Author: Rick O'Toole

Singer-songwriter Trio Use Voices to Get the Vote Out

Posted on March 3, 2016October 8, 2018 by Rick O'Toole

When musicians plan a national tour, the usual impetus is to promote a new recording and reconnect with fans. But when Grammy winner Patty Griffin invited Sara Watkins and Anais Mitchell to join her on a national tour it was with a different objective in mind – to promote discussion about voter engagement during a presidential election year.

“The Use Your Voice Tour 2016,” which has partnered with the League of Women Voters, stops at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, March 5, as part of a 38-city tour. The performance will be preceded at 5 p.m. by a panel discussion, “Amplifying the Voices on the Ground,” focusing on issues for communities that are traditionally marginalized.

Watkins, who first came to prominence as a founding member of the progressive bluegrass group Nickel Creek, says she and Mitchell were quick to accept Griffin’s invitation to join forces to promote voter education.

“It’s something Patty’s been very vocal and passionate about for some time,” Watkins said over the phone from South Carolina, as the tour worked its way up the East Coast. “As a group we don’t have a combined album to promote, which is the normal reason to tour. The League of Women Voters has been a common cause for the three of us. … We’re not preaching politics to people. We’re trying to bring awareness to the importance of being involved in your community.”

Molly Rockett ’15 (CLAS), a recent UConn honors graduate in political science and former intern for both U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney ’78 JD and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, will introduce the performers and discuss the League of Women Voters voter engagement effort.

To read the entire article, visit UConn Today!

“The Use Your Voice Tour 2016” takes place on Saturday at 8 p.m. at Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts, 2132 Hillside Road, Storrs. For more information go to the Jorgensen website.

Springfield Symphony Orchestra Offers World Premiere Of Piano Concerto

Posted on March 2, 2016 by Rick O'Toole

A world premiere is a big deal.

When you think about it, symphony orchestras play a fairly limited repertoire, largely consisting of symphonies and concertos by Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Schumann, Mendelssohn, and other masters active in the 18th and19th centuries. Occasionally, when time and money permit, a new composition is added to that canon of chestnuts.

Commissioning and premiering a brand new work augments, extends, and hopefully enhances the repertoire. It invites an audience sated with standards to experience notes never before heard in this combination, and to climb aboard a composer’s mind, taking an emotional journey no one has ever taken, to a destination no one has ever visited.

Springfield Symphony Orchestra concertgoers have this rare opportunity on March 12 at 7:30 p.m. in Symphony Hall, as Maestro Kevin Rhodes, the SSO and piano soloist Jeffrey Biegel, a favorite guest of Springfield audiences, present the world premiere of composer Kenneth Fuchs’s Piano Concerto (“Spiritualist”), After Three Paintings by Helen Frankenthaler.

Fuchs, professor of composition at the University of Connecticut, has written music for orchestra, band, chorus, and various chamber ensembles. The London Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of JoAnn Falletta, has recorded four discs of Fuchs’s music for Naxos American Classics. The first disc, released in 2005, was nominated for two Grammy Awards. The second, containing music for horn, was released in 2008. The third, recorded in London’s historic Abbey Road Studios, was released in 2012, and was included in the 2012 Grammy Award nominations. The fourth, also recorded at Abbey Road in 2013, features baritone Roderick Williams in a program of vocal music.

To read the entire article, visit Mass Live!

Tickets for the March 12 performance priced from $22-$65 may be obtained online at www.springfieldsymphony.org or by calling the box office at 733-2291. Classical Conversations, an informal half-hour discussion of the evening’s music beginning at 6:30 p.m., will be led by John Montanari, (NEPR, retired). The concert is sponsored by Falcetti Music, with media sponsor, News Radio 560 WHYN.

‘Sense and Sensibility’ Tells Tale of Life and Love

Posted on February 26, 2016 by Rick O'Toole

The Connecticut Repertory Theatre’s production of “Sense and Sensibility” is full of movement, with short scenes and shifting locations that make it feel cinematic, according to director Kristin Wold.

The constantly changing nature of the Joseph Hanreddy and J.R. Sullivan stage adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel is a natural fit for Wold, assistant professor-in-residence for performance, who teaches acting and stage movement in UConn’s Department of Dramatic Arts.

“The way that it’s written is very cinematic. The scenes tend to be pretty short. We’re changing location constantly,” she says. “How to tell a story in that way on stage has been part of the fun and challenge of working on it. We wanted to make sure to get the depth of the characters when we’re moving so quickly. It’s a pretty epic story. I think that happens all the time when you adapt. How do you tell a novel in a two-hour event and do it justice? I think we get the depth of who they are.”

Based on Austen’s popular novel, a staple of English literature classes that is centered on romance, emotion, and reason in a family, the CRT production opened Feb. 25 and will be performed at the Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre through March 6.

Guest artist Cynthia Darlow (Mrs. Jennings) and Jenn Sapozhnikov, '17 (SFA) (Mrs. Palmer) in the CRT production of 'Sense and Sensibility,' now playing at the Harriet Jorgensen Theatre. (Gerry Goodstein for UConn) — Guest artist Cynthia Darlow (Mrs. Jennings) and Jenn Sapozhnikov, ’17 (SFA) (Mrs. Palmer) in the CRT production of ‘Sense and Sensibility,’ now playing at the Harriet Jorgensen Theatre. (Gerry Goodstein for UConn)

The central roles of the Dashwood sisters are played by second-year MFA acting candidate Arlene Bozich as Elinor and senior acting student Susannah Resnikoff ’16 (SFA) as Marianne. The cast features special guest artists Cynthia Darlow as Mrs. Jennings and Don Noble as Sir John Middleton/Henry Dashwood. Darlow is a founding member of American Repertory Theatre with Broadway roles in “Billy Elliot,” “Accent on Youth,” “Rabbit Hole,” and “Prelude to a Kiss,” among others. Noble is a Broadway veteran whose credits include “Once” and “The End of the Rainbow” and the National Tour of “Mamma Mia!”.

Wold says one of the challenges of this stage version of “Sense and Sensibility” is the large number of characters in the story as written by Hanreddy and Sullivan, who were also the writing team behind CRT’s well received production of “Pride & Prejudice.” The playwrights developed a script for professional theaters that allows dual roles for 13 actors, but in order to provide additional acting experiences for students, in the CRT production there are 21 actors.

The director notes that one of the challenges for some of the student actors is that they are portraying much older characters in the story, requiring them to expand their nonverbal acting skills.

To read the entire article, visit UConn Today!

“Sense and Sensibility” will be performed at the Harriet Jorgensen Theatre in the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts, 2132 Hillside Road, Storrs, on Feb. 26, Feb. 27, March 4, and March 5 at 8 p.m.; and on March 2 and 3 at 7:30 p.m.; with matinees on March 5 and March 6 at 2 p.m. For more information, go to the Connecticut Repertory Theatre website.

Making a Career in Art

Posted on February 19, 2016 by Rick O'Toole

The opening in late January of the third Alumni Biennial exhibition at the Contemporary Art Galleries served not only as a display of recent juried art by UConn MFA graduates, but also as a forum for students to learn about what it takes to pursue a successful career in the world of art.

Judith Thorpe, professor of photography and director of the MFA program, says many UConn MFA graduates are still making art, despite statistics showing a large fall-off nationally for fine arts graduates after leaving school. “We have a good network of alums. Almost 80 percent were still exhibiting,” she says. “They’ve done it through nonprofit galleries, teaching, in museums, and galleries. There’s been a whole way of having a life in the arts that doesn’t deter art-making.”

'Pittsburgh left,' oil on canvas (2014), Deborah Zlotsky '89 MFA. — ‘Pittsburgh left,’ oil on canvas (2014), Deborah Zlotsky ’89 MFA.

The four alumni whose works are exhibited include printmaker Jennifer Dierdorf ’08 MFA, installation artist and sculptor Jared Holt ’14 MFA, video artist Siobhan Landry ’11 MFA, and painter Deborah Zlotsky ’89 MFA.

Barry Rosenberg, director of Contemporary Art Galleries and associate professor of art, says the alumni exhibit is the one show he does not curate. Instead he recruits an outside curator, which for this exhibition was Jay Lehman, co-owner of Morgan Lehman Gallery in New York City, who reviewed an artist’s statement, resume, art images, press clippings, and work submitted by more than 20 MFA alumni.

“Each artist [selected] makes a strong and thoughtful work about seemingly contradictory ideas and emotions, such as hope and longing, distance and intimacy, and sorrow and joy,” Lehman says.

To read the entire article, visit UConn Today!

“Alumni Biennial” at the Contemporary Art Galleries, 830 Bolton Road, Storrs, continues through March 13. For more information go to the Galleries’ website.

Exploring Masculinity Through Art

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Rick O'Toole

From the first Olympic Games in ancient Greece, when images of muscular male athletes were painted on urns, to the images of gods and heroes created in Western art in succeeding centuries, the ideal of masculinity was characterized by the muscular male nude figure. In fact, the male nude was a more frequent figure in art than the female nude for hundreds of years, until the early 19th century, when Victorian morality influenced art and culture.

Toward the end of the 1800s, the advent of “physical culture” (the Victorian version of physical fitness) and the intense realism of the new medium of photography revived interest in the male nude in art that later moved to abstract representations of the male body in painting and sculpture.

Detail from Actor, 2010, Benjamin Degen, oil on canvas over panel, part of the 'Stark Imagery: The Male Nude in Art' exhibit at the Benton Museum. (Sean Flynn/UConn Photo) — Detail from Actor, 2010, Benjamin Degen, oil on canvas over panel, part of the ‘Stark Imagery: The Male Nude in Art’ exhibit at the Benton Museum. (Sean Flynn/UConn Photo)

“Stark Imagery: The Male Nude in Art,” on display at the William Benton Museum of Art through March 13, traces the history of the male body as depicted in drawings, paintings, sculpture, and photography from the 16th century black-and-white chalk drawings of Alessandro Allori, to the late 20th-century photography of Roger L. Crossgrove, emeritus professor of art in the School of Fine Arts, and the early 21st-century paintings of Benjamin Degen.

Sherry Buckberrough, chair of the Department of Art History at the University of Hartford, who wrote much of the exhibition text, says the early 20th-century interest in body-building and sports helped to revive art focused on the nude male body.

“This development had several sources. One was a desire for outdoor activity and healthy bodies after the long Victorian practice of spending most of the time in heavily layered interiors,” she says. “Another was what seems to have been a need to redirect the image of bourgeois masculinity from the properly dressed man sitting in an office to the physically active, strong man. The move from soft to hard revived confidence in masculinity. Interest in healthy, athletic bodies continues to this day.”

To read the entire article, visit UConn Today!

“Stark Imagery: The Male Nude in Art” continues, along with “In-Difference: Reflections on Race,” through March 13 at the Benton Museum of Art, 245 Glenbrook Road, Storrs. For more information go to the Benton website.

Expect the Unexpected at ‘Roomful of Teeth’ Performance

Posted on February 10, 2016October 9, 2019 by Rick O'Toole

When the award-winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth performs in J. Louis von der Mehden Recital Hall on Feb. 10 at 8 p.m., it will be as unique an experience for the group as for the audience.

Roomful of Teeth is both a Grammy and Pulitzer Prize-winning group of classically-trained musicians who perform unconventional music. They will perform with UConn students in the Concert Choir, Wind Ensemble, and Symphony, completing a Sackler Artists-in-Residency that began last fall when the group met with music and art students on the Storrs campus.

Roomful of Teeth is a group of nine musicians who perform in a wide variety of singing styles. Their performance at UConn is the culmination of a residency on campus last fall. (Photo by Bonica Ayala of Bonica Ayala Photography)

“This is probably more involved than we’ve ever been at a single institution,” says Brad Wells, founder and artistic director of Roomful of Teeth, who is also director of the choral program at Williams College in Massachusetts. “Usually we work with composers or singers [on a campus]. To have this kind of rich, multifaceted, and multipart residency is very rare and exciting.”

In addition to meeting with students in Department of Music classes taught by Jamie Spillane ’87 MM, director of choral studies; Kenneth Fuchs, professor of music composition; and Jeffrey Renshaw, coordinator for conducting and ensembles; and with Harvey Felder, director of the Symphony Orchestra, the vocalists also met last fall with a painting class taught by Kathryn Myers, professor of painting, whose Aqua Media class this semester is creating paintings inspired by the music of Roomful of Teeth.

The student art will be on display in the Arena Gallery in the Art and Art History Department building behind von der Mehden on Feb. 10. The performance will also include a work written by a student in Fuchs’s music composition class.

To read the entire article, visit UConn Today!

Roomful of Teeth will perform with the UConn Concert Choir, Wind Ensemble, and Symphony on Wednesday, Feb. 10, at 8 p.m. at J. Louis von der Mehden Recital Hall, 875 Coventry Road, Storrs.

Interactive Exhibit Prompts Dialogue on Race

Posted on February 5, 2016 by Rick O'Toole

With 82 percent of adults aged 18-29 using Facebook and a doubling of Pinterest and Instagram usage since 2012 according to the Pew Research Center, it is not surprising that Millennial college students want to share information using a variety of media, including art in a museum.

This is reflected in the interactive exhibition at the William Benton Museum of Art “IN-DIFFERENCE: Reflections on Race,” which was designed by students in the School of Fine Arts as a collaborative classroom response to the 2015- 2016 UConn Reads theme of “Race in America.” The exhibit continues through March 13.

To read the entire article, visit UConn Today!

“IN-DIFFERENCE: Reflections on Race” continues at the William Benton Museum of Art, 245 Glenbrook Road, Storrs, through March 13. Also at the museum is “Stark Imagery: The Male Nude in Art,” also through March 13. For more information go to the Benton website.

Hansel & Gretel Opera a Very Modern Fairy Tale

Posted on January 29, 2016 by Rick O'Toole

Staging a centuries-old Germany fairy tale about the journey of a brother and sister through the woods to a house made of candy inhabited by a fearsome witch, requires as much imagination from the performers on stage as it does from a 21st-century audience.

The UConn Opera Theater production of “Hansel & Gretel” on Saturday, Jan. 30 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 31 at 3 p.m. at Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts is a modern interpretation of the Brothers Grimm story that in recent years has been used as the basis for films such as the 2013 horror tale “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters” and M. Night Shyamalan’s 2015 film “The Visit.”

Soprano Candice Chung as the Dew-Fairy is startled to find Hansel and Gretel sleeping in the woods, in UConn Opera's presentation of 'Hansel and Gretel,' which opens at Jorgensen on Jan. 30. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo) — Soprano Candice Chung as the Dew Fairy is startled to find Hansel and Gretel sleeping in the woods, in UConn Opera’s presentation of ‘Hansel and Gretel,’ which opens at Jorgensen on Jan. 30. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)

Katelyn Lewis ’15 (SFA), seated, plays Gretel, and Caroline O’Dwyer ’11 (SFA) Hansel, in UConn Opera's presentation of 'Hansel and Gretel' at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo) — Katelyn Lewis ’15 (SFA), seated, plays Gretel, and Caroline O’Dwyer ’11 (SFA) Hansel, in UConn Opera’s presentation of ‘Hansel and Gretel’ at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)

A dress rehearsal for UConn Opera's presentation of "Hansel and Gretel" at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts on Jan. 27, 2016 with Caroline O’Dwyer ’11 (SFA) as Hansel, Katelyn Lewis ’15 (SFA) as Gretel and Spencer Hamlin ’13 (SFA) as the witch. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo) — Puppeteer Ana Craciun, right, tries to wake Hansel (Caroline O’Dwyer) during a dress rehearsal for UConn Opera’s presentation of ‘Hansel & Gretel’ at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)

“The Harry Potter films showed a generation that witches can look like they stepped out of a Renaissance fair, off a rugby field, or from behind an office desk,” says Michelle Hendrick, stage producer for the opera. “The pointy-hat, broom-riding, cackling crone is a Halloween costume and not the witch of this story. We wanted to make choices that were true to our place and time.”

The choices for this “Hansel & Gretel” tale include costuming with the father and mother dressed in business clothing, a witch attired in a pencil skirt and heels, and role reversals that have graduate student tenor Spencer Hamlin ’13 (SFA) as the Witch and doctoral student mezzo soprano Caroline O’Dwyer ’11 (SFA) as Hansel. Soprano Katelyn Lewis ’15 (SFA) performs as Gretel. The production will also feature angels in the form of puppets created by the UConn Puppet Arts Program.

Auditions for the production took place last spring, giving the vocalists time to learn their parts for the three-act opera. The accomplished undergraduate and graduate performers began rehearsals earlier in the 2015-2016 academic year, and include doctoral student baritone Ryan Burns ’12 MM, who recently was a soloist with the Jessica Lang Dance company, as Father; doctoral student soprano Tiffany Jackson as Mother, a Yale graduate who holds a Professional Studies Degree from Manhattan School of Music; mezzo-soprano Jordan Swett ’16 (SFA), who won the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra competition, as Sandman; and soprano Candice Chung, a graduate of the Eastman School of Music who is pursuing a Performer’s Certificate in Voice in Storrs, as Dew Fairy.

To read the entire article, visit UConn Today!

The production of “Hansel & Gretel” is sponsored by the Jeffrey P. Ossen Family Foundation. Free tickets to the performance will be provided to children in the Windham Public Schools.

For more information go to the Jorgensen Center website.

Dreams Tinged with History in Sandglass Theater Exhibit

Posted on January 8, 2016October 21, 2019 by Rick O'Toole

Two of the most celebrated practitioners of the art of modern puppetry are Eric Bass and Ines Zeller Bass, whose three decades of innovative performance are now on display at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry in “From Thought to Image: 30 Years of Sandglass Theater.”

‘All Weather Ballads’ (Sandglass Theater). (Ken Best/UConn Photo)

Vermont-based Sandglass Theater was launched in 1982, following the couple’s initial collaborations after meeting at a puppetry festival in Germany. In the years since, their work has been recognized six times with the Citation of Excellence from the American Center of the Union Internationale de la Marionette (UNIMA-USA), the highest honor in American puppetry.

“Eric and Ines look upon puppetry in terms of its history around the world as a mature art form,” says John Bell, director of BIMP, associate professor of puppetry in the Department of Dramatic Arts and a historian of puppet arts. “As this exhibition demonstrates, they’ve gone into a lot of different areas. You’ve got this fascinating mix of different materials to make shows that are always getting at ideas.”

‘All Weather Ballads’ (Sandglass Theater). (Richard Termine ’78 MFA)

With the presentation of “Between Sand and Stars” from 2005, the puppeteers found inspiration in the memoir-novel of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, to create dramatic tension in the space between puppets on the ground and aerialists above. The puppets from this production include the pilot sprawled on the ground after a crash landing and the composer Mozart, whose music is part of the performance.

To read the entire article, visit UConn Today!

“From Thought to Image: 30 Years of Sandglass Theater” continues through April 10 at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, One Royce Circle, Storrs. For more information go to the Institute’s website.