Guest Artists Research Articles

New developments for spatial music in the context of the ZKM Klangdom: A review of technologies and recent productions

he Institute for Music and Acoustics is a production and research facility of the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe. In this paper, we present some general thoughts on spatial music and its implementations as a motivation for our efforts. We outline the development of the ZKM Klangdom, a multi-loudspeaker facility for spatial sound diffusion that aims to provide artists and composers with new possibilities. We present the software project for controlling the Klangdom, Zirkonium, together with the key innovations in its new version Zirkonium MK2. A survey of examples of recent productions by guest artists is presented, and the Klangdom’s achievements in the context of real-time control and diffusion are portrayed.

Ecologies of Dramaturgy

Ecologies of Dramaturgy Beth Blickers (bio) and Brian Quirt (bio) Brian Quirt is the artistic director of Nightswimming, a Toronto-based dramaturgical company, and director of the Banff Centre Playwrights Colony. Beth Blickers is an agent at Abrams Artists Agency. They first met on Brian’s home turf when he was serving as president of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) and hosted its 2007 annual conference. He continues to serve on the board of the organization where Beth has just started a two-year term as president. As LMDA embarks on its thirtieth year as the preeminent organization in North America working to cultivate, develop, and promote the function of dramaturgy and literary management, it seemed an opportune time for the Torontonian and the New Yorker, the artistic director and the agent, the past president and current president to discuss the state of the nation for dramaturgs and dramaturgy. There are age-old questions about career paths and the roles that dramaturgs can, and should, play in their theatrical communities; there is ever increasing scrutiny on issues of diversity and inclusion, which extend beyond the plays and playwrights to the entire creative team; and the definition of theatre itself is leaping beyond the traditional, narrative, single-author play performed within four walls. With the ever shifting world in which dramaturgs work, what are questions they are asking themselves in shaping their careers within a rapidly altering landscape? Beth: Hi, Brian. So we have this task to talk about the evolution of dramaturgy. Now that we aren’t spending time trying to define it, what are the questions engaging us? I can say south of the Canadian/United States border I’m regularly in conversation about how the traditional rules of dramaturgy can’t be applied to nontraditional theatre projects. I’ll admit I struggle with whether there are different rules/questions for different kinds of theatre. Should the theatre be using different dramaturgs for different kinds of projects, or should every dramaturg be prepared to work with a range of artistic impulses? Brian: Hi, Beth. I vote for being prepared to work with a range of artistic impulses. Sure, dramaturgs can specialize, and some of us do over time, which is not a bad thing. But one of the powers of dramaturgy and dramaturgs is the ability to synthesize ideas, information, and impulses from a breadth of knowledge and experience and put it to work at the service of the project(s) at hand. I’m leading the Banff Centre Playwrights Colony at the moment and one of our guest artists is dramaturg Ruth Little, whose current job is associate director of Cape Farewell in the UK. She trained as a biologist, was literary manager of a slew of important UK theatres, including the Royal Court, and now works as a dance dramaturg for Akram Khan, as well as with an environmental organization that develops artistic responses to climate change. Now, that’s a dramaturgical worldview that I think is a fantastic example of someone absorbing and applying a range of artistic impulses. I’d vote for more of us incorporating such breadth into our working worlds. On a related topic, theatre-makers submitting applications to my company in Toronto strike me as increasingly uninterested in writing plays (a form that can seem very quaint these days) and very uninterested in working their way up and into the mainstream theatres (large and medium-sized) that for forty years have made up the fabric of the Canadian new-play-development system. I think this is a great shift, though it doesn’t really matter what I think about it. It’s happening, and my take is that a generation of smart, talented theatre-makers is coming of age that will largely bypass the existing system. It is likely that system will suffer very much for that loss. [End Page 249] Beth: I think it might be a good thing for that system to suffer. I’m starting to see some heartening crossover where our regional theatre system hosts, and even commissions, nontraditional companies to build works for their seasons. That’s been a longstanding...

The Samuel Beckett Laboratory 2013

This multi-authored dossier is the first publication to emerge from the Samuel Beckett Laboratory, a new space for fundamental research into Beckett's work in performance established at the Samuel Beckett Summer School at Trinity College Dublin. In 2013 the focal point of the Laboratory's work was the Shakespeare/Bare Room manuscript fragment. The dossier uses the frame of practice-as-research to explore methodology, documentation from facilitators and guest artists, and qualitative data gathered from students and participants. This signals a new approach to work in Beckett Studies and an evolution of methods in Theatre and Performance Studies.

Dancing through the Decades in Middle School

Seventh and eighth grade students engaged in 13-week interdisciplinary initiative of physical dancing, a discussion, and inquiry into the social climate of each decade and how that climate affected popular culture and the way people moved.The Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) Position Statement on Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessments (2003) describes elements of quality curriculum for middle school students that take into consideration the variable characteristics of young adolescent learners, who are actively engaged in maturation, social development, and lifelong engagement in literacy and community, as well as learning. AMLE endorses a middle school curriculum that is relevant, challenging, integrative and exploratory. Such a curriculum allows students to develop understanding and skills applicable to the real world.Schools with a strong interdisciplinary art focus strive to create an engaging learning environment of intellectual challenge, creative and critical thinking, inquiry and expression, reflection and sense of community (April, 2010; http://www.capeweb.org/whatwe-do; Rabkin & Redmond, 2006). Since developing the national standards, the Consortium of National Arts Education Associations has published several documents outlining specific strategies for effective implementation of the standards. Authentic Connections: Interdisciplinary Work in the Arts, (2002) defines interdisciplinary education as one that enables students to identify and apply authentic connections between two or more disciplines and/or to understand essential concepts that transcend individual disciplines. The value of interdisciplinary work in the promotes learning by providing students with opportunities to solve problems and make meaningful connections within the across disciplines, and it is recommended that arts specialists seek a balance between disciplinary and interdisciplinary learning emphases in their classrooms and work with other teachers in schools (p. 3). Sometimes referred to in the literature as integration, it is basically an instructional strategy that brings the into the core of the school day, making connections to various aspects of the academic curriculum (Rabkin 8c Redmond, 2006). The Kennedy Center's definition for integration states: Art integration is an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form. Students engage in a creative process [that] connects an art form and another subject area and meets evolving objectives in (http://www.kennedy-center. org/education/ceta/arts_integration_definition.pdf).Dance is not considered intrinsic to our American being as it might be in more traditional cultures and societies. In fact, of all the art forms, dance is the one least likely to be found in a school curriculum. Although in the past most physical education classes covered basics of traditional dancing, we find that less and less the case today (Graves 8c Townsend, 2000). Many American youth, due to lack of experience and training, may be reticent to move and dance. Middle school students, being at a developmental stage in which they are increasingly susceptible to peer pressure, may exhibit self-conscious behavior and may be less likely to take social risks (American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2011). The Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE, 2012) maintains that the integration of art instruction with academic instruction enriches and deepens both the art learning and the academic learning; the experience becomes richer through exploring complex, non-arts subjects, and art produced within an integrated curriculum is more compelling because of the constant exchange of questions and ideas from the academic to the artistic work. Quality interdisciplinary teaching is often considered most effective when it is conceived as part of what happens within a whole-school culture and is developed through co-planning between partnering educators, whether they be any combination or configuration of teachers, classroom teachers, and/or guest artists (April, 2010). …

Cultural Identity in Bahamian Art Music: The Expression of Four Bahamian Composers

This article is a transcription of the presentations of the participants of the first session of the International Symposium on Composers of African and Afro-Caribbean Descent held at the College of The Bahamas in February 2013. Edward Bethel moderated the session, which included guest artists Cleophas Adderley, Audrey Dean-Wright, Christian Justilien, and K. Quincy Parker. These four prominent Bahamian composers discussed their pieces, focusing on their compositional style and how/if cultural identity is a strong component of their works. Featured compositions contain hyperlinks to audio/video-recorded examples.

<b>In The Mouth of The Filomena</b> // En la boca de la Filomena

In the Mouth of the Filomena is an artistic installation in the Mines of “Ojos Negros” [Black Eyes] (Sierra Menera, Teruel, Spain) I carried out as a guest artist in memory of this mining district close in 1986.

Artist Statement: Indigenous Virgin

Artist StatementIndigenous Virgin Marjorie Peñailillo (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Marjorie “Gigi” Peñailillo (Turronas Crew), Virgen Negra (2010), graffiti mural, Santa Inés, Viña del Mar, Chile. [End Page 242] Marjorie Peñailillo (Gigi) is a visual artist, a professional graffiti writer, and a master printmaker. She holds degrees in education, art, and printmaking from the School of Fine Arts in Viña del Mar and the University of Viña del Mar in Chile. Additionally, Gigi is cofounder of one of the few all-female graffiti crews in Chile, the Turronas Crew. She also participated in the multidisciplinary urban culture project called Cultura Urbana Chilena. Gigi has organized and led a series of graffiti workshops for children and young adults in Chile, in collaboration with the Culture and Arts Council and the country’s Office for the Protection of Children and Youth Rights. She has taken part in diverse graffiti events in Chile and elsewhere in South America, including the international graffiti summit Concegraff in Concepción, Chile (2006–12). She also taught a workshop for the Second Youth Festival in Fortaleza, Brazil (2011). Prior to these activities Gigi served as a juror for the “1er Encuentro Internacional Caída y Limpia” (First international encounter fall and clean) in Quito, Ecuador (2009), and participated as a guest artist in the First International Graffiti Encounter, where she contributed to the creation of the Muro por La Paz (Wall of peace) in Arequipa, Peru, and Santiago, Chile (2009). The Wall of Peace was a collaborative graffiti and mural project that brought together dozens of artists from Chile and abroad to paint images on the subjects of peace and nonviolence. Gigi’s work has been exhibited in various important venues. Together with the Veie Crew, she exhibited her short film Documentary 777: Graffiti and Urban Culture as part of her thesis for the University of Viña del Mar. Her work was also featured in the first exhibition of women graffiti artists in the Instituto Chileno-Norteamericano (ChileanNorth American Institute) in Valparaiso and at the Fine Arts Museum in Viña del Mar, both in Chile. Moreover, Gigi’s work has graced the pages of numerous important graffiti arts publications, [End Page 243] such as Rod Palmer’s monograph Street Art Chile (England), C.O.P. Magazine (Australia), and Negativos Graffiti Art Magazine (Spain). The themes and images in Gigi’s work focus on diverse icons associated with Latin American indigenous identity. Most notable is her use of Pre-Columbian aesthetic resources and symbolism from the Valdivia and Moche cultures in Ecuador and Peru, respectively. She is also influenced by the syncretism of Chilean and Bolivian religious festivities such as the carnivals of La Tirana and Oruro. Her search for an artistic identity makes of her work a constant mutation that brings together diverse fragments of cultures absorbed in her numerous trips throughout South America searching for a contemporary vision to be reflected in her prints and graffiti creations. Gigi’s images reproduced in this issue of Frontiers are from two walls of a graffiti mural she painted in the neighborhood of Santa Inés in Viña del Mar. These two hybrid virgins are mountain deities who represent fertility and the indigenous presence in colonial art. This graffiti mural was also part of Gigi’s thesis project, which focused on the role of graffiti and the urban arts in community building. The Pachamama or mother earth featured on the cover of Frontiers is the powerful Andean goddess who presides over planting, harvesting, and the earth’s reproductive cycles. Gigi has depicted her here as a nature spirit whose mantle is made of butterflies that give rise to other life forms on earth. For more information on Gigi’s art, see the following sites: www.flickr.com/gigigraff http://www.facebook.com/pages/TURRONAScrew/116338465104225 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM8I6MwgXrk [End Page 244] Marjorie Peñailillo Marjorie Peñailillo is a visual artist, a professional graffiti writer, and a master printmaker. She holds degrees in education, art, and printmaking from the School of Fine Arts in Viña del Mar and the University...

RECORDINGS IN REVIEW: YOUNG BRITTEN

1 7 4 Y R E C O R D I N G S I N R E V I E W D E W E Y F A U L K N E R Benjamin Britten today is thought of almost entirely as a major opera composer, the first one writing in English since Henry Purcell . From the premiere of Peter Grimes at Sadler’s Wells on 4 June 1945 through that of Death in Venice on 16 June 1973, Britten created a series of operas on scales large (Billy Budd, Gloriana) and, more commonly, small (The Rape of Lucretia, The Turn of the Screw, the ‘‘church parables’’). Beyond and in conjunction with these, in 1948 he created a festival at Aldeburgh, a small town on the North Sea coast, for which he eventually acquired a disused brewery, the Maltings, at Snape, six miles south, and converted it in 1967 into a concert and opera hall. Here he could produce larger works, make recordings, and generally unify his festival labors. Most of his nonoperatic works after 1945 were intended for the Aldeburgh Festival and its many distinguished guest artists, although many can be performed by members of the general musical public as well. Stylistically, Britten never chased after the fashionable serialism of the 1950s and 1960s or any other unpopular modernist fad, which assured him continuing performances, publications, and royalties. The public has come to enjoy his music 1 7 5 R more and more since his death in 1976, and the commemorations for his 2013 birth centenary are numerous. Britten’s success was not automatic. Billy Budd, written for Covent Garden’s 1951 Festival of Britain celebrations, took years, major revisions, and a television production to win over the public, and Gloriana, commissioned for the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953, was initially a failure, although it has since succeeded. It was not until the War Requiem in 1962, a commemoration work for the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral, that Britten’s stature finally was apparent to the public. It was confirmed internationally in the 1960s by his artistic associations with important Russian musicians: the composer Dmitri Shostakovich, the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and his wife, the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, and the pianist Sviatoslav Richter. The three performers would become major participants in the Aldeburgh Festival, with Britten writing important works for Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya. Recordings, particularly the highly successful 1963 recording of the Requiem, consolidated this. After 1963, every new work was an event, most recorded on Decca/London by the composer, and many older works entered the catalogue in new Britten-led, stereophonically recorded performances. Yet the War Requiem’s public looked for another Big Statement in vain. The three church parables, Death in Venice, and the Third String Quartet (1975), strongly influenced by Shostakovich’s last quartet (1974), are important pieces but all on a reduced scale. The di≈cult Cello Symphony , written for Rostropovich in 1963, was Britten’s last big orchestral piece, but it failed to achieve popularity for decades. It was a reminder of a prewar, nonoperatic Britten who had been a force in the concert hall but had ceased to be, other than on recordings he and other conductors made. That Britten undertook composing early, around the age of five. At fourteen he began studying with Frank Bridge, for whom he quickly wrote the Quatre chansons françaises, an accomplished set of texts for soprano and orchestra of poems by Victor Hugo and Paul Verlaine. Two years later he entered the Royal College of Music, where he studied with John Ireland, who o√ered him less than the concert environment of London did. Britten was soon composing mature pieces at a prodigious rate, including a ‘‘phan- 1 7 6 F A U L K N E R Y tasy’’ string quintet that won the Cobbett Prize, a double concerto for violin and viola, and a string quartet or two. His graduation piece was Sinfonietta, inspired by Arnold Schoenberg’s 1906 chamber symphony, without the expressionist angst. Graduation pushed Britten into the world of the Depression, so that supporting himself by composing was a priority. The thirties provided him with many new options...

Booking a Guest Artist with Panache

Booking a Guest Artist with <i>Panache</i>

Philmore Ensemble (review)

This is the debut recording by Philmore Ensemble, group formed at Temple university in 2004 initially by .A.manda Heckman (flute), Duane Large (guitars), and Julia Madden (soprano), later joined by Myanna Harvey (violin. viola). The groups mission, as Large writes in the booklet. is to offer a fresh and engaging look at the works of popular and lesser-known composers, and to bring to life that has fallen into obscurity and shed different light on will-known music. The group plays works ranging from the Renaissance era through the twenty-first century, with special locus on the nineteenth century, and all of these periods are represented in the selections on this disc. Their instrumentation dictates variety of repertoire, with some works played as written, some necessitating the combinations of two or more members, and sonic necessitating the addition of guest artists--special guest pianist Tim Ribchester joins the ensemble for two of the fourteen selections here, both of which are songs. The disc lacks work in which all four primary members perform together, as die title states plainly. The Adagio non molto-Allegro Moderato movement from Wenzeslaus Matiegka's Serenade, op. 26, for guitar, flute, and viola, is one Of two pieces on the disc in which the group's instrumentalists combine forces. Matiegka (1773--18301. Bohemian guitarist and composer active in vienna, is most likely one of the lesser-known composers the ensemble intends to highlight. All of his published works are either for guitar solo or chamber ensembles including guitar. so it seems probable this ensemble will include other Matiegka works in its repertoire. If they were going to dedicate themselves solely to classical music, Matiegka might be good choice for the ensemble's name, but the stated scope of this group is not bound to one side or era--their name is portmanteau of Philadelphia and Baltimore, the cities where the members live. This is not group overly concerned with the strictures of historical performance practice. although Large writes in his notes that with the eighteenth and particularly nineteenth-century music on this disc the ensemble implements the use of the Italian style by employing tempo rubato and extemporizing on the music itself. This approach is audible on the Matiegka recording, on which Large plays period insoninent Francois Rondhloff. ca. 1815, creating bright sound that offsets the flute and viola nicely in the mix. I wish they had included the remaining two movements. but I realize they were by the time constraints of the compact disc format--especially when attempting to include music from live centuries. The ensemble's blend sounds better on this work than it does on many other tracks on this disc, which prompts my primary complaint about this disc: the levels seem bit too hot throughout. diminishing the dynamic range of the playing. I doubt the musicians were playing in range constantly between mezzo forte and forte. Perhaps it is the result of close-microphone placement during recording. or engineering choices made in die mixing and mastering stages, but the instruments sound loud even when playback volume is decreased. Another issue compromising the listening experience is the sense that. different instruments often sound as if they were recorded in disparate locations instead of being in the same room. For example, in the performance of Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg's Monolog der Maria Stuart, arranged for guitar, flute, and soprano by Albert Methfessel, it sounds as if soprano Julia Madden is singing in much more cavernous space than the one in which her instrumental collaborators are playing. …

Artistic Dialogue and Artistic Exchange through Movement

This article will narrate the process of working in artistic collaboration utilizing traditional Ghanaian dance forms and Western dance-making methods while incorporating a common artistic thread between the two cultures. Invited to create a new work of choreography for the Ghana Dance Ensemble (GDE), the author as guest artist choreographer explored ways of creating a hybrid dance work that honored the artistic footprint of GDE. The choreographer engaged company members, consisting of both dancers and musicians, in daily rehearsals and dialogue about the artistic process and the aesthetic roots from which each artist was grounded. Compositional structures were explored cross-culturally. Traveling out to several field sites, the choreographer was able to view and participate in sacred ceremony for more grounding and artistic information. From this process, a dialogic space was created in which new meanings were shared between cultures and traditional artistic values re-imagined. Dialogue through conversation was not the only exchange of importance. An additional dialogue was that of dancing bodies viewing each other, adapting and integrating change firmly grounded in each other's originating aesthetic footprint. Equally important was the exchange in a culture where it is inherent that the music sounds the dance and the dance moves the music. Thus the dialogue extended itself where the choreographer tried on new ways of thinking about the sounding body just as GDE integrated the choreographer's approaches and made it their own through their own processes of creative invention.

College and University Dance Companies in the United States: A Descriptive Study

Despite the proliferation of faculty-directed, student dance companies on college and university campuses, little has been published about them. These companies serve important functions in the curriculum in many dance departments and programs, and can be thought of as pedagogical entities that teach a variety of artistic, technical, and practical skills. College and university dance companies deserve study so that dance educators can better understand the ways in which these groups contribute to the education of their students. This exploratory study was intended to provide both quantitative and qualitative information about faculty-directed college and university dance companies in the United States. The topics surveyed include dance department size and makeup, leadership in companies, requirements, number of concerts per year, genre of dance, guest artists, auditions, training of directors, dance company size, profiles of students, goals, and strengths and weaknesses of the companies, among others. The data present an overview that can be used by dance educators to understand the structure and function of student dance companies.

Irish Pirate Ballads and Other Songs of the Sea. 2009. Smithsonian Folkways SFW CD 40553. Performed by Dan Milner with guest artists. Recorded, edited, and mastered by Gabriel Donohue. Annotated by Mick Moloney and Dan Milner. Produced by Dan Milner. 40-pp. booklet with notes in English. 1 colour, 5 b/w photographs, 1 illustration. 32-item bibliography, 9-item discography. 1 compact disc,

Irish Pirate Ballads and Other Songs of the Sea. 2009. Smithsonian Folkways SFW CD 40553. Performed by Dan Milner with guest artists. Recorded, edited, and mastered by Gabriel Donohue. Annotated by Mick Moloney and Dan Milner. Produced by Dan Milner. 40-pp. booklet with notes in English. 1 colour, 5 b/w photographs, 1 illustration. 32-item bibliography, 9-item discography. 1 compact disc, 13 tracks (58:51). - Volume 43

Passing on a culture: West Virginia traditional musical heritage and the Allegheny Echoes programme

Allegheny Echoes is a summer programme of instruction and performance of music and poetry held in Marlinton, WV. The Bing Brothers learned their traditional music from the Hammons family of Pocahontas County, WV, in an informal setting of friendship and collaboration. The Hammons family was recorded in the 1970s by Alan Jabbour and others; the Library of Congress produced a two-CD set in 1998 on the Rounder Label. The Bings and other West Virginia musicians and poets pass this music on to students from all over the world in the manner that they learned it. Live performances of spoken poetry accompanied by appropriate music are highlights of the week-long programme, and guest artists present their talents and work.

New York Philharmonic Performance History Search (review)

Reviewed by: New York Philharmonic Performance History Search Misti Shaw New York Philharmonic Performance History Search. New York Phil-harmonic, 2009. http://history.nyphil.org (Accessed December 2009). [Requires a Web browser and an Internet connection]. Since the 1980s, the New York Phil-harmonic archivists and staff have been building and maintaining an internal database that documents the organization's more than 150 years of performances. The database also serves as an internal catalog of the orchestra library's staggering holdings of scores and parts. In 2009, the New York Philharmonic (NYP) delighted its concert-goers, reception historians, and others by making its archive available to the public. The Performance History Search database, representing the "largest single performance history in the world," is available freely as a Web site with no subscription or login required. Answers to questions were cheerfully provided by archives staff via e-mail and telephone in a timely fashion. Contact information is provided on the "About Search" page of the Web site. The NYP Performance History Search provides information about each concert the orchestra has given since their very first performance on 7 December 1842. Those familiar with the ensemble's long history will note that details from the New York Symphony Society—which merged with the Philharmonic in 1928—are included in the database, along with information about the NYP's performances. The activities of various chamber ensembles composed of members of both the Symphony Society and the Philharmonic are also included in the database. The search function promises to deliver information "up to last night's concert," which has mostly proven to be the case. Search results provide users with specific information about each performance, including the date, the repertoire, soloists, conductors, durations, concert venue, and other information if it is available. The Search homepage displays four tabs. The initial "About Search" tab contains a detailed description of the three various search options—by Composer/Work, by Artist, or by Program—that are also represented by tabs. When using the Composer/Work option, one is faced with two boxes: one for Composer, and one for Work. For example, if one wished to see how many times the NYP has performed Debussy's La mer, one would input "Debussy" and "La Mer" in the respective boxes. The search yields 109 instances in which the work has been performed by the NYP, starting with the most recent date. One may click on a hyperlinked date to see information specific to the program for that performance, including the repertoire for the entire concert. However, if the Work box is left blank [End Page 834] and only a composer's name is searched, the results shown include a list of all works by a composer that the NYP has performed. Thus, if one enters "Debussy" and leaves the Work box blank, what results is a list of sixty-seven Debussy compositions—arranged alphabetically by title—that the NYP has performed. Navigating lists of results becomes a little trickier when searching for works that exist in different arrangements, editions, and versions. For example, a search combining "Stravinsky" and "Firebird" does not immediately yield a chronological list of dates on which the work was performed. Instead, a list of several different versions appears that includes the ballet whole, followed by versions of the suite written in 1911, the 1919, and 1945. One must first click on the desired version in order to receive a list of performances, with the most recent date performed appearing first. Searching by work format is also complicated. If one performs a Composer/Work search for "Mozart" and "Violin Concerto," "Violin Concertos," or "Concertos, Violin," there are zero results. One does get results if one searches for "Concerto, Violin." The NYP archives staff members recommend that users who wish to locate instrumental concerti should input the instrument in the Work box, and "whittle down" from there. However, this recommendation came from an e-mail inquiry; it might be helpful for staff to include this as a tip on the "About Search" page. The Artist search allows a user to identify performances given by special guest artists, ensemble soloists, conductors, and other artists. One may enter the...

The War of the Roses Part 1 and Part 2 (review)

The War of the Roses Part 1 and Part 2 Presented by Sydney Theatre Company at Sydney Theatre at Walsh Bay, Sydney. January 5-February 14, 2009. Directed by Benedict Andrews. Adapted by Benedict Andrews and Tom Wright. Set design by Robert Cousins. Costume design by Alice Babidge. Lighting by Nick Schlieper. Music and sound designed by Max Lyandvert, live music composed and performed by Stefan Gregory. With Cate Blanchett (Richard II, Lady Anne), Brandon Burke (Edward IV), Peter Carroll (Northumberland, Gloucester), Marta Dusseldorp (Queen Margaret), Eden Falk (Henry VI), John Gaden (John of Gaunt, Falstaff, York), Steve Le Marquand (Suffolk), Ewen Leslie (Henry V), Hayley McElhinney (Queen Isabella, Rutland), Amber McMahon (Queen Elizabeth), Robert Menzies (Henry IV), Luke Mullins (Hotspur, Clifford, Richmond), Pamela Rabe (Duchess of Gloucester, Richard III), Emily Russell (Warwick, Duchess of York), and others. The central symbol of the fragile nature of kingship in this production was an elaborate and carefully designed filigree crown that accompanied the actors throughout, beginning on Cate Blanchett's golden head for Richard II, and ending in the hands of a little girl on a grey, empty stage at the conclusion of Richard III. As it was handed through a sequence of seven kings, we were treated to something genuinely epic in conception, at times fragmented or inept, but just as often captivating and compelling. The brief as described in the publicity was that all eight of Shakespeare's plays telling the story of the wars of the roses were to be shown over two nights of about three and a half hours each. This is not quite what happened, as adapter/director Benedict Andrews's interest clearly lay with the two Richards, and he distributed the time accordingly: in Part 1, Richard II claimed the first half, and the Henries IV and V took over after the interval. For Part 2 the three Henry VI plays were compressed into the first half, and Richard III made up the second. The four segments had unifying elements, but were distinct in set design and performance style. This substantial project was chosen to showcase the Sydney Theatre Company's now-disbanded Actors' Company, an ensemble of twelve who have developed several shows together over the course of three years. Cate Blanchett and Robert Menzies were added as guest artists (along with several children in Part 2). The ensemble feel played a significant part in shaping the production, as actors switched roles without changing costume, or moved from one scene to another without exits and entrances. The women did not disguise their sex when playing male roles; all had feminine haircuts, with Pamela Rabe's dark, fringed pageboy style an amusing reference to Olivier's Richard III. With an array of t-shirts, tracksuits, jeans and button-down shirts giving a rehearsal-clothes look to most of the actors, Richard II's impeccable white suit was the only costume that contributed something to the interpretation. It told us instantly that we were watching someone fastidious, self-conscious, impractical. No other costume performed similar semiotic work, even when it would have been useful. Margaret's sole costume, for instance, was a cream, long-sleeved dress with an arrow-pleated skirt and gold high-heels--which made it hard for the audience to pick up that she had anything to do with leading Henry's armed forces. While it does any production a disservice to review what is not there, some acknowledgement of what was cut seems to be demanded here to give a sense of the overall picture offered to the audience. 1 Henry VI was effectively lost altogether (only portions of the rose garden scene and the capture of Margaret kept), and 2 Henry IV, Henry Vand 2 Henry VI were cut so heavily as to make only token contributions. So we saw none of Hal's tavern pals except Falstaff, no Joan of Arc or Jack Cade, and believe it or not, no battle of Agincourt. The moral of the story: it is possible to cut a three hour play down to less than two and still produce something that succeeds excitingly on its own terms, but it is not possible to compress three plays into that allotment of time and hope to show anything much of substance. …

Shakuntala: A Play by Kalidasa (review)

Reviewed by: Shakuntala: A Play by Kalidasa David Mason Shakuntala: A Play by Kalidasa. Directed by Betty Bernhard, Kailash Pandya, and Sasidharan Nair. Insight Media, 2004. DVD, $159. The latest Insight Media catalogue of non-Western drama identifies this program as an "Indian play produced in classic Natyshastra [sic] style," including "authentic music, dance, costumes, makeup, and mudras." Nowadays, scholars automatically chafe at the use of the word "authentic." Here, of course, the word is merely marketing-speak. There is no reason, therefore, to expect this program to fulfill the promise. However, the program itself affirms the assertion that this demonstrates classic Natyashastra staging, and this is a position subject to complications, which are not acknowledged. As an archival record of a college endeavor, the program fills its function, and it could be used by researchers to study and document the use of Asian techniques in Western theatre training, as we do learn of one project of intercultural theatre training and follow its choices of how Indian materials are adapted into a college-based theatre arts program. But, as a pedagogical resource that gives precise insight into the debate around Sankrit drama, the program lacks depth and clarity, and this limits its usability. This is not to impugn the artists involved in this adaptation project and the performance itself. My concern here is with the weaknesses of the video reproduction and presentation of the artists' work. The artistic value of the production, not to mention the efforts and accomplishments of the performers, is poorly represented by this package. This two-disk program includes both a record of the ninety-minute production of Shakuntala at Pomona College and a thirty-minute "Production [End Page 536] Casebook" that combines comments from the directors and designers with brief glimpses of actor training and rehearsals. This casebook provides an effective overview of the many basic things necessary to bring a play to the stage: design ideas, set construction, directorial collaboration, long rehearsals, and so on. The casebook also offers a sense of the unique things college productions often require: guest artists, ad hoc actor training, intercultural investigations, and patient audiences. Such a casebook, however, may have been equally valuable concerning nearly any such production. It is on the representation of scholarly concerns that this introductory material is weak. The casebook does not tell us what the Natyashastra is, what its (possible) relationship is with the play Shakuntala, what interpretive method the directors have adopted in order to use the Natyashastra for this production, nor, indeed, what performance style from India provides the frame of reference for the production. The casebook's scenes of training and rehearsal seem to privilege kathakali performance, but the casebook fails to identify kathakali, asserting only that the production was concerned with, as Pandya states it, "Natyashastra style." Neglecting to distinguish between the Natyashastra and kathakali—the former a text from around 400 ce, and the latter a performance practice continuing from the eighteenth century—fails to teach something substantive about the content of the Natyashastra, its relationship to the play in question, and its role in theatrical practice today. Consequently, the usefulness of this video program as a tool to study the Natyashastra or how it operated in the play Shakuntala is limited. The directors' comments included in the casebook could have provided clarification of these issues. However, the program's editing limits these comments to a few sentences at a time, intercut with scenes of rehearsals and training, thus undermining any sustained continuity of thought. As a result, even for an introductory module, the program fails to provide a substantive explanation of the play in question and of these performers' methods. Betty Bernhard concedes that the company found it very hard to "figure out . . . [Shakuntala's] movement vocabulary," but the editing does not permit her to explain that it is not at all clear that the composition of Shakuntala subscribed to the elaborate movement theory of the Natyashastra—a point essential to the rationale for staging Shakuntala in a Sanskrit drama style. Although the program's titles introduce one short segment as "The Nine Rasa," only eight distinct ideas are, in fact, demonstrated by Sasidharan Nair in the...

Alicia Markova: A Sketch for a Portrait

Lilian Alicia Marks was born on 1 December 1910. Her early dance training led to a first engagement when she was ten years old in a pantomime. At the age of fourteen she was invited by Serge Diaghilev to join his Ballets Russes, was renamed Markova, and her first role in 1925 was as the Nightingale in Balanchine’s re-staging of Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol. Thereafter she danced in the Diaghilev repertory until the disbanding of the Ballets Russes in 1929, immediately upon Diaghilev’s death. Markova returned to her native London, and was to become a vital figure in the early stagings of Marie Rambert’s Ballet Club and in the first seasons of Ninette de Valois’ Vic-Wells Ballet. The latter troupe’s productions of Giselle and Swan Lake were made possible by Markova’s presence. In 1935, she and Anton Dolin formed the Markova-Dolin Ballet which toured Britain for two years. Markova then accepted an invitation from Leonid Massine to join the newly formed Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, of which he was artistic director. In 1939, with the outbreak of war, she was obliged by contractual engagement to appear in America. She remained with the Monte Carlo Ballets Russes until 1941, when she was invited to join American Ballet Theatre, and with this ensemble she remained until 1945. During these years ballets were made for her by Massine (notably Septieme Symphonie, Rouge et Noir with the Monte Carlo troupe, and Aleko with ABT). Antony Tudor created his Romeo and Juliet for her with ABT also, and she was to work with Mikhail Fokine during the choreographer’s last years. Markova and Dolin also toured with their own troupe, appeared with Colonel de Basil’s Original Ballet Russe, and in 1948 returned to London. They were to form Festival Ballet in 1950, and Markova remained with this company until 1952, when she decided to appear as a guest artist with companies in Europe and the Americas. She retired from dancing in 1963, and thereafter was director of the ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, until 1969, subsequently being appointed Distinguished Professor at the University of Cincinatti. She returned to live in London in 1973, teaching, coaching, serving as patron to many dance organisations. She died on 2 December 2004. Full details of Alicia Markova’s career and roles can be found in The International Dictionary of Ballet (St. James Press, 1993).

Dynamic Networks of Sonic Interactions: An Interview with Agostino Di Scipio

11 The Italian composer Agostino Di Scipio (see Figure 1) is one of the most interesting European personalities today working in the space between computer music and sound art. In his recent work, he creates purely sonic interactions between a source, realtime digital signal processors, and the room hosting the performance. The network of interactions is conceived as a dynamic, self-organizing system, symbiotically connected with the surrounding environment. The following interview addresses such issues and provides an overview of the theoretical and technological background behind them. It also touches on the central role of noise in Mr. Di Scipio’s live electronics compositions and on the degree of freedom allowed to human agents involved in the performance of such works. A list of his compositions is given in Table 1, and a list of recordings is provided in Table 2. Born in Naples in 1962, Mr. Di Scipio first approached composition as a self-taught musician, and later he pursued more formal studies at the Conservatory of L’Aquila and the University of Padua. A former visiting composer in several institutions, including Simon Fraser University (Burnaby, British Columbia, 1993) and the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki, 1995), he is today Professor of Electronic Music at the Conservatory of Naples and instructor in live electronics at Centre de Creation Musicale Iannis Xenakis (CCMIX) in Paris. In 2004, Mr. Di Scipio lectured at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and at Johannes-GutenbergUniversitat in Mainz. A portrait compact disc, including some of the works recalled in the interview, will soon be released by Edition RZ, Berlin. He is also greatly interested in issues of music theory involving the relationship between art and technology, and he has published numerous articles and essays in international publications devoted to such issues. In 2004–2005, he lived in Berlin as a guest artist of

Thirteen Kinds of Desire: A Collaboration

Thirteen Kinds of Desire:A Collaboration Pamela Knowles (bio) Around my tenth year of living in Australia, I began to ask the Universe, very sincerely, what I was supposed to do with all the experience I had gained in my by then twenty-year-long musical odyssey around the world. I wanted my music to lead me in a new direction within myself. Was I supposed to begin to write my own songs now—lyrics and music? I knew hundreds of wonderful jazz tunes. What would I write? Words—I started thinking about the nature of words. I ruminated for months as I went about my daily life, trusting that somehow answers would come to point the way, as they faithfully had so far in my journey when I asked questions from this genuine place within. One night, I found myself backstage at the Kiama Jazz Festival, just south of Sydney, waiting for the opening guest artist to begin. We hadn't met, and I was to follow him in the program for the evening. His name was Yusef Komunyakaa, and I had never heard of him. All I remember was someone saying that he was a famous poet from the States who was here to open the festival. As I stood there listening to him read while a jazz pianist improvised, I was instantly struck by the power of his spoken word—by the nature of the spoken word. I had been singing jazz for most of my adult life and hadn't thought about words in this deeper way. To be honest, I hadn't thought about the meaning of what I do as an artist in a long time. It had become obscured by the struggle to achieve. Where was my journey taking me? To what higher purpose, if any, and what was I learning about myself and the world? I could feel each of his words landing in my body. I could see and feel the images that he was tossing out land in me and create new spaces inside, which triggered more images. My imagination was fired. I remember thinking about how powerful poetry is and asking, where had it been all my life? I hadn't read it since college, where I always felt incapable of understanding. I had long since dropped it from my life. Now I was actually desiring it, feeling a need for it. I was grateful for being so moved by Yusef's words. I don't remember what poem he recited, only that I went on to sing my first song after he finished, and I spontaneously paused, and, with a strange feeling of both comfort and confidence, said, "I just want to take a moment to thank you for the words you brought here tonight, because you really make me ask myself in a different way what I'm saying when I sing." At that moment, I could feel my energy find its way down a few layers to a deeper, more grounded place inside. [End Page 578] As I sang the next song, I had a profound experience of seeing in a fresh, new way the various expressions on people's faces as they listened to the music my band and I were making together. I was reconnecting to my original, pure desire to sing. I saw how music moves people, the way it moved me, made me feel deeply, made me feel whole, which is why I wanted to become a singer in the first place. All these realizations happened within moments while I was singing. Certainly this was an epiphany! I had asked the questions, and here were the beginnings of movement toward answers. At the end of the concert, I asked Yusef for his telephone number so that I could contact him about meeting for coffee to discuss what . . . well, everything: What matters, what doesn't, what is art, where does the creative impulse come from, what nurtures it, what stops it, what makes us whole, what makes us real, what makes us unreal? How do we become exiled from ourselves? What tools do we need to make meaning for ourselves and to make...