No Lie! CMT's Pinocchio Is Anything But A Wooden Performance - A Guest Blog by Arik Bjorn

There is no entertainment venue in Columbia more likely to have fallen straight out of the pages of a Ray Bradbury story than the Columbia Marionette Theatre, which this past weekend revived its wonderful 1992 original production of Pinocchio.  Even for adults, there is something magically inviting about the castle theatre ensconced at the corner of Huger and Laurel Streets, its giant mural of Punch, puppet-turned-puppeteer, dangling a stringed unicorn and dragon, and inviting children of all ages to rediscover authentic, if not shadowy, storytelling.  The best part of any CMT production is a stiff refusal to cater to the “Mickey Mouse-ification” of fairy tales, and the insistence that a peppering of Brothers Grimm in every scene is a recipe for narrative pleasure. At the age of four, my daughter Katherine is already a CMT veteran, having attended numerous productions.  She accompanied me to this weekend’s premier of Pinocchio, and I have made every effort to review the show from her diminutive perspective.  Sometimes the best part of parenting is rediscovering familiar stories through the eyes of one’s children - and also through their arms and legs, as on numerous occasions throughout the production her hands were wrapped tightly around my arms or her own face, her feet bouncing up and down with uncontrollable delight and fear.

Every CMT show begins well before Artistic Director Lyon Hill (profiled in the cover story in the current issue - # 5 -  of Jasper - The Word on Columbia Arts) emerges from backstage to lead the crowd in a birthday “Huzzah!” for whatever little boy or girl is lucky enough to host a dinosaur-, fairy tale-, or Wizard the Oz-themed birthday party.  Just getting your youngster from the lobby to his or her general admission seat is worth the price of admission.  Children enter the theatre’s faux archway main entrance, and are immediately surrounded by marionettes hanging from the ceiling and puppeteer dioramas from previous CMT productions, as well as a large mounted dragon head that once was the centerpiece of a real Medieval-themed wedding at CMT.  (By the way, parents, CMT offers a number of affordable “starter” marionettes for the novice puppeteers in your home.)

Inevitably, one or two children begin whimpering or looking cautiously askance before the show even starts, as does my child occasionally still.  It’s no lie that there is something naturally eerie about marionettes.  For the past several generations, our puppet-viewing collective consciousness consists mostly of cuddly Muppets, and the lack of softness of form of the traditional marionette immediately bespeaks more funhouse than Sesame Street.  But this is precisely the world of lost storytelling that marionette theatres engender.  CMT makes all of its marionettes on site in its workshop from hand-carved molds.  As Hill explains, he is not interested in smoothing the pin-prickly scary parts of a story, or conforming to pop culture’s sense of how a genie, T-Rex or mermaid should be physically represented:  “Every marionette has is its own silhouette.”

While patrons will not find Jiminy Cricket in this production of Pinocchio, what they will find is something that would make the story’s original Italian teller, Carlo Collodi, proud—plus a few inventive 21st-century twists, including a break-dancing wooden boy and a jazz-duet cat and fox.  And, of course, like any good children’s story, there are a few jokes just for adults, including the “BELIEVE” UFO poster on the dilapidated backstage wall of Boyaradi’s Fabulous Marionette Theatre, and a sign outside the theater that reads “Come Inside for Fun, Excitement and Man-Eating Plants.”

The show is a panoply of theatrical creativity.  In one early scene, the Fairy’s wand, with a mind of its own, causes all the puppets in Geppetto’s studio to dance unexpectedly.  The set drops of 19th-century Italy and the Isle of Joy (replete with its own cherry-topped sundae mountain), as well as Geppetto’s studio, are museum-worthy pieces.  And in one of the final scenes, Pinocchio and his papa emerge from the belly of the whale and rise magically to the ocean surface.  (I am willing to bet that every child who sees this show afterward will dream mystically of water gobos.)

This 45-minute version of Pinocchio is jam-packed with wonderful storytelling and numerous artistic and design triumphs, including, of course, the one trick both children and adults eagerly await to see:  the title character’s famous fibbing proboscis.  Several times after the performance, my daughter asked me how Pinocchio’s nose grew.  Fortunately, when I replied “magic,” my own nose remained its normal length.  But for the life of me, I have no idea how Hill & Company make that nose extend and retract with only strings!  (By the way, someone should give CMT a medal for understanding that 45 minutes is the ideal duration for a weekend children’s event.)

Along with Hill, puppeteers Kimi Maeda, Cooper Hill and Payton Frawley bring this timeless classic to life; not quite to the point where a little wooden boy is turned into the real thing, but definitely enough for you to tell everyone you know with kids to get down to the Columbia Marionette Theatre next Saturday.  And when all the dusty wonder has settled, most important of all, children walk away having learned a real moral lesson.  Just ask my daughter, who told me, “The lesson is always tell the truth and stay close to your papa - or else you’ll be turned into a donkey or eaten by a whale.”  Close enough, dear one, close enough.

~ by Arik Bjorn

Pinocchio runs through Sat. Sept. 8th, with performances every Saturday at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.  Tickets are $5 per person.  Children under 2 are free!  The Columbia Marionette Theatre is located at 401 Laurel Street (corner of Huger and Laurel).  Call 803-252-7366 for more information, or to reserve party space for your little ones.  To learn more about Columbia Marionette Theatre, visit www.cmtpuppet.org .

Grant Peeples -- Real Country -- A Guest Blog by Bentz Kirby

“Well the trailer smells like cat piss.”

As I prepare to write this blog about the upcoming Grant Peeples Alien Carnival House Concert at my house on June 13, I realize that I have become an evangelist for Grant Peeples.  I hope this blog can explain why.

Earlier this year I had never heard of Grant. Right before I went to Thomasville, GA for the funeral of a close friend, I found someone on Facebook who lived there and was sponsoring an amazing house concert featuring Sam Baker and Gurf Morlix with Grant Peeples opening. I had seen Sam Baker and heard of Gurf Morlix, but not Grant. Out of curiosity, I contacted Donna Mavity, the woman bringing this amazing music to the small town. She invited us to drop by, so May and I went to visit her.  She gifted us with three CDs recorded by Grant. Since my iPod was broken, I put them all three in the cd changer for the return trip to Columbia.

Now at first I was not sure what to think about Grant. His vocal phrasing and rhythm is not what one would call conventional.  I remarked to May that I was not sure how people sang with him, although they seemed to do just fine.  Long pauses at unusual times, words seemed almost out of place, and a rough and gravely voice which drove the words home.  Drove them home hard.

As has often been my experience, you have to keep listening to something until you “get” it, especially if it is not like anything you have heard before.  He started to get my attention when he opened a song with the lyrics, “Leaving her was easy, once she done throwed all my shit out in the yard.”  Alright Grant, you got my attention.  And I identified with him even more when he said, “I know why the poets drink and smoke, shoot dope and die young.  At least poets used to. Nowadays you can’t count on poets much.”   That struck a nerve with me for sure.  I mean he was putting it out there,. For example --“I don’t think much of you poets these days.”  Then, the next song came on, Real Country with its opening lyrics, “Well the trailer smells like cat piss.”  Now that sounded like real country to me.

So, on the car ride I became a convert and a lover of Grant Peeples’ songs because they are real, they are gritty and they are as honest as any music I have ever heard.  The phrasing and rhythm to his songs at first threw me off.  Then I realized it was the rhythm and phrasing of his soul.

Fortunately, I got to see him perform at Springfest in March of 2012.  (Met him at the urinal in the bath house that morning.  Can you say “Awkward!”)  Seeing him play his songs live and in person was another revelation. Grant Peeples puts all of himself into the presentation of his children, the songs.  It is personal. It is down to the bone.  It is, to borrow from myself, Real Music.

Which leads me back to my duty as an evangelist – to get the good news out to Columbia.  I hope to convince Columbia’s songwriters and lovers of good music that if you are not present at this concert, you are going to miss an opportunity which you will regret.  It is not my nature to tell another songwriter she needs to listen to someone or hear a particular artist, but in this instance I am telling you.  Be here on Wednesday, June 13.

 Grant Peeples has released five albums since 2007.  His biography on his web site tells the story of his journey and it is an interesting journey which includes ten years of not writing a song.  His albums are:

• 2007    Down Here in the County
• 2008    It’s Later Than You Think
• 2009    Pawnshop
• 2011    Okra and Ecclesiastes
• 2012    Prior Convictions

The songs on these albums cover a lot of ground.  They describe very well a liberal and free thinker’s life in a conservative South and in the uncertain times post 9/11.  These songs also tell the stories of those people who live in the rural areas of the Florida panhandle.  He reflects a slice of this life very accurately, right down to the smell of the cat piss.

So, what am I preaching about is just a simple house concert.  However, if you fail to attend, you will regret it.  Maybe not today, but soon. Very soon.  Cause Grant Peeples is real and so much more than just country.  He is a shining hope for the possibility of the future of our country expressed through honest music.  As Grant says, “My people come from the dirt ... Okra and Ecclesiastes.”

http://www.grantpeeples.com/

Date: June 13, 2012

Time: 6:00 PM, music at 7:00 PM

Reservations are required.  For reservations call or email Bentz Kirby at:

803-413-5676

bocelts@yahoo.com

Suggested donation, $15 and 100% goes to Grant Peeples

Southeastern Piano Festival kicks off 10th anniversary with big concert at the Koger Center

 

If you love the piano, have we got a week for you.

The Southeastern Piano Festival kicks off its 10^th year with a Piano Extravaganza concert featuring 16 pianist, five pianos and the S.C. Philharmonic on June 10 at the Koger Center for the Arts. The festival runs through June 16 with concerts by well-known and up-and-coming musicians.

“The festival has been a success on so many levels and we’re thrilled to be celebrating our first decade,” said Marina Lomazov, Festival Artistic Director. “The festival continues to provide top-flight training for young musicians, but has also grown to be one of the most significant showcases of piano music.”

Dr. Lomazov will perform at the Piano Extravaganza along with fellow USC piano faculty Joseph Rackers and  Charles Fugo, guest pianist Phillip Bush, a dozen past winners of Arthur Fraser International Concerto Competition, and the S.C. Philharmonic conducted by Music Director Morihiko Nakahara.  The concert includes works by Mozart, Bach and Wagner and five pianists performing movements from “The Planets” by Gustav Holst on five Steinway concert grand pianos. The concert will close with Lomazov and Rackers playing the Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in D minor by Francis Poulenc.

The festival blends a week of exciting concerts with a training program for 19 young pianists from around the country and one from Australia who take part in the Fraser Competition. Those who want to see some of tomorrow’s great pianists today can watch the competition from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. June 15. Competition winners will give the closing concert June 16.

Among the other highlights of the week are performances by Boris Slutsky, first prize winner of the Kapell International Piano Competition and chair of the piano department at the Peabody Institute, playing the music of Ravel, Chopin and Schuman on June 13 and Alessio Bax, recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, performing Rachmaninoff and Liszt pieces on June 14.

Students attending the festival will give an afternoon concert at the Columbia Museum of Art June 12. A number of young pianists will be in the spotlight including past winners of the Fraser Competition Leo Svirsky and Sean Yeh performing June 11 and George Li, the 15-year-old winner of the Gilmore Young Artist Award, playing June 12.

Admission to the Piano Extravaganza is $25 for VIP seating and $15 general admission, $10 for seniors, students, military, USC faculty and staff and free for those under 18. Tickets are available through capitoltickets.com or by calling (803) 251-2222.

The other concerts will be held at the USC School of Music Recital Hall. Admission is $20; $10 for seniors, USC faculty and staff, students and military and free to everyone under  18.  For tickets call (803) 576-5763 or email  frontoffice@mozart.sc.edu

The Svirsky and Yeh concert is $5.

The competition concert is free.

For a complete schedule and more information about tickets, concerts, guest artists and participants visit the Piano Festival website http://sepf.music.sc.edu/

Concert lineup for the Southeastern Piano Festival (unless otherwise noted concerts are at the USC School of Music Recital Hall, Assembly and College streets.)

Sunday, June 10, 4 p.m. Piano Extravaganza concert.

Monday, June 11, 7:30 p.m. Alumni Celebration Concert with Leo Svirsky and Sean Yeh.

Tuesday, June 12, 1:30 – 3 p.m. Southeastern Piano Festival on the Road. Columbia Museum of Art, 1515 Main St.

Tuesday, June 12, 7:30 p.m. George Li.

Wednesday, June 13, 7:30 p.m. Boris Slutsky.

Thursday, June 14, 7:30 p.m. Alessio Bax.

Friday, June 15, 10 a.m. – 9 p.m. Arthur Fraser International Concerto Competition.

Saturday, June 16, 7 p.m. Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition Winners' Concert and Closing Ceremony.

Cedar Lake: Stunning, Post-Modern Choreography Hits Spoleto U.S.A. -- A Guest Blog by Tracie Broom

Twenty seconds into Cedar Lake’s first piece, “Violet Kid,” at their June 2, 2012 performance at Gaillard Auditorium during Spoleto U.S.A. in Charleston, SC, tears were pouring down my face. The choreography, full of licks descended from the hallowed ground of high-end, post-modern release technique – blisteringly physical and intellectual – was so unbelievably GOOD.

Maybe you’ve seen the 2011 Matt Damon movie, The Adjustment Bureau? Damon’s love interest, played by Emily Blunt, leads a dance company in NYC called Cedar Lake, and he spends half the film shouting, “Where is Cedar Lake!” in an effort to find her while eluding guys in fedoras. Well, he finds her, spending a quiet moment marveling as the Cedar Lake dance company performs. This performance is so very, very good that I found myself marveling, too. It was like nothing I’d seen in a “non-dance” movie since a few snippets in the 1996 Bertolucci film Stealing Beauty. (Remember that?)

When my Spoleto 2012 program arrived in the mail, mere days after my catching The Adjustment Bureau on cable, how stoked was I that Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet was coming to SC? Pretty stoked. Bought tickets immediately. (Talk about effective brand placement in a film, no?)

Led by Artistic Director Benoit-Swan Pouffer and based in New York City, Cedar Lake’s mission is “to provide choreographers a comprehensive environment for creation and presentation.” Noted by Kinsey Gidick, reporting for Charleston City Paper from the after party the night of June 2 at the College of Charleston President’s House, “The beauty of Cedar Lake is that Walmart heiress and founder, Nancy Walton Laurie, has been insistent that her performers be able to do contemporary ballet as a full-time job, which is to say the cast members live in New York City and don't have to have second and third jobs to survive.”

Guest choreographer Hofesh Schecter, who designed or collaborated on every aspect of “Violet Kid” including the stark, cinematic lighting, edgy music, and everyday costumes, somehow managed to fit all of the absolutely coolest, best parts of post-modern technique and composition into one great, glorious 33-minute piece for 14 dancers. Virtuosic athleticism. Focused, unemotional execution. Intricate, pedestrian movement vocabulary, manipulated into dozens of phrases which were then deconstructed and reassembled into even more variations. Each piece was revisited and made large, small, narrowing, expanding, rising, sinking, slow, fast, impossibly fast, and every other Laban Movement Analysis term I can remember from my dance degree studies at Wesleyan University. This piece used every compositional tool in the box, and thoroughly. What a pleasure to watch.

A consistent return to familiar movements took dancers through every sort of level change, plane (sagittal, horizontal, vertical), and group permutation from solo to duet, trio, quartet, on up to the entire cast thundering across the floor in multiple traveling sequences that, paired with Schecter’s musical composition, gave one goosebumps. (At our beach house that night after the show, inspired, we implemented a rule that you had to “travel” across the floor at least once a day for the remainder of the trip.)

Canon and unison came and went, with A groups, B groups, C groups, D groups and even E groups roiling about, as bits and pieces of traditional Jewish dances made their way into the work, altered and compressed with bits of hip-hop, classical ballet, and contact improvisation until they were barely recognizable.

This, all happening in the middle of downtown Charleston, South Carolina on a Saturday afternoon.

Movement-wise, release technique greats were called to mind: Jose Limon, Bill T. Jones, Ralph Lemon, Trisha Brown, Stephen Petronio, etc. but I noticed subtle nods to the strict, modern traditions of Merce Cunningham and Martha Graham, too. The technique also reminded me fondly of my favorite release teacher back in San Francisco, ODC’s Kathleen Hermesdorf. Reading the program after the performance, I was delighted to read that the U.K-based Schecter has worked with legendary post-modern choreographers like Wim Vandekeybus, who was one of our idols in college for his uncommon, hyper-athletic work.

Unobtrusive costuming consisted of cargo pants and casual shirts in varying shades of khaki, gray, and coral. The music, a lengthy, contemporary classical/modern electronic piece composed by Schecter, featured a live double bass string trio performing in 1800s drab dresses atop a raised platform on stage. The work called up a cross between the most melancholic bits of the Tristan und Isolde prelude by Wagner, the post-mod noise you might enjoy at Conundrum Music Hall, and the deep, sliding strings of the Balanescu Quartet. It was perfect.

Two other pieces comprised the two-hour program. “Annonciation,” was a contemplative, idiosyncratic duet choreographed by post-modern ballet legend Angelin Preljocaj. The third piece, “Grace Engine,” was devised for 15 dancers by Crystal Pite, who has choreographed for phenomenal Spoleto U.S.A. alum Nederlands Dans Theater. While both pieces were extraordinary, neither could quite match the fullness and scope of the opener, and “Grace Engine” was a little too emotionally overwrought for my taste. Overall, however, the program was one for the books. To say that Hofesh Schecter is a genius is a blithering, silly understatement, and I’m honored to have seen this remarkable dance company perform his work.

To view videos of Cedar Lake in performance, start here: http://cedarlakedance.com/repertoire

- Tracie Broom

 Tracie Broom is a post-modern dance snob who likes nothing more than to be put in her place by brilliant work. She lives and works in Columbia, SC.

Strata - An Exhibition by Katie Baehler, at Vista Studios/Gallery 80808

Jasper - The Word on Columbia Arts  is always happy to plug, brag on, and otherwise promote the work of up-and-coming talents in the art world. We note therefore with great antici......... pation a new show by a new artist, opening later this week at Vista Studios / Gallery 80808 (located in the heart of the Vista, at 808 Lady Street.)  Katie Baehler isn't entirely new; she has lived in Columbia since 2006.  A native of Spearman, Texas, she studied Printmaking and Art History at USC, graduating in 2011.  Her work was featured in the BFA exhibition Devil in the Details at the McMaster student gallery in 2011, the Ink & Paper exhibition at the Columbia Museum of Art in 2011, the Union County Arts Council Competition in 2011, and received the 1^st place undergraduate award at the USC Student Art Exhibition in 2011.  While at USC Baehler also received the Ed Yaghjian student award in 2010, and was President of the Ink & Paper club.  You may know her from her day job as gallery assistant at if Art Gallery, where she has been a gracious hostess for any number of openings and exhibitions over the last year.  Now she gets a chance to show off her latest series of carved acrylic paintings in her new show, "Strata."   

Carved, you may ask?  Yep - these works are created using 30 or more layers of paint, then carved to show the layers of paint, much like a crosscut of geologic strata.  Baehler’s oil paintings will also be featured; these are created using a more traditional technique, but still display the same types of intricate patterning. As she asks in a press release, "Have you ever wondered how the Aztecs might have designed a circuit board, or what crop circles would look like if aliens had a taste for Art Deco?"   We can't wait to discover the answer!

Strata will be on display Thursday, June 7th through Tuesday, June 12th at Vista Studios/Gallery 80808 (located at 808 Lady Street in the Congaree Vista.) The exhibition will be open to the public weekdays 11-7, Saturday 11-5, and Sunday 11-3.  An opening reception for the artist will be held June 8, 2012, from 5 to 9 PM.

Abraham.In.Motion (and Wideman/Davis Dance Company) -- A Rant and Review from Spoleto

 

Jasper loves dance. And while Columbia hosts no small supply of dance companies, sometimes it becomes painfully obvious that, among our abundance of ballet companies, sexy undulating companies, and one-woman show companies in the city, we are missing – or appear to be missing – an excellent contemporary company that addresses social issues, makes us think, and entertains us at the same time. I couldn’t help but think of this on Monday night when I watched the final Spoleto performance of The Radio Show by Abraham.In.Motion at the Emmett Robinson Theatre on the campus of The College of Charleston.

Dancer, choreographer, and founder of Abraham.In.Motion, Kyle Abraham, is clearly a product of two places – Pittsburgh, PA and New York City – and evidence of this was more than obvious in last night’s performance. It was from his hometown of Pittsburgh, where he and his family listened religiously to the voices of Black radio, that Abraham found the impetus for The Radio Show’s concept. When, in 2009, WAMO – the only urban radio station left in Pittsburgh – went off the air, Abraham was struck by the absence of the Black voice from public airways. In program notes he writes, "I wondered how aware listeners were to the goings-on in other urban communities around the country now that this voice had been taken away.  Without black radio, where is the audible voice of the black community? Radio was so present during times of strife in the past. Where is its place today?”

The 34-year-old Abraham, who studied at The Creative and Performing Arts High School in Pittsburgh, continued his education by receiving a BFA from SUNY Purchase and an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Among the many honors he has received over the past few years, including the Princess Grace for choreography, a Bessie Award, and being named one of the “25 to Watch by Dance” Magazine in 2009, it is the maturity of his NYC training that stands out about Abraham. Though highly stylized, his technique and that of his dancers (almost all of whom are formally trained and with higher education degrees) is solid, grounded, efficient, and rich in interpretation. When so many dancers are gathering into groups these days and saying, “Hey, look at us! We’re a company!” it was satisfying to see a young new company with a fully realized dance vocabulary, confidence in their mission, a unifying aesthetic, and the training and education to pull it all off.

The evening began with Abraham, who grew up playing piano and cello, approaching the stage via the audience after having tapped a couple of ladies in the audience for impromptu turns in the aisle, reminiscent of the beginning of Alvin Aileys’s Minus 16 earlier in the festival. Abraham gave us a virtuosic solo performance that incorporated into the narrative of the loss of urban radio the concomitant loss of his father’s mental dexterity as he struggled with the deteriorating effects of Alzheimer’s. I get chills when I type these words – he danced to static. As an off-stage radio scanned up and down the dial, encountering bits and pieces of classic music like Aretha Franklin, Al Green, the Chi-lites, and the Shirelles, interspersed with the static left when these songs disappeared from the airwaves, and emblematic of the static his father encountered in his thought processes, Abraham and six other dancers performed three pieces, Preshow, AM 860, and 106.7 FM. Elyse Morris, Rachelle Rafailedes, Rena Butler, Chalvar Monteiro, and Maleek Washington completed the ensemble.

Watching this young company perform so passionately brought to mind Columbia’s own Wideman/Davis Dance Company who, for a few years, were gathering a modest but strong amount of steam among folks who know dance in the city. Thaddeus Davis may be the best choreographer in South Carolina. Like Abraham’s, his work is grounded in technique, socially relevant, and aesthetically unified. But for the past year, Wideman/Davis Dance Company appeared to be missing from Columbia’s dance culture. Where were they? They were at the University of South Carolina teaching, choreographing, and performing, though many of us who follow WDDC – who adore and want to support WDDC – were unaware when these performances took place. On one occasion, I found out the day before a late night show was taking place that it would be occurring. The other performances came and went with some but little recognition.

Here’s the deal – hiding down in the dance building on the USC campus is one of the finest choreographers in the country and, scattered throughout the world, the company members he gathers when he has something to give and the money and support to give it. (Elyse Morris, one of the dancers in last night’s performance, proudly lists Thaddeus Davis among the choreographers whose work she has performed.) But while Kyle Abraham and Abraham.In.Motion has a number of impressive benefactors, including the Heinz Endowments and the New York State Council on the Arts, Wideman/Davis Dance Company does not.

Wideman/Davis Dance Company is another example of the right people not getting the modest amount of money available to artists in SC. When I think of some of the silly things that are funded – funds given to organizations that know more about grant writing than about the arts – it is infuriating.

The problems are multifactorial and include not enough time/money/energy given to promoting the arts and not enough information available about accessing what little money there is out there.

Jasper doesn’t have answers to these problems, but on some days we get as many as 500 readers of What Jasper Said, so maybe some of you do. And here’s a disclaimer – I haven’t spoken to Thaddeus about this post, so I don’t know what his response will be. But I do know that a dance artist of his training (BFA from Butler, MFA from Hollins), with his accolades (the Choo San Goh Award for Choreography, being named, like Abraham above, one of the “25 to Watch in the World” by Dance Magazine, and having the premiere of one of his pieces being named one of the top ten moments in dance by the New York Times), his experience (Davis has danced with Donald Byrd and the Dance Theatre of Harlem among other illustrious companies and choreographed for Alvin Ailey, Julliard and more), and his passion and talent should be celebrated by the city he calls home.

I was fortunate to see Abraham.In.Motion at the Spoleto festival last night – it was an excellent performance. But Columbia is equally as fortunate to have a company the caliber of Wideman/Davis Dance residing in its city. Let’s give WDDC the kind of support they deserve – and let’s see them next year on the Spoleto Festival 2013 stage.

A night of new music -- Spoleto Review

For a long time if you wanted new music at the Spoleto Festival, you had to go to a small hall for the late afternoon Music in Time series. During the past few years, new music keeps getting bigger and bigger stages. Part of this is due to Music in Time founder John Kennedy’s more prominent role with the festival as resident conductor and some of it is the result of the rising tide of interest in contemporary music. Evidence could be found Sunday with the Orchestra Uncaged concert in Sottile Theater. The concert juxtaposed works by one of the pioneers of modern music – John Cage - with that of a relative newcomer – Jonny Greenwood (best known as guitarist for Radiohead.)

Cage isn’t someone who shows up at the festival often and Greenwood’s work has never been played at the festival.

The concert offered a grouping of three Cage works written the year before his death in 1992. The three pieces Twenty-six, Twenty-eight and Twenty Nine are named both for the duration of each and the number of instruments required for each. Unlike some of Cage’s works these do not call for extended instrumental techniques or alterations of instruments by doing things like jamming the strings with chopsticks.

Seems simple enough, but not so fast.

For this concert the three works were all performed at the same time, the shorter works nesting inside the larger ones and the various ensembles filling the stage with about 60 musicians. This doesn’t mean it sounded like three different works being played because the pieces are written in a way that they can be played one at a time, two at a time, or all at once.

Within a larger overall sound, various musicians engaged in “sound events” and they get to decide, within certain time constraints, when they are going to make said sounds. This technique, dubbed “time brackets,” doesn’t change much for the listener. What we still get is an ongoing wash of sound with little change tempo or volume interrupted just momentarily by the occasional “sound event.” These events are often just one quick note played at the same volume as the rest of the orchestra. It’s often difficult to ascertain exactly where the sound is coming from or what instrument is making it. It was fun to search the packed stage for tell-tale signs of movement. In one case the tip of a rapidly-moving violin bow – the only thing visible at the back of the stage  – was the giveaway.

At times the piece(s) reminded one of a gentle summer night sounds – the wind in the trees, crickets chirping, the a/c fan -  and the sudden arrival and departure of a bullfrog croak, a distant train whistle, an owl’s hoot and a motorcycle a couple of blocks over.

These are the only three of Cage’s large body of work that have not previously been performed in the United States. The festival deserves our thanks for finally premiering them and doing them so well.

The festival has never before performed works by Greenwood and the concert included his two biggest and most recent classical pieces.

48 Responses to Polymorphia is Greenwood’s string orchestra tribute to Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki’s 1961 composition Polymorphia. The Penderecki work ended on a C major chord and Greenwood picks that, and various distortions, as his building block.  48 Responses uses large tone clusters and between shivers and screeches, snippets of tunes disintegrate. Like the Cage, 48 Responses was largely one big sound. During the final section of the work, the string players set down their bows and picked up huge seedpods which they used both to bow and as percussion instruments. It seemed gimmicky, but sounded great.

Doghouse is a much more accessible and traditional work scored for string trio and large orchestra. Greenwood has said that the work was inspired by imagining what sort of musical scores he might find in the archives of the BBC studio orchestra, which premiered the piece in 2010, especially if some of those scores were moth eaten. The piece nods to various musical styles one might associate with the BBC and its many projects. It also isn’t surprising to learn that selections from it were used as a film score. Doghouse is a much more dynamic work than 48 with snatches of dissonance throughout, the musical falling apart and coming together again.

Although some people still erroneously think of the festival as a place of fairly conservative musical offerings, it has become anything but with concerts like this and new operas (two this year.)  Because of the way the festival is set up, many people attend events they might not go to at home, but not all of them are completely happy about this. The audience at the Uncaged concert was quite diverse and certainly skewed younger than at most of the larger concerts. The house was nearly full. As might be expected, quite a few drifted away after the Cage and a few more as the night went on, but in the end there was still a good solid crowd that very much appreciated what it had just heard.

-          Jeffrey Day

One Book, Two Poems: One Poem contest winners and finalists announced!

Poet and novelist Ron Rash had a hard time picking the winner of the One Book, One Poem contest, and in the end, he decided it was a tie. Will Garland and Debra Daniels are the winners of the contest, for their poems “Swimming Out by the Dam” and “Inside the Silvered Breath.” Both poems will be published in Jasper later this year. Five additional poems were named finalists: “corduroy road” by Lauren Allen, “Muddied Bottoms” by Will Garland (author of one of the winning poems as well), “Waters Remember (Keowee No. 1)” and “Three Things One Moment Before Summer” by Rieppe Moore, and “Elegy” by Dianne Turgeon Richardson.

Of the two winning poems, Rash wrote, “These two poems remind us that the best poetry is written for the ear as much as the eye. I am gratified to have had the opportunity to experience them.”

Jasper sponsored the One Book, One Poem contest in conjunction with the second annual One Book, One Columbia program. The book chosen for 2012 was Ron Rash’s Saints at the River, and a number of events tied to the book were scheduled in January and February, including a packed presentation by Rash at the Bostick Auditorium in Richland County Public Library.

Rash also agreed to judge Jasper’s One Book, One Poem contest, which invited poets from the greater Columbia area to submit poems inspired by Rash’s novel. Not only will the two winning poems will be published in Jasper later this year, but the authors will also receive a literary arts prize package. The finalists will be published later this year right here on the Jasper blog.

Jasper congratulates Will Garland and Debra Daniels, this year’s winners, and the finalists, Lauren Allen, Rieppe Moore, and Dianne Turgeon Richardson. Jasper also thanks all the participants who entered, and who made the judging so difficult because of the range and beauty of the work submitted.

The One Book, One Columbia program hopes to create a sense of community through a shared reading experience, encouraging residents of the greater Columbia area to read the same book at the same time. For more information on the One Book, One Columbia program, see http://www.myrcpl.com/onebook.

The Animals and Children Took to the Streets - Spoleto Review

Jasper is back at Spoleto for a few days and we hit the ground running by catching the last performance of theatre company 1927's The Animals and Children Took to the Streets at noon on Sunday. This show represents some of the best of what arts festivals can bring -- risky, innovative, multidisciplinary performances that carve out new ways of looking at humanity. Granted, shows like this don't always work -- we remember with horror some Spoleto and Piccolo Spoleto bombs from the past that will go unnamed. But this time, all the quirkiness and uniqueness anda darkly Dickensian attributes of The Animals and Children Took to the Streets come together to form a creepily satisfying narrative that acknowledges both the best and the worst in all of us.  

Written and directed by Suzanne Andrade, who is one fourth of the company 1927 along with her partner, animator Paul Barritt, and actor Esme Appleton with Lillian Henley, who is a musician, Animals and Children brings music, animation, live action, and storytelling together. The stage is a combination screen and set in three parts with sparse moveable scenery carried on and off stage by the actors. There are three windows behind which typically sit the actors -- though, as mentioned, they are  mobile as well -- and from their various positions they sing in an almost madrigal manner at key points in the play. But, their primary job is interacting with the Edward Gorey-like animation projected onto the screen/set. The screen/set is identified as a tenement house called Bayou Mansion on Red Herring Street where nothing good ever happens. Full of an assorted cast of perverts ranging from a 21-year-old granny to an underwear thief to a guy who likes to sniff women's bicycle seats; one would think the adults would be to blame for all the bad things that happen on Red Herring Street. But no, when the sun goes down and the shades are drawn, residents lock their doors against the hordes of marauding children who wreak havoc on the community, usually en masse. But one day, a new pair arrive in the neighborhood in the form of a mother and daughter -- described as being "cleaner and prettier" than all the rest -- and they introduce a form of optimism into the atmosphere at the same time that all the children have been subdued via a giant drugged gumdrop. So the story is told of a pessimistic, and somewhat lovelorn, caretaker who is caught in the middle and, through a series of interactions with the audience, must choose either the path of idealism or the path of realism which will bring us to the end of the story.

Even though we caught the final performance of the play at Spoleto, we'll keep the ending to ourselves lest we spoil it for those of you lucky enough to catch this show in one of their next gigs. (The Charleston stop came between a shows in Dijon, France and an upcoming performance in DC.)

We loved the delightful creepiness of the show, the tongue-in-cheek manner in which it was presented, the underlying nastiness of the lines and lyrics -- who doesn’t like songs about living in a "shithole?" -- and the fact that, yet again, animation is proven to be a proper art form for exploring decidedly adult topics of social issues.

City Art presents HIGH NOON with the Editors of Jasper Magazine

City Art  at 1224 Lincoln Street down in the Vista is doing something pretty cool.

They're opening up the gallery space every Saturday afternoon this summer for a series of arts-related events and they're calling it High Noon.

At Jasper, we're honored to help them kick off this series by bringing four of the editors of the magazine out on June 9th to do a reading.

• Ed Madden will be reading poetry from Prodigal
• Mike Miller will be reading short stories from his book, Lonesome Pines
• Kristine Hartvigsen will be reading poetry from her upcoming book, To the Wren Nesting
• And Cindi Boiter will be reading short fiction from her new book, Buttered Biscuits

All the books will be available for sale and signing as will all the fabulous art and art supplies that City Art carries. The event runs from noon until 1 pm on Saturday, June 9th.

We hope you'll come out for a visit.

For more information click here.

Pretty Girls Preview -- A Guest Blog by Olivia Thompson

Pretty Girls: an Artist Collective was born out of a naturally occurring grass roots motif. The original intention would have been to host a feminist art show in someone’s yard or basement -- out of necessity. As Olivia Thompson was doing a spring 2011 internship under fiber and material studies artist Susan Lenz of Vista Studios/Gallery 80808 - Susan offered the gallery space for Olivia to organize her first art exhibition. The opportunity to utilize a renowned art gallery set the stage for success. Reba Edwards gathered select fellow USC art students to become part of the collective. Mary-Ellyse Fendig, also known as Merle, executed all the public relations work to bring community awareness of this happening. Molly Harrell become the Pretty Girls photographer and did a series of “Rosie the Riveter” portraits of the collective. It was the collective effort of these strong female voices that made this show possible. Young and pretty women in this society never have real value. As we are artists and not social scientists, we do not have solutions to our society's complex social problems. Pretty Girls merely wishes to illuminate this subject through visual interpretations. The act of creating is a solution in and of itself. As we have overcome enough of the socioeconomic obstacles that might have otherwise prevented us from presenting our perspectives. It is a liberating experience to host a feminist art show and have other people get involved and feel inspired. People are sympathetic to feminism but so many people support issues regarding animal rights and green movements but you can’t truly respect the planet if you don’t respect human rights.

The idealization of the female form has become detrimental to the growth of the human race. Some viewers may perceive our feminist work as too sexually explicit or too pessimistic, but it is always unillusioned and it goes with the turf; we create from experience. We hold a mirror up to confront what society has chosen to ignore - social outcasts. We are not trying to make the public feel more comfortable – it can be pretty ugly.

The second annual show will be held at the Tapp’s Art Center located at 1644 Main Street this Friday June 1, 2012 from 5-10 p.m. It will showcase over 50 local up-and-coming artists. The concept of this particular show is Consumerism from the original underlying Feminist perspective. The opening reception on Friday will include performance arts and entertainment - not to be missed! The art will be on display the entirety of June at the Tapp’s Art Center. All proceeds will go to benefit the Friends of the Tapp’s Arts Center, a new non-profit for art workshops with children.

2nd Annual Pretty Girls Artist List:

(In no particular order)

Leslie Pierce

Kirkland Smith

Cedric Umojo

Claude Buckley

Olivia Thompson

Reba Edwards

Molly Harrell

Merle Fendig

Autumn Germroth

Amanda Ladymon

Deana Rennick

Joanna Garner

Stephen Chesley

Rachael Borgman

Alejandro Garcia

Heidi Darr-Hope

Mike Pope

Dalvin Spann

Thomas Crouch

Kimberly Bookman

James Dennis

Faust Pauluzzi

Melissa Harmon

Katherine Perry

Barbie Mathis

Dustyn Hughes

Alexandra White

Sumner Bender & Lydia Ureda

Jenna Sach

Andrew Thomas

Sarah Madison Brown

Anastasia Chernoff

Whitney LeJeune

Whitney Richards

Savannah Jordan

Brandon Verkaik / Racheal Hekking / Ken Chatman

Ann Kaplan

Sandra Carr

Ashley Berendzen

Lindsay Wiggins

May Kirby

Katie Shlon

Charlotte Mulen Hekman

Sonja Quattlebaum

Laural Steckel

Kristine Boegner

Amy Puzerewski

Christie Cannon

Lucas Sams

PERFORMING ARTISTS:

Lawdan & The Mazloom Empire (note, this is Lawdan's debut performance)

Housewerk

Happiness Bomb

TLM

Power Company

A musical trip through time and place with Spoleto & Jeffrey Day

 

My Spoleto weekend wrapped up with a tour of music spanning many centuries and the entire globe.  The trip went from ancient China to 1790s London, to 19^th century New England, and May 2012 Japan. And I was able to do it all in a 10 block area of downtown Charleston between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. Sunday.

Let’s start in the oldest and last stop – which also has the benefit of being very new.

The opera Feng Yi Ting by Duo Wenjing had its first full production and American premiere in Charleston Sunday night. It’s based on a tale from the Han Dynasty (206 BC  - 220), but was written in 2004 and brings together musical and theatrical elements from both ends of that time frame. In the story, the despotic leader of the country has recently adopted a new godson. A young woman, Diao Chan, decides to seduce them both to set them against one another allowing for for more sensible leaders to take charge. The story is told with humor and beauty, but this is no epic – it has only two performers (the young woman and the godson) and lasts barely 45 minutes.

What makes it unique is the blending of Eastern and Western music and opera styles. In the pit of the Dock Street Theatre along with the violins and oboes are several musicians playing traditional Chinese instruments. On stage the performers sing and act in the highly mannered style of Chinese opera, while surrounded by state-of-the-art video projections as well as live video feed of the actors in giant black and white close ups. It sounds like it could be a mess of too much, but it isn’t.

The highly-praised composer’s music is always engaging and the quality of this production shouldn’t be a surprise considering the rest of the team working that created it. The director is Atom Egoyan (best known for his many movies including The Sweet Hereafter) and Derek McLane, a Tony-winning Broadway designer.

For some audience members an hour of the Chinese opera style singing is probably plenty. But we did 15 hours of the 18-hour Chinese opera The Peony Pavilion at the festival a few years ago. Another hour of something as imaginative and excellent as Feng Yi Ting would have been fine with us.

Additional performances take place May 29, June 1, 4 and 7.

A few hours before the trip to ancient China we were in Japan in 2011 – when the earthquake and tsunami struck. The first concert in the Music in Time series, which focuses on contemporary classical, brought to the hall three works by prominent Japanese composers many of us have never heard of. All the works were written for traditional Western instrumentation and one would be hard pressed to find anything particularly “Japanese” about the music.

The program had a very last minute change when composer Toshio Hosokawa called series director John Kennedy a few weeks ago and offered a brand new piece instead of the one scheduled – and it turned out to be a work about the disaster in Japan, as was the piece by Toshi Ichiyanagi that was the linchpin of the concert. The new work, Meditation, had its world premiere in Korea just a few weeks ago; the festival didn’t even receive the music until five days before the concert.

The lateness of the addition showed in no way. This is an intense and dramatic work that musically reflects the power of the earth to shift, move and heave land and water at will. It calls for 30 players which made for a very packed stage at the College of Charleston recital hall and a roar of sound always. The first movement is called Beat of the Earth and that beat, aided by ample percussion is the thing that marches forward through Meditation.

Ichiyanagi, the most distinguished senior composer in Japan, wrote his Symphony No. 8 – Revelation 2011 less than a year after the earthquake, tsunami and resulting death and damage to a nuclear power plant and the Sunday concert was the American premiere.  Like Hosokawa’s piece, this one is very much about the power of the earth - how it can kill and how it can heal. Although the ensemble was slightly smaller at about 20 it is still a loud and dramatic piece, but had the benefit of many passages where several young players from the festival orchestra shone as soloists.

The final piece, Listening to Fragrances of the Dusk by Somei Satoh, was also getting its American premiere at the concert. Although written in 1997 long before the disaster, it seemed to be speaking to the tragedy as well. Unlike the two other pieces this is a very quiet, slow and meditative work – and served as a perfect elegy for the victims and coda for the concert.

The second offering of the chamber music series served up what series organizer and host Geoff Nuttall described as a “Haydn sandwich” – the Haydn Symphony 101 between works by late 19^th and early 20^th century American composers Arthur Foote and Amy Beach. Both of the Americans were from New England and their music, especially that of Foote, felt like a stroll through the New England countryside on a summer day with Beach’s Piano Quintet in F sharp minor being the more dramatic of the strolls. “This is some of the most amazingly exquisite music you’ve never heard before,” Nuttall said, and he was right.

Nevertheless, it wasn’t Haydn.

The Symphony 101 was one of the composer’s famous London Symphonies which were amazingly popular and heaped with praise for very good reason. Wanting to spread the music further than a full orchestra could take it, and there being no MP3 players at the time, the symphonies were arranged for smaller ensembles. In this case the work was played by the St. Lawrence String Quartet with the addition of flute, piano and double bass. I’ve heard dozens of these chamber concerts over the past 20 years and the performance of the Symphony 101 Sunday was in the top 10. The players took this work, which is full of sections in which the musicians appear to be searching for the right music, to new heights.  Haydn loved to create these quirky pieces that played with, but eventually delighted and astounded audience members.  This symphony did so in the 1790s and it did the same on a May Sunday in 2012.

At the end of the work, the musicians appeared ever happier than the audience. I don’t think I’ve even seen a group of players who appeared more thrilled with what they had just done. I thought they were about to levitate, but believe they already had.

-          ­Jeffrey Day

From Spoleto: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater -- A Review

In the history of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater only three people have claimed the title of artistic director: Ailey himself, who founded the company in 1958; Judith Jamison, who danced under Ailey and took over upon his death in 1989; and, Robert Battle, who claimed the title less than one year ago upon the retirement of Jamison. Make no mistake, there has been some chatter in the larger dance community about how well Battle will perform in his new role, (and whether he should have that role at all, given that he has never officially danced with  the company -- though he has set extensive choreography on the company and served as guest artist under Ailey himself.) But, if the company's performance at the International Spoleto Festival 2012 is any indication of how comfortable Battle is in his new role, I don't think dance audiences have a lot to worry about. If only three words could be used to describe the Saturday night performance at Charleston, SC's Gaillard auditorium, inspired, testosterone-heavy, and respectful are the one's Jasper would use. Battle started the evening off with an inspired performance of Minus 16, choreographed by Ohad Naharin. It's an odd concept and odd, but psychically satisfying, choreography. The piece begins with a lone dancer on stage, essentially just goofing off, or doodling around, dancing here and there in what appears to be an improvisational manner  -- the house lights are still up and theatre doors open, and audience members think the guy is  just there to entertain them while they wait on the show to start. The only thing is that, once the show starts, he doesn't leave. In fact, he is joined on stage by more people -- and they are all dressed just like him in dark dapper suits, white shirts, and hats. We soon discover that the performance started long before we thought it did. There are many interesting movements to the piece, a particularly moving segment involving a semi-circular cannon of large, African dance-inspired movements  known as (“Echad Mi Yodea” or “Who Knows One?”). Minus 16 is made up of this and three other pieces of choreography by Naharin, who trained at and eventually became artistic director of Israel's Batsheva Dance Company.

But what was so inspiring about the performance was a surprising segment during which all 20 dancers descended into the audience and chose a dance partner to bring back onto the stage with them. Typically, we don't care for this kind of "audience participation" -- usually finding it not only annoying but a bit of a gyp, if you will, given the price of tickets these days. But this night, something at least fascinating, if not magical, happened.  Of the 20 amateur dancers taken from the audience there were various levels of discomfort and bravado exhibited -- some people were clearly coerced into dancing, others were delighted to participate and boogied or twisted, and sometimes bumped and ground, their hearts out. But one elderly lady, dressed attractively in white slacks and a bright yellow sweater, took her place in the middle of the couples and, well, she owned the stage. Her movements were amateurish, but appropriate. Her body language was restrained, but open. What was so amazing was the almost euphoric comfort she seemed to feel on stage.

When the first act was over, audience members hit the lobby with  huge smiles and intense cases of the warm fuzzies.

The second act of the night consisted of two testosterone-heavy examples of Battle's choreography, Takademe from 1999 and The Hunt from 2001. The overtly rhythmic Takademe, features a single male dancer, in this case, Yannick Lebrun, and is set to the music, Speaking in  Tongues II, by Sheila Chandra. Rarely is choreography so intensely music driven -- the dance itself seemed almost secondary to the lyrics of the music. The Hunt is another male-centered piece featuring six men in samurai-style skirts reminiscent of Martha Graham costuming. Though neither of Battle's pieces were terribly challenging, they were both powerful and inordinately athletic.

The final piece of the night, as usual for a Charleston performance, was the classic from the Ailey rep, Revelations, and, also as usual, it was glorious. Divided into three movements, Revelations was first produced in 1960 as a tribute to the strength and tenacity of African-Americans' faith and an homage to Black history in the US.  The dance features music from gospels and blues, and an amalgam of technically sophisticated choreography and a folksy brand of movement that makes the audience members churn in their seats. The final movement, Move, Members, Move with its 16 dancers clad in yellow costumes and hats and fans was just as breathtaking this weekend as it has been all three times this reviewer has witnessed it.

Welcome Robert Battle to Alvin Ailey Dance -- somehow we feel that the best is yet to come.

From Spoleto: Kepler opera -- great music with a murky narrative -- A Review

  For those who are fans of Phillip Glass, his newest opera Kepler provides two-hours packed with quite recognizable Glass music: swirling arpeggios, cyclically-repeated motifs, tuned percussion, passages deep in the bass, unexpected contrasts bursting though like an exploding star bursting through the dark and twinkling blanket of a night sky.

The Spoleto production of Kepler marks the American premiere of a full production of the opera, which was mounted in Europe several years ago and had a concert staging in New York. The orchestra, under the director of resident conductor John Kennedy, sounded solid in the Sottile Theatre, as did the seven soloists, and especially the 30 members of the Westminster Choir.

The subject is Johannes Kepler, a great scientist who lived from 1571 to 1630 and explored new ways of thinking about the universe and especially our place in it. He was often wrong, but opened the doors to those who came after him. His theories often bolster the idea of a geometry of God in which science and religion could peacefully co-exist. (We all know how that turned out.) He came up with ideas of how the various planets fit in relation to one another and theorized that the planets had elliptical orbits.

The opera isn’t so much about his life as his ideas, not unlike some of Glass's early “portrait operas” such as Einstein on the Beach and Satyagraha. This may not sound like great material for opera from which we often expect love and love gone wrong, with a little murder thrown in. The life and work of Kepler may actually have made for a great and compelling opera, even without a lot of hot blood, but this version is so abstract, so lacking in action, and any sort of narrative it is both baffling and boring.

The libretto is based on Kepler’s own writings as well as those of a poet who was his contemporary. Maybe in the original German there was some grace to the words, but they mostly fall heavily to earth.

The “story,” such as it is, is nearly impossible to follow unless one has a decent knowledge of Kepler’s life and work. (The festival program book provides no program or director’s notes for the opera which would greatly help the audience and the opera.) It is a series of disjointed snippets, supposedly a look into Kepler’s mind. It is certainly the artist’s right to take this approach, but is better when it actually works.

Director Sam Helfrich does what he can moving around 40 people  who don’t have that much to do, often using the choir as a university classroom full of eager 16th century students. He and set designer Andrew Lieberman have devised some beautiful and compelling scenes. The set itself is a simple one of wood and some tables and chairs with most of the changes taking place through lighting effects on a huge screen. One of the high points is what we guess is a representation of the supernova of 1604 which was viewed with awe throughout Europe, including by Kepler. The orchestra builds as the exploding star rises on screen and then suddenly drops away washing through the hall like the light. Unfortunately later in the opera most of the choir starts bleeding through their white shirts which feels like a desperate grasp at adding some excitement.

Like the one-character opera Emilie staged at the festival last year, Kepler would really be more effective staged as a concert where its ideas and music would be unencumbered by attempts at dramatic flair.

Additional performances of Kepler take place May 28, 31 and June 2.

From Spoleto: First chamber concert fun and moving -- A Review

The Haydn string quartets "are the greatest music ever composed," announced Geoff Nuttall at the start of the first of the Spoleto Chamber series concert. And the string quartet the St. Lawrence String Quartet of which Nuttall is first violinist then proceeded to play (Op. 76, No. 2) is very good indeed. And the second piece, a tour de force - or farce - for solo flute, "Great Train Race" by Ian Clark is indeed fun. But the closer - Concerto for violin, piano and string quartet by Ernest Chausson was the star of the concert. Chausson was a late 19th century French Romantic composer  who was quite popular, but died young and didn't write all that much.

The piece is not really a concerto - it's more of a duet for violin and piano with the quartet serving a supporting role. One thing for certain is is an amazing work - lush  and lovely but never sweet and sticky, powerful but not just for the sake of flexing muscles, and complex but never showy.

Pianist Inon Barnatan and violinist Livia Sohn were perfectly matched with the work and with one another.

Lucky for me, I was sitting in the second row of the Dock Street Theatre on their side of the stage so I got to see every stroke of her bow and every movement of his fingers on the keyboard.

Nuttall is in his third year hosting the series, (a role he inherited from  series founder Charles Wadsworth), and he's settled into it well. He reminds one of a favorite professor sharing his knowledge and his enthusiasm, (he'd also rank as the coolest professor and best dresser.)  This year he even gave out his email address from stage.

Last year, for the first time, the program for the chamber series was announced in advance. Nuttall's concern with doing this was that people would see names of composers and works they didn't know and stay away.

"Tomorrow you see we're doing Foote and Beach - who the hell are they? You may thinks 'Oh it's probably modern and noisy.' If you have any fear or questions about things we're doing email me," he said. And then he gave out his email. Some of the audience members may have thought he was joking, but he really did give them his real email address. (That said, he didn't repeat it several times.) That's a pretty bold and admirable thing to do.

While Nuttall's demeanor is a breath of fresh air, the more educational aspects of this first concert went on a bit long. His explanation of what Haydn had done with the most simple building blocks ("He's thumbing his nose at everyone else who was making music," he pointed out regarding Op. 76, No. 2) was terrific but then he went on for several more minutes.

After Tara Helen O'Connor had played the "Great Train Race," which you might have guessed involved making a lot of train sounds with the flute, he had her come out and demonstrate several of the techniques. Several too many.

Making classical music more accessible and understandable is to be commended. More and more musicians are  speaking from the stage about the music and some even integrate a narration into concerts. They aren't often very good at it and even through Nuttall is one of the best at this, even he can go on a bit.

Sometimes its best just to play the tune.

- Jeffrey Day

Spoleto presents "Leo" -- a Review

The physical theater production of "Leo," directed by Daniel Briere, conceived and performed by Tobias Wegner, is basically a gag carried out, step-by-step, to its logical and glorious conclusion. At the risk of sounding far too sappy for comfort, Leo is a joy to behold. The performance opens onto a simple set consisting of a large red and blue box -- large enough to hold a frolicking adult male (Wegner) -- but devoid of anything else except said male, a bare lightbulb, and a valise. Adjacent to the overly large box is a screen that depicts the innards of the box exactly with one small exception -- the screen turns the box on its side.

What happens over the next 70 minutes are the physical manipulations of Wegner in the right-side-up box and the projection of his manipulations on the sideways screen. For example, when Wegner is seated on top of the valise, stationed on the floor, it looks as if he is hanging off the right wall on the screen.

It's a simple concept -- the art is in the physicality of Wegner and his movements. The entertainment quotient comes from the fact that despite the audience's ability to see that at no time does Wegner actually hang from the ceiling or walk on the walls -- though he does do some mean hand and head-stands -- we watch his movements on the screen and guffaw at the illusionless illusion he creates.

Though the bit slows down some during the second half of the show -- Wegner lulls us into an unusually relaxed state with his saxophone (the valise is there for a purpose) -- it picks right back up again when animation is added to the screen. Our only other complaint is that, despite our perfectly fine seats, we were unable to get a good view of the inside of the box where Wegner frolicked -- and we were sure others saw less than us.

Overall though, Jasper gives Leo a strong 4 out of 5 stars. There are three more opportunities to see the performance -- Sunday at 8 pm, Monday at noon, and Tuesday at 7 pm.

Jasper's Picks for Spoleto 2012 -- weekend #1

It's not that there's not enough art in Jasper's hometown of Columbia, SC to keep the old boy entertained. He just likes to stretch his legs -- and his horizons -- by visiting other arts centers once in a while. And, we'll admit it -- Jasper adores Spoleto! In fact, Jasper fancies the Spoleto Festival so much so that he'll be blogging from Charleston (in a couple of voices) over the next few weeks and keeping you loyal winners abreast of what's going on in the Holy City. If you've been considering a road trip to Spoleto this weekend, here are Jasper's picks for the best events to take in.

The Animals and Children Took to the Streets is a quirky multi-media performance presented by a theatre company out of London called 1927. The mix of music, live action and animation all on one stage is what caught Jasper's eye. We also found this lovely review in the Guardian:

"Suzanne Andrade, Esme Appleton, musician Lillian Henley and animator Paul Barritt evoke life in a seedy tenement block, Bayou Mansions, on the fringe of a big city. This is like a murky version of Fritz Lang's Metropolis, which first appeared in 1927, populated by rats, cockroaches and all manner of social outcasts. But the sharply subversive script shows how a gang of child-pirates go on the rampage, take over a middle-class park and even kidnap the mayor's cat before being whisked off in black ice-cream vans and effectively sedated. But their cry of "we want what you have out there" strikes a chill chord after this summer's riots.The 70-minute show makes its points with visual and verbal humour rather than heavyweight hectoring. A live, do-gooding liberal mum descends on the estate with her cartoon daughter to set up an art club only to retreat when the going gets tough. And the idea that we seem to be permanently stuck with grotty sink-estates is perfectly counterpointed by the lightning transformations of Barritt's brilliant animations, where coffins turn into telephones and cockroaches. Performed by a quick-changing, white-faced female trio, the show feels like a heady mix of Berlin cabaret, silent movie and social commentary."

Once we read the terms "sharply subversive," "black ice cream vans," and "art club," we didn't even have to read "white-faced female trio" or "Berlin cabaret" to know we wanted to be in the audience. There are 9 performances between May 25th and June 3rd. We hope you find your way to one.

Watch Alvin Ailey Dance Theater here

At Jasper, we're pushovers for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and we don't miss the opportunity to see this wonderful and inspiring dance troupe perform. The company will be performing two programs for this year's festival and we're delighted to report that their iconic piece Revelations will close out both of them. If you see dance at the Spoleto Festival this year, make sure you see Alvin Ailey.

Making up the Truth is an odd performance that is a cross between a lecture and comedic story telling hour, with Jack Hitt, frequent contributor to Harper's, the New York Times Magazine, and (Jasper's favorite radio program) This American Life.  We love this description of the show:

In his new solo show, Jack Hitt tells extravagant, almost unbelievable, true stories that take him from his early childhood in South Carolina (where his flamboyant neighbor, a British novelist, became global news as one of the world's first transsexuals) through his trek to New York (where his apartment super kept a deadly secret identity). MAKING UP THE TRUTH weaves these and other stories together with the latest experiments in cognitive research. Scientists of the mind are now studying the mechanics of how we all narrate our own stories in our brains, and Jack searches them out to answer the question everyone always asks him, "Why do these things always happen to you?" They don't, the experiments show. We are all making up the truth, often to shield ourselves from what Jack discovers: the uncanny wonders that lie just beyond our brain's notice. And that tale, it turns out, is another extravagant, almost unbelievable, true story.

Leo is a gravity-defying show by a German troupe called The Circle of Eleven. Here's the blurb on Leo that hooked us:

"Through a clever juxtaposition of live performance with projected film, two Leos move through identical spaces governed by opposing physical laws. [Tobias] Wegner exploits every potential for invention and comedy as Leo tests the limits of his strange environment, moving from humble tricks with hats to breakdancing up walls. Leo is a funny, surreal, and surprisingly touching work that challenges the senses and tests perceptions of reality."

More than a dorm for Main Street: how about a residential center for the arts? -- A guest editorial by Jeffrey Day

When I heard that there was a plan afoot to turn the empty and enormous SCANA building at Main and Hampton streets into a dorm for 800 University of South Carolina students, I was worried. The street has just started emerging as a new center of the arts in Columbia and it didn’t seem to me like putting hundreds of random students in the middle of it would help that along. Would the dominating numbers of students completely shape the tone of the street? It seems to me that with that many students, the businesses on the street will cater to them – and who can blame them? Will we end up with a bunch of cheap eating and drinking spots instead of art galleries and boutiques and imaginative restaurants?

My concerns do not appear to be shared by others in the city, including those who run the art spots on Main Street, and the city has approved the plan. So Main Street is going to get 800 students.

How about we get the right 800 students? And by that I mean students who will benefit from being on Main Street and be beneficial to it. My suggestion is that the building not simply be a dorm, but a residential center for the Arts and Humanities. Along with serving as a home for art, music, theater, dance, writing, film-making students (and maybe even faculty members) the meeting rooms and a huge lobby can be transformed into alternative performance, rehearsal and gallery space and badly needed student and faculty studios. The center could be a gathering place where students and faculty in the various arts areas could interact - something that too rarely takes place at the university. It would also be a one-stop shop where the public could learn about all the great artists and arts programs at the university. More conversations among the art students and faculty with the larger arts community and the general public would be an eye-opening – and yes, educational – experience for all involved.

For art, dance, theater, film, music and writing students the location is perfect.

Just across the intersection is the Columbia Museum of Art where they can see art from the past 2,000 years as well as hear some significant classical music concerts along with more rockin’ sorts of things like Arts and Draughts.

They could wander up and down the street to see what’s happening in the emerging art venues such as Frame of Mind, Anastasia & Friends Gallery, S & S Art Supply, the Studios at the Arcade, and the Tapp’s Art Center.

They can duck into the Nickelodeon Theater to take in an independent film, stick around for an audience discussion and maybe show some of their own movies.

The Richland County library is only a block away and just beyond that the art galleries of the Congaree Vista.

They can pick up art supplies right on Main Street or over on Lincoln.

They can walk to the river and think.

They can head down to the State House and think about running for office –  some artists in office would be nice.

Rather than being a place for students to store their stuff and get some sleep, this project has the potential to be something transformative for the university and the city.

-- Jeffrey Day

Jeffrey Day is s a local arts writer and critic who was the arts editor at The State for two decades. You can reach Day by writing to carolinaculture@hotmail.com.

Record Review: Rev. Marv Ward - I Should Know Better

While we here at Jasper have been doing (what we believe to be) a great job covering a wide variety of arts activities throughout our fair city, one thing that has been lacking has been more frequent updates on the amazing quality and variety of local music releases over the last 10 months or so we’ve been active, which is something we’d like to change, starting with a rather under-appreciated aspect of the Columbia’s music scene: the blues.

While not the most blues-associated city in the world, Columbia definitely has a few blues-related things to be proud of: Word of Mouth Production’s annual blues festival in MLK Park, weekly jam sessions at Mac on Main’s, and Clair de Lune’s Blues Moon radio show on WUSC, just to name a few. Another highlight of the scene is Rev. Marv Ward, a longtime blues guitarist and songwriter who plays continually around the city. Earlier this year he released I Should  Know Better, just his third solo album since he started out professionally as a songwriter in the 70s. Ward got his start early as a guitar player in a variety of blues and rock and roll bands, and over the years has shared stages with the likes of John Hammond, Dave Van Ronk, Big Bill Morganfield (son of the great Muddy Waters), and Aerosmith, and this collection actually includes unrecorded songs from throughout his long musical career.

Despite the star power of his past, these days Ward is more comfortable hanging with a talented group of local musicians. Recorded at the venerable Jam Room, Ward’s core backing band for the record included longtime scene members bassist Mike Mahoney and Vic Scaricamazza on the drums, along with frequent contributions from harmonica player Mike Fore, slide guitarist Rusty Davis, and mandolin from Steve Bennett. Ward also makes harmony singers Jenn McCallister and May Kirby central to the record’s sound, particularly on the girl group/beach music-heavy tune “Ridin’ on the Daydream.” Two other musical kindred spirits from the scene, Bentz Kirby (Alien Carnival) and David Hane (Devils in Disguise), trade verses on the final cut, the classic country-inspired “Tennessee Whiskey.”

The record opens with four tunes that are in the center of Ward’s wheelhouse, all of which make use of classic blues structures and the veteran guitarist’s effortless lead work. Ward’s approach has always been a laid-back mish-mash of styles, but here he seems to square in on a John Hiatt-meets-Muddy Waters vibe that fits perfectly with his more conservative blues tunes. The second half of the record, as if to apologize for the more straightforward (although uniformly strong)   opening, sees Ward stretching his legs quite a bit. The title cut takes a Buddy Holly rhythm and far more overt R&B vibe than anything that came before it, and from there Ward includes a trio of English folk and Celtic-influenced tunes (“Wallflower,” “Dance of Kindred Spirits,” and “Come Down to the River”), the California country-rock of “Virginia,” and the aforementioned “Ridin’ on the Daydream” and “Tennessee Whiskey.” Ward even throws in a twist on a classic blues conceit with his boomer-come-hither tune “Come Over,” which takes the genre’s love of ridiculous metaphors (“if you got the cheese, baby, I got the wine”) into near-Spinal Tap territory.  Even if you are tempted to laugh, though, the song is saved by a ridiculously good hard rock riff and the fact that Ward can, well, play.

In fact, throughout the record (and despite the numerous guest instrumentalists and vocalists), Ward’s consistency as a vocalist, guitar player, and songwriter never falters. His playing rarely lets you forget he is a blues player at heart, but traces of such unlikely influences as Jerry Garcia and Neil Young seem to pop up, even though he tends to more concise and structured solos than either. As a songwriter, his rather humble approach to the long legacy of the styles he works with balances originality and homage in a way that many contemporary blues musicians often find difficult.

Having said all that, the most important thing to remember about Ward’s record is that it’s been made largely a document of the songs he likes to write and perform, and for the relatively small audience of South Carolinians who either already know his music well or who tend to gravitate to more laid-back roots music styles anyway. That it is so often remarkable is almost beside the point—which really makes it all the more remarkable.

- Kyle Petersen

Contact Kyle at KPetersen@JasperColumbia.com

[Vista] Queen of the Night?

Jasper is very much a 21st century kind of guy, so when he hears of old tropes like "beauty pageants" he usually turns up his nose in distaste.

Usually.

But when a pageant has been turned on its head the way that Larry Hembree, past executive director of the Nickelodeon Theatre and incoming executive director of Trustus Theatre,* has turned this year's [Vista] Queen of the Night Pageant, you can safely assume that many of the tired old trappings that typically make beauty pageants so declasse have been tossed out with the trash. (Apologies to Chris Bickel, pageant contestant.)

Starting with the gender and sexual orientation of the contestants.

Hembree is taking us back to the glory days of the Vista Queen Pageant when hetero gentlemen the likes of Jakie Knotts and Sheriff Leon Lott donned their gay apparel and fought it out like proper the proper bitches they are for the crown and the title of Vista Queen. Recent pageants, though exceedingly entertaining, have featured, let's just say, gentlemen to whom lip gloss and eye liner felt a little more natural.

Contestants hiding their candy this year include Chris Bickel (featured as the centerfold of Jasper #002,) the mighty Tom Hall, our buddy Otis Taylor, news anchor Anderson Burns, actor Gerald Floyd, and Historic Columbia's director of Cultural Resources, John Sheerer.

Clay Owens is the stage manager, and Terrance Henderson (featured in Jasper #001) is the choreographer -- Alexia Bonet and CJ Grant will be serving as out hosts.

Judges are Ya Ya Queen Debbie McDaniel, who is also a generous sponsor, Sarah Luadzers from the Congaree Vista Guild, playwright, Robbie Robertson, and City Counselor Cameron Runyan.

The winner of the title of Vista Queen will be adorned with a beautiful sash, sponsored by your friends at Jasper Magazine and handcrafted by the hardest-working-artist-in-Columbia, Susan Lenz.

Tickets to the event are sold-out, as well they should be, but for those lucky enough to have scored a ticket, doors open at 6 and the show starts at 7.

For additional information, visit www.trustus.org or visit the event page “(Vista) Queen of the Night” on Facebook.

*(Full disclosure - this blogger sits on the Trustus Theatre board of directors.)