonies, shots of dramatic inflection and sometimes pulsating tempo.
Johnson’;s own arrangements surprise and delight. His gracious setting of Eliza Gilkyson’s ‘Requiem’ still impresses after its debut last year on Conspirare’s Grammy-nominated double CD.
Johnson’s touch on Dolly Parton’s ‘Light of Clear Blue Morning’ was utter mastery. He brought an ethereal yet modern finesse along with great harmonic depth and new twists on tempo that only Parton’s a;ready-lovely tune more astonishingly beautiful. How perfect.
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More really important artist services for Austin
We gotta hand it to Austin Circle of Theatres for providing access to yet more necessary services badly needed by Austin artists of all types.
Through their partnership with Fractured Atlas, a New York City-based arts service organization, ACoT is now offering its members to an online arts management course program called Fractured U.
Fractured U offers training in the business aspects of the arts — the part they don’t teach you in art school. Courses are tailored to the needs and experiences of practicing artists and small arts organizations. The first round of classes offer introductions to fundraising, marketing, and professional identity. Additional courses will be added over time.
Any artist of any type is welcome to join ACoT. Individual memberships range from $36 - $48.
But wait, there’s more:
Through their new partnership with Fractured Atlas, ACoT has three new liability insurance programs: volunteer accident insurance, teaching artist insurance and studio rental insurance.
The new programs join ACoT’s existing insurance offerings which include annual liability insurance, D&O insurance, event insurance, film production/equipment insurance, public art insurance, and worker’s comp insurance, all through Fractured Atlas.
All of the insurance programs offered through ACoT by Fractured Atlas are tailored to meet the needs of a struggling artist’s budget limitations.
Likewise, ACoT has negotiated a discounted rate on liability insurance for ACoT member organizations through the John A. Barclay Agency. The all-in-one showtime product policy is specifically designed to suit the needs of performing arts groups and will be especially beneficial to organizations required to carry insurance as a condition of receiving City of Austin funding. For information on pricing and benefits, contact John A. Barclay at 512-476-6566.
Hats off to ACoT executive director Latifah Taormina for her continued efforts at spearheading these important offerings to Austin’s creative community. We need these programs if Austin is going to have any hope of retaining its moniker as a “Creative Capital.”
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Review: Paul Ramirez Jonas
You have just two more days to catch the beguiling little exhibit by Paul Ramirez Jonas at the Blanton Museum of Art.
“Avra Kehdabra: You create as you speak” is the latest WorkSpace exhibit, a Blanton series that explores new developments in contemporary art by featuring commissioned projects by emerging and mid-career artists.
Honduran-born New York-based Ramirez Jonas is fascinated with language and its meaning — or lack of meaning. Really, is language more important, more relevant, more meaningful when it’s written down or when uttered by the individual, he seems to ask?
Ramirez Jonas assembles a very particular gathering of quotes to make his point. The lyrics to famed folk song “This Land is Your Land.” The “my fellow Americans” phrase heard in presidential speeches. A courtroom oath. This is symbolic language, heavy with patriotic import and nationalistic meaning.
And with a nod to the clay tablets of the Sumerians — one of the first ancient cultures to develop an intricate written language — Ramirez Jonas crafts his own clay tablets inscribed with his selected quotes.
Ramirez Jonas stages his tablets with various objects — some electronic, some fashioned of clay — giving visitors the chance to engage in their own experiments. A lectern with a live microphone plays hosts to clay tablets reading “Do you solemnly swear that you will consider all the evidence in this case, follow the instructions given to you, deliberate fairly and impartially and reach a fair verdict? So help you God.” Go ahead — read that out loud and see how it sounds in your own voice. And just how does saying that symbolic language make you feel?
Then there’s an ordinary photocopier stacked with clay tablets inscribed with survey questions on religious faith. Surrounding the copier are stacks of smeary paper copies of the same survey. Pick one up. Fill out it and answer questions like, ‘Which of the following items best describes your belief in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit? Believe in. Not sure. Don’t believe in. Unsure.’
With a wry and sly sense of humor and a bit of interactive of performance, Ramirez Jonas creates an intriguing platform on which to consider enormous considerations.
Ramirwz Jonas’ show is by far the tightest and most completely realized of the Workspace exhibits that have been presented since the Blanton debuted the series with the opening of its new building April 2006. Kudos to Blanton curatot Usuala Davila-Villa for spearheading Ramirez Jonas’ smart and rewarding show.
(“Avra Kehdabra: You create as you speak” continues through Sunday, Feb. 3 at the Blanton Museum of Art.)
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The Britney ballet? Oh please …
And we thought “Jerry Springer: The Musical” the British stage sensation about the television shock host that popped into New York this week was over the top.
Now, again from across the pond comes “Meltdown,” a modern ballet by London’s noted Rambert Dance Company about pop-wreck Britney Spears.
Choreographer Hubert Essakow has collaborated with composer Richard Thomas — author of “Jerry Springer” — on the ballet which portrays Spears’ meltdown and her tussles with paparazzi and ends with her being carried away on an ambulance stretcher.
The end of civilization as we know it? Or just something really campy?
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