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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2010 > February > 25
Thursday, February 25, 2010
This weekend, fresh music abounds
Live Music Capital of the World? We got your fresh music right here. This weekend offers several opportunities to catch fresh approaches to the classical canon and also new composed music.
Friday night conductor Kristjan JärvI and his Absolute Ensemble play ‘Absolute Bach Reinvented’ at Hogg Memorial Auditorium.
The program features a 16-piece ensemble playing pieces that riff on Bach’s Inventions by members of the band.
To Jarvi, Bach is like water. ‘Like water is essential for life on this planet, Bach is essential to musicians,’ the Estonian-born conductor says by phone last week from New York.
Jarvi’s boundary-shredding musical MO eschews dumb-downed crossover antics, the typical model used to popularize classical music. If anything, he wants to return classical music back to its origins when a score was considered a little less sacrosanct and musicians and conductors felt empowered to improvise.
Read our story here.
Also this weekend, Friday through Sunday, Austin’s irrepressible New Music Co-op presents ‘Invisible Landscapes’ three different programs featuring the music of guest composer Michael Pisaro and percussionist Greg Stuart.
Featured on Friday is Pisaro’s piece ‘A Wave and Waves’ for 100 percussion instruments, played by Stuart accompanied by an eight-channel surround sound system. Saturday’s show features two major commission pieces, ‘Red River 7’ by Radu Malfatti and Pisaro’s ‘Ascending Series (7) (evaporation).’ Sunday’s free concert features more by Pisaro as well as new works by Co-op composers Brent Fariss and William Bridges.
Shows are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. Ceremony Hall, 4100 Red River St. $12-$15 (free on Sunday). www.newmusic.coop
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Chinati Foundation director announces retirement
Attention all fans of Marfa, Texas and its arts scene and Donald Judd africiandos: Marianne Stockebrand, founding director of the Chinati Foundation, has announced her plans to retire.
The Chinati Foundation is 340-acre 32-building former US Army Fort D.A. Russell. During his lifetime Judd transformed the site into a laboratory for his ideas about the permanent installation of contemporary. Now, the Chinati feautures monumental outdoor concrete works by Judd and 100 aluminum works by Judd housed in two converted artillery sheds. Former army barracks house one large-scale work in colored fluorescent light by Dan Flavin and a building in downtown Marfa display 23 sculptures by John Chamberlain. Other artists represented at the Chinati include Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen; Ilya Kabakov, Carl Andre and John Wesley.
Stockebrand, who was Judd’s companion in the years before his death, was appointed by the artist in 1993 to be the director of the non-profit Chinati:
From the Chinati comes this statement:
The Board of Directors of The Chinati Foundation, in Marfa, Texas, has announced that its director, Dr. Marianne Stockebrand, has expressed her intention to retire as soon as a successor can be found. Stockebrand, who was appointed to the position in 1993 by the museum’s founder, the artist Donald Judd, and who has been responsible for its development since his death in the following year, plans to continue residing in Marfa and will assume the title of Director Emeritus. The search for a new director will begin immediately.
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Weekend Arts Pix
‘Ellington’s Sacred Concert’
Last year, it was beyond standing room only as crowds filled the aisles when Austin Chamber Music Center hooked up with Huston-Tillotson University choirs and other performers in a rousing performance of Duke Ellington’s ‘Sacred Concert.’ Now the choirs, jazz orchestra, soloists and accompanying tap dancers will reprise Ellington’s mighty oratorio, sprawling collections of songs and suites that blend gospel music with jazz, classical music, spirituals, blues and choral music. 3 p.m. Sunday. King Seabrook Chapel on the Huston-Tillotson campus at East Seventh and Chicon streets. Free. Seating is first-come, first-served. www.austinchambermusic.org
‘Albert Herring’
University of Texas’ Butler Opera Center presents Benjamin Britten’s comic chamber opera based on a short story by Guy de Maupassant. ‘Albert Herring’ tells the story of a small English village looking for nominations for its coveted annual title of Queen of the May. When villagers can find no young women pure enough to be worthy of the title, they select Albert Herring, a socially awkward wallflower. The production also marks the debut of James Lowe, the Butler Opera Center’s new conductor. This weekend’s performances will also be webcast live. 7:30 p.m. Friday and Sunday. McCullough Theatre, UT campus, $10-$20. www.music.utexas.edu
‘Smoking Lesson’
Award-winning director Marcus McQuirter presents Julia Jordan’s unnerving play about three 15-year-old girls who spend time underneath a bridge on the Mississippi River remembering their friend who mysteriously and violently died there seven years earlier. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays through March 7. Rio Grande Campus Gallery Theater, 1212 Rio Grande St. $5-$10. 512-223-3240.
