Tomorrow evening, SMTD’s own University Symphony Orchestra and University Philharmonia Orchestra are joining forces to present a concert with works of French origins and inspirations.
The program features Mozart’s Paris Symphony, as well as works by French composers that feature talented soloists from the School of Music. Daniel Fendrick, SMTD’s 2016 Concerto Competition winner, will perform Marcel Bitsch’s Bassoon Concerto, and Professor Joan Holland will be the harp soloist in Claude Debussy’s colorful Sacred and Profane Dances.
The program will end with Hector Berlioz’s revolutionary Symphonie Fantastique, a programmatic work which was composed while the composer was under the influence of opium, morbidly dreaming about his unrequited love for a young actress.
Maestro Kenneth Kiesler will be giving a pre-concert talk about the music on the program at 7:15pm. The concert begins at 8pm in Hill Auditorium and is free of charge. You do not want to miss out on this fantastique program!
Even if the hallowed arches of Hill Auditorium have finally ceased reverberating from the thunderous applause of a packed and appreciative house, it is certain that the hearts of every individual who attended the Berlin Philharmonic’s concerts on Saturday and Sunday are still pulsating from the sheer brilliance of the two performances.
The world-class orchestra presented two bold programs to Ann Arbor, which was fortunate enough to be one of three cities in the US that the orchestra is visiting on their final US tour under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle. Saturday night’s program opened with an odd mix of the fine musicians filing onto the stage. They performed Pierre Boulez’s Éclat, a relatively new work by the late, great conductor that draws the listener’s attention to the reverberations that exist in between the gestural, colorful melodic fragments. The instrumentation included some unconventional instruments such as mandolin, guitar, and hammered dulcimer. I sat high up in the balcony, but was pleasantly surprised at how every single note resounded as clearly as if it were being played ten feet away from me. The rest of the orchestra joined them after this piece to perform Mahler’s monumental, rarely-performed Seventh Symphony. The orchestra was so massive that they hardly fit on stage. I was repeatedly overwhelmed by how all of these musicians came together to sound as one phenomenal player. Every section was perfectly together, and played with an astounding and refined tone. The orchestra acted as a chamber ensemble, breathing as one organism, journeying through the winding pathways of the work until the triumphant ending.
Sunday afternoon’s concert felt very much like a continuation of Saturday night’s, and not only because the composers featured on the first half were of the generation after Mahler’s. The electric energy created by Saturday night’s concert seemed to still hang in the air of the hall. The first half, with multi-movement orchestral works by Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg, was performed as one string of pieces without applause in between works, and ended, about as literally as it can get, with a bang (Berg actually calls for a giant hammer in his instrumentation, a la Mahler 6). In the second half, the Philharmonic’s performance of Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 was by far my favorite performance of any work by that composer. The orchestra exuded the joy and warmth that radiates from the rich harmonies of the symphony that is often referred to as “pastoral.”
There is this unmistakeable feeling that happens, for me, when I hear something astounding––the force of my pounding heart becomes so powerful that I am compelled to leap from my seat at the sounding of the final chord. But this time, I did not just experience this rush of adrenaline; it was more substantive, more satisfying, and more lasting––and I think this was the effect of witnessing such total musicianship and togetherness coming from such a large ensemble. Underneath every note, the orchestra communicated love: their love for the art form, their appreciation of the audience, and the joy they find working together to create such beautiful music. It was, all clichés aside, a truly transcendental experience, a living, breathing example of why classical music is more relevant and necessary in this chaotic world than it perhaps has ever been before.
On Sunday morning, members of the Philharmonic gave masterclasses to SMTD students, and from what I saw, I quickly came to the conclusion that the Berlin Philharmonic is not only made up of some of the finest musicians in the world, but also some of the world’s finest people. The instrumentalists were all constructive in their criticisms, yet kind, talented beyond belief, yet humble, and above all, dedicated to passing along their musical legacy to the students.
With the rather chaotic atmosphere that has significantly affected the country and our school over the past week, the Berlin Philharmonic’s remarkable performances this weekend served as a much-welcome reminder of the restorative power of music. My only regret about the concerts was that they ended.
It is a rare event when you get to see some of the world’s best musicians all on a stage together, directed by the very famous Simon Rattle. What was almost as special as this was the mere fact of how many people showed up to Hill Auditorium both Saturday night and Sunday afternoon to see the Berlin Phil. I know that classical music can sometimes be a tad old-fashioned or out of the interests of millennials, but it was incredibly encouraging to see the masses of people, all different ages and backgrounds, coming out to see the concert.
The performance started with a more contemporary piece called Éclat by Boulez. The piece contrasted a variety of instruments on stage, from mandolin to harpsichord. Every musician had to be incredibly attentive to one another, as their entrances came randomly and spaced out by an arbitrary number of rests. Additionally, the combination of instruments kept changing to showcase different mixtures voices. Though it was not my personal favorite, the piece offered a fascinating contrast to the following part of the program.
The next piece they played was Mahler’s 7th Symphony. I have long been biased towards Mahler’s work, always feeling incredibly in tune with his melodies and emotionally connected to the solos. One of the most impressive aspects of the Philharmonic’s performance was the woodwind solis, which usually consisted of the flute, oboe, and clarinet principals, as well as the second principals at times. These few musicians were perfectly connected in their musicality and phrasing, to the extent that their separate instrument timbres would melt into one another at the end of a phrase. This was such a treat to hear, being a clarinetist myself and always enjoying the beautiful bell tones of a leading clarinet player.
But of course, I have to also mention the conductor. Rattle was a very enthusiastic conductor, but not to the extent like some others such as Dudamel. His exuberance was more subtle and concentrated into his communication with the musicians. Most of all, you could tell how close the director and symphony had come, when at the end Rattle traveled through the orchestra and shook the hand of every principal musician. It was a very touching moment, and I believe the entire audience felt its impact.
Tonight’s choice of organ music was none other than “Over the Rainbow,” from the Wizard of Oz, a fitting tune considering featured guest Athi-Patra Ruga recently put on a show of the same name. Ruga framed his lecture by talking about self-made superheroes, these characters or rather, avatars, that he has both created and embodied to deal with past traumas. These figures have become the central focus of all his varied artistic ventures throughout the years.
One of the very first avatars he created was “Miss Congo,” who he describes as a “club kid.” At this time he took up tapestry work, saying that he would prefer to define his own fate, and his own story, rather than let others do so for him. In particular he wanted to explore the way that black women have been portrayed at art.
The next character he explored was “Injibhabha,” which translates from his native language of Xhosa into alopecia, or hair-loss, in English. This character was created directly in response to a specific incident that occurred in his life. Ruga had been in Switzerland when he saw a poster featuring cartoon white sheep kicking a cartoon black sheep out of the country, with the message promoting “cleaning up” the country by forcing immigrants out of the country. He had built up in his mind Switzerland as a kind of utopian space, but in this moment it all came crashing down. He did a piece of performance art in which he dressed up as this avatar by sewing together an outfit of “costume afros,” and entering a pen of white sheep. He continued to experiment with this avatar for a while, and some of the photos he took at this time of Injibhabha are placed below.
The Death of Beiruth
The next character he began exploring was “Beiruth,” which was made in response to a news story covering a South African woman that had been attacked by a man in a taxi for simply wearing a miniskirt. Beiruth was meant to be hyper sexualized, and create an immediate reaction in those that come across her. However, eventually the weight of these issues began to wear on him, and so he “killed off” both of these characters with a dramatic photo of Beiruth standing in front of the crashing waves.
His next major avatar was “Ilullwane,” which refers to a bat, or in the context of his culture, a boy who goes to circumcision school as a rite of passage. Many young boys would die because of infection and ill treatment during this process, and those who leave the program would have to face heavy social stigma. He wanted to create a “superhero” that would provide inspiration for these young boys. This idea led to several other interesting works. One of which being, “The Body in Question.” He showed the video below during the presentation.
With this series he hoped to raise awareness about transgender rights. One of his more elaborate works with the avatar of Ilullwane involved a performance act in an Olympic-sized swimming pool and 12 synchronized swimmers. The photo gallery below shows just some of the images from that performance.
The most recent of his series is “The Future White Women of Azania.” Azania is a word used to reference the East African coast line since at least 14 AD among the Greeks. The major motif of this series is Ruga’s body entirely covered in balloons, and by popping these balloons he is “shedding his identity.” This project is ongoing, and he continues to find new ways to explore this series, already producing everything from sculpture to photography to textiles.
The presentation ended with the premier of Ruga’s new video, “Queens In Exile,” which marks the start of yet another character. The video started out with Ruga dressed as a queen, with extravagant jewels and costuming. The video took us through several distinctive sections before ending with the shot you see below. You can see a clip of the video, and hopefully eventually the full video on Ruga’s Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/AthiPatraRuga/
I also got a chance to attend the Q&A session immediately following the presentation. Nearly every lecture has a Q&A session, and I’ve always found them to be tremendously enriching. This time Ruga discussed in further depth his thoughts on the recent US election, the current trend towards conservatism globally, his process for getting into character, and the influence the internet has had on his life and work.
The Stamps Speaker Series is held every Thursday at 5:10 PM at the Michigan Theater. There are only two more presentations this semester, but the series will pick right back up next semester.
This Wednesday, November 16, the University Musical Society is bringing ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro to the University of Michigan! The concert will take place in Hill Auditorium at 7:30pm.
Photo taken from http://www.jakeshimabukuro.com/home/photos/
Shimabukuro started playing ukulele at the age of four, and now he is doing concerts around the world! With a four-stringed instrument, he is able to play anything from classical music to popular songs such as Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”. More information on Jake Shimabukuro can be found at his website: http://www.jakeshimabukuro.com/home/
Photo taken from http://www.jakeshimabukuro.com/home/photos/
Tickets are on sale for $16.00-$60.00 (depending on the location of the seats) at http://ums.org/performance/jake-shimabukuro/.
The room was solemn when I first walked in, the lights turned low and the entire auditorium awash in a deep green glow. After a brief introduction, Mary Mattingly took to the podium. With a silent video of a burning boat playing on the screen behind her, Mattingly opened the night’s lecture with reflections on the election, which had only been decided in the wee hours of that very morning. Instead of directly addressing the results, she chose to highlight the slew of emotions many were feeling that night by delivering a poem, an amalgamation of the various responses she had seen across social media, interspersed with her own reflections.
Mary Mattingly started out her presentation by giving a brief overview of her artistic journey. With a formal training in photography, she now uses it in three different ways to interact with her work; as a proposal and reimagining of existing locations, as a documentation of the sculptural work that she does, and as an element within the sculptures themselves. Her current work is focused on several ideas, such as reimagining and making a statement on public food, transforming industrial equipment into sculptural ecosystems and exploring our relationships with objects.
She then began to take us through some of her more recent projects. “Wading Bridge,” in Des Moines, IA is an invitation for locals to directly interact with the Raccoon River, which is considered both polluted and dangerously swift. The piece was commissioned to inspire thoughts and discussion about water quality in the area.
Another one of her current projects involved the construction of a park in New York City. The following clip shows some of the process, as well as the final product of this project.
One of her current projects in New York City is a “floating food forest” called Swale, located on a large floating platform. She says the work was created in part because it is illegal to pick food from public land, whereas there are no such rules about picking food on water. The food grown on Swale is made of mostly perennial plants that were donated by the park service. If you are interested in learning more about the project, please check out the official website, http://www.swaleny.org/ .
She then dove into discussing her influences as an artist. She says she has always been attracted to dealing with basic necessities such as food, water, and shelter. The area in which she grew up did not have potable ground water, which lead to her “obsession” with water. She then began to think about the way that humans will have to survive the aftermath of climate change, particularly in terms of human migration. This eventually led to her work on the Waterpod Project, as shown in the video below.
The original idea for the Waterpod Project had been to create a space that supports growing food and would also be a sustainable living environment. One of the most difficult parts of the project was simply obtaining the permits necessary to legally begin work. Over the course of a year and a half she and her team had to collect 18 different permits, one of them being an approval to photograph chickens by the actors guild. The project was launched in 2009, and visited a grand total of 5 piers. She and several of her friends lived on it for 5 months, after which she claims to have realized why most artists stick to working on land.
One of the more interesting projects she worked on was a documentation of every object she owned at the time at own-it.us . It was an intentionally absurd project to document her shame at her own consumption. To further drive the message home, she bundled up all of her belongings and dragged them across New York, purposefully making useful objects nothing more than a useless burden. In turn, this project has given her a substantial amount of respect for the true value of each object.
This lead directly into her work at the University of Michigan and her newly opened exhibit, Object’s Unveiled: Boxing, Rolling, Stretching and Cutting. For this exhibit she wanted to learn more
about the background behind these objects that we study. In particular, she became drawn to cobalt, which is not only use to produce beautiful blue pigments, but is also used in defense technology and green energy. The state of Michigan has ties to cobalt as we house one of the country’s few cobalt mines. She ended the lecture on this note, ending a few minutes early due to the events of the prior day.
After the lecture was over I made the quick walk over to the Institute for the Humanities with many of the other audience members to enjoy a reception for Mattingly’s exhibit opening there that night. While a somber air still permeated the room, it was clear everyone was impressed by the exhibition. I had a chance to chat with Mattingly briefly, and got her permission to take photos of the exhibit to display on this blog. The following were some of my favorite pieces.
If you missed the talk, but are still intrigued by Mattingly’s work, I encourage you to check out her exhibit at the Institute of Humanities Gallery, located in the South Thayer Building. The exhibit will be up until December 15th, so head on over and experience Objects Unveiled yourself.
as a proposal and reimagining of existing locations, as a documentation of the sculptural work that she does, and as an element within the sculptures themselves. Her current work is focused on several ideas, such as reimagining and making a statement on public food, transforming industrial equipment into sculptural ecosystems and exploring our relationships with objects.
about the background behind these objects that we study. In particular, she became drawn to cobalt, which is not only use to produce beautiful blue pigments, but is also used in defense technology and green energy. The state of Michigan has ties to cobalt as we house one of the country’s few cobalt mines. She ended the lecture on this note, ending a few minutes early due to the events of the prior day.
