When? Saturday, Nov 12 at 8:00 pm and Sunday, Nov 13 at 4:00 pm
Where? Hill Auditorium
How Much? Students: $20, General Admission: $50 – $185
Why? It has been 7 years since the Berlin Philharmonic last came to Ann Arbor, and it is the final US tour of the orchestra with their director Simon Rattle. They are performing some of the most spectacular pieces ever composed, including Mahler’s 7th Symphony and Brahms’ 2nd Symphony. It will be a couple days you do not want to miss.
by Kim Sinclair
Even though the audience was 8,431 miles away from India, the IASA show transported each and every audience member to the land and culture most of the 4000 audience members and 300 performers also call home. One could feel the nostalgia amongst some audience members as they heard songs from their childhood and the immense fascination amongst the others who are experiencing this culture for the first time. I was excited to experience the journey with 240 dancers as they portray 10 different dimensions of life and tell the story of 1 human journey that unites us all.
The show had 10 dances choreographed by student members of the IASA. The show started with the National Anthems of both, the US (performed by the amazing Dicks and Janes Acapella Group) and India, which was a very soulful, classical rendition that had the audience sing along and pay tribute to the culture we were celebrating.
The show was one of the most high energy performances I have witnessed at the University of Michigan. The show began with the theme of Village, which highlighted the camaraderie and close-knit bonds in Indian villages and communities. The selection of songs were the most popular Bollywood songs from 2013-2015 and there was not a single dancer on stage who didn’t have a million-watt smile on their face or energy that could bring a dead man back to life! The graceful Apsaras came up next, with a fusion of graceful Indian classical. It was absolutely thrilling to watch the ladies dance but were even more surprised with Liam Wiesenberger, who was absolutely perfect with the technique of Bharatnatyam. The costumes were absolutely perfect and reflective of the spirit of India – the bright colors, ghagras, modern styles and traditional accessories like ghungroos lit Hill Auditorium brighter than the lights could.
The evening was dedicated to a cause – the IASA supports the Nisvartha Foundation in India, which provides mentoring and an access to higher education to students who do not have the financial means to access specialized education and training. As we learned through the show, social welfare is one of the organization’s five pillars.
As the evening went on with enthralling dances, there were a few other performers who came to support the show. One of them was Jai Matt, a performer from Philadelphia who mashes up popular songs with Indian tunes. The audience had mixed reactions (and a lot of us felt uncomfortable) due to his slightly absurd style of serenading a volunteer on stage in the style of Enrique. We felt like there was a little too much of unwanted affection towards the girl who he performed his song to. It was also pretty strange for all of us to see a singer interject, and not really sing to his own backing tracks played by a DJ! We wished his performance wouldn’t have had these elements as most of us saw talent that was channeled in not the best way. Nonetheless, it was an entertaining part of the evening (not for all the right reasons!)
Furthermore, the other performances of Desire, Filmi, Bollywood/Fusion, Evolution, All Male (Badmash) and Bhangra pushed the energy of the show even higher. Evolution’s performance was the one that showed our journey through college as it started when we got our acceptance letters from the University of Michigan, and continued through finding love, orientation, frat parties, ladies’ nights, recruiting, being employed and graduating. It made a lot of the seniors nostalgic and excited the freshmen for the years and experiences waiting for us. The whistles, hoots, screams and cheers all indicated the audience’s appreciation for each of the 300 dancers who were all in the spotlight.
At the end of it, I started regretting not being part of IASA as the performers shared a special bond and the opportunity to dance one of my favorite styles. When I got back home, I couldn’t resist the urge to play all my favorite Bollywood songs and dance to them! Azaya truly unified the student, faculty and support community of the University of Michigan – and made us smell the soil of our homeland, feel the colors and festivity in our pulse and indeed believe that unity is what makes us such a vibrant community.
When one thinks of India, there is not just one image that comes to our minds. The smell of henna, exotic bright colors, vibrant dances, vast seashores as well as tall mountains, more than 50 different languages, people, ethnicities, food and music come to mind. India is not just a place – it is an experience. The Indian American Student’s Association (IASA)’s annual student show – Azaya – is all about the unity of experience. Experience the journey with 240 dancers as they portray 10 different dimensions of life and tell the story of 1 human journey that unites us all.
The 10 different dance groups include themes like Evolution, Village, All girls, All boys, Fusion, Bollywood, Classical, South Indian, Bhangra and “filmy” styles. As a fellow Indian, Bollywood music has the ability to raise the energy of any crowd and make it impossible for anyone to sit put in their seats! It is very exciting for me to watch a show that will connect me back to my roots and take me on a nostalgic trip that will bring back fond memories of my childhood in India.
The show is on Friday the 13th of November at the Hill Auditorium.
The link to the event is : https://www.facebook.com/events/1683656305213077/ and tickets can be purchased at the MUTO or online.
October has been a very exciting month for orchestra lovers; from the New York Philharmonic’s residency in Ann Arbor earlier this month to this performance by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, we have not been disappointed.
A bit of bragging moment: earlier that day, I had an opportunity to play for Dwight Parry, an oboist from Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra who has been touring with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as the principal oboe. He was very inspirational — with much focus on technique as well as musicality, I learned a lot from him. Here’s a proof:
As a orchestral musician, Mr. Parry has a lot of experience in auditioning and judging auditions. Many of us classical musicians stress over the whole audition process all the time. Winning a position in an orchestra through auditions is extremely difficult — with hundreds of well-qualified applicants fighting over one seat, which is typically to be filled for decades once someone wins the spot. He mentioned that, when he is judging auditions, he is looking for a “colleague” — someone that can play in tune and in tempo, and that is overall pleasant to work with. These words stuck out to me as a lesson.
After that interaction with Mr. Parry, seeing him among many other superb musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra made me feel much closer to the orchestra. And I thought a lot about colleagues in an ensemble. What does it mean to play with the same people on your left and on your right for many, many years? Ideally, these players would develop the chemistry among them that make the “group” sound instead of “individual” sounds. However, this is not always the case, as conflicts and drama do happen. How do you act professional and deliver high-quality music to the audience with your colleagues?
To me, CSO seemed to do this very well. From the first “overture” — “The Victors” — to the last movement of Mahler’s First Symphony, the chemistry was there. (Has “The Victors” become a new tradition for all orchestras visiting Ann Arbor to play?) Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (with the iconic “duh-duh-duh-dummmmm” in the first movement) and Mahler’s First Symphony (with full of contrasts and shining moments for all instruments) are both classic favorites, and CSO gave no less than spectacular.
UMS has two more (international!) orchestras coming this season: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from London in January, and Montreal Symphony Orchestra from Quebec in March. I am very much looking forward to exploring more orchestral artistry in the upcoming months.
Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock came into town the other night, for a stop of their seemingly endless world tour. From what I gathered from my comfy mezzanine seat, Hill Auditorium was packed to the brim. As I looked around me, I could sense that the people in the audience were one of two things. The first being an eager college student/mid 20s stereotype who was super “into jazz,” not just doing it for the ladies, and went wide-eyed at the entrance of the alliteratively named pianists, having just brushed up on their discographies on wikipedia. The second being the older stereotypical jazz types, the ones who followed Hancock from his times in the Miles Davis Quintet and Corea from his times in the Miles Davis Quintet. Come to think of it, these people might just be into Miles Davis with no regard for the pianists. Anyways, these enthusiasts have a vinyl collection that fits a full wall of their suburban mancave. The third stereotypical group were the old old-timers of jazz. Slightly (by a few years) older than HH and CC, these fellows went on a different course through life. While HH and CC are on track to grab more Grammy’s this year, these folks are on track for senility. And, of course, you have the persons that are only there to please their significant others and those like me who had a computer programming assignment due at midnight worth 10% of their grade but “would probably kill [them]sel[ves] if [they] didn’t go.” Now, I realize I said that the audience members were one of two things, but you really can’t be so stereotypically binary when dealing with the categorization of persons, especially in this hedonic day and age, so I expanded it to four. Please send all complaints to dlmexico@umich.edu.
Being a jazz enthusiast myself, I was curious to know what HH and CC would be playing, and how they would be doing it. I thought, “well, they could either be sitting on the same piano stool playing four-handed jazz pieces, or they could take turns at the stool and kinda rotate after each piece. Or they may have brought a band with them and the night will just be a big jam session like they do at Cliff Bells sometimes. Or it could be that they have dueling pianos set up; that would be cool. Yeah.” Well it turns out that my shotgun approach of guessing was right, and the two had a comfy dueling piano setup. Two nice Steinways. At least I hope they were Steinways. Man, I hope they were Steinways. HH and CC entered the stage to ravenous applause and a standing ovation. I thought, “wow, wikipedia must have some good praise for these two to have a standing ovation without even playing anything.” Then I began to ponder the nature of the standing ovation, if it really was a ‘mob mentality’ thing or every single person in the audience genuinely thought highly enough of the duo to pay their respects. Chick took over the mic and said a few words of gratitude before sitting down at the Steinway. I was no less than a quarter through Herbie’s biography on wikipedia when a kind man behind me whispered “shut your fucking phone off, sir.” I reluctantly obliged him, knowing that I would have to wait to see if my earlier prediction was true.
Chick started off the festivities with a number called, “who the hell cares, it’s avant-garde.” In true sense of the title, CC started fooling around the Steinway, half-way caressing it up and down, half-way neurotically spazzing his bony fingers over the pristine ivory. He switched up to include the Db pentatonic scale in order to give some love to the ebony, which were slightly less pristine due to the fact that players don’t take as much care with them given they don’t take up as much space or have as much clout as the ivory. Across the pianos, Herbie came fully loaded with perfect harmonies and backup to Chick’s melodies. It was interesting to see and hear, as Chick’s playing in this first piece was wholly soloistic avant-garde-ism. He left nothing but scraps for Herbie to create a chord progression with, yet Hancock did as best he could. The result was an eclectic mezcla of superior tastes. I was only focused on my programming project, having invested 20 hours in three days on it, and fatigue was setting in quickly. I was literally DOZING off at a concert with HERBIE FRIECKIN HANCOCK AND ARMANDO ANTHONY CHICK FRUCKIN COREA. One vitamin C pill and 5-hour energy later, I was alert and noticing everything around me (actually that didn’t happen, I was still dozing off. Man, I was tired). I struggled to see Chick beat the living shit out of the timid Steinway for the next 20 minutes while Hancock faced his own battles in keeping up with the lunacy that was occurring in Hill Auditorium.
Their next piece was more to my vision of what Herbie’s sound is. It was full electronic, as both pianists had a keyboard/synthboard setup to their immediate right. For much of the night I was expecting that the pair would play a few standards, for the casual jazz fans in the audience. After the resounding ‘fuck you’ of the first tremoloed note that Herbie played, I could tell that “Chameleon” and “Watermelon Man” were totally not in the night’s playlist. I started thinking how conventionally unconventional the duo’s choice of music was. On the one hand, the two are certifiable geniuses globally famous for a few songs produced in the 60s and 70s. On the other hand, the two are certifiable geniuses with complete disregard for playing their own standard tunes. They had their battle for awhile until I woke up to see Chick introduce his wife, who was about to sing a number. Mrs. Corea sang extremely well for her age and received a few standing ovators.
I woke up again to another standing ovation, and I soon realized that it was the end. I checked my phone, immediately going to wikipedia to check the hype. It turns out that wikipedia does actually dish out a fair amount of praise. My prediction was right! I got up at once and shouted “bravo!” and “encore!” This wouldn’t have been awkward if the duo hadn’t already received their applause, left the stage, and came back to their Steinway stools by the time I got to cheering. From the first two notes that Chick played, my countless hours watching Jazz concerts on youtube told me that something epic was about to happen. A love note to the fair-weather listeners, Chick was piloting the auditorium to his favorite encore chart, “Spain.” As he is wont to do during his various renditions of “Spain,” Chick started out fiddling around softly, vaguely hinting at the melody for anyone who hadn’t caught on yet. Herbie soon stole the lead part, executing it as flawlessly as Chick does, while Chick took up the avant-garde “bass line.” And this is how it progressed for awhile, the two trading off melodic lines, each more complex than the last, until the build up of tension was too much. The chorus came bursting out of the stage like a cathartic squeezed pimple. If you have never heard this piece, I suggest you check out my favorite rendition here. I couldn’t help but ogle at the polytonal, polyrhythmic aural complexity emanating from the stage. It was pure bliss. The perfect conclusion to an interesting show, Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea always find a way for everyone in the audience to enjoy the experience.
Gilberto Gil’s solo performance on Saturday was truly a treat. He has painted so many pictures for us, using just his voice and his acoustic guitar. By this simple setup, he made Hill Auditorium feel much more intimate. Listening to his music brought the audience members together — regardless of how much knowledge of Portuguese or Brazilian culture we had.
Walking into the seats of Hill Auditorium, I was struck by how the stage looked. The first thing that I saw was a black curtain draping over the majestic pipe organ. In the middle of the stage was a simple audio setup with a hookup for guitar, a stool, and a mic stand. That’s it. I’ve seen similar setup at The Ark or something, but not at Hill! This was truly a change from what I was used to.
Then, Gilberto Gil came on stage, and immediately engaged us in his music — using his voice and guitar to convey all the characters his repertoire had. Many were original songs written by Gil himself, while others were borrowed from other masters. His voice was smooth and calming at times, and exciting and colorful at other times.
Gil drew the audience to a more intimate experience, up until the very last minute of his performance. I was excited to see many audience members with Brazilian heritage — including one of the audience members a few rows before me that had two mini Brazilian flags, which she proudly waved towards the stage at the end of the performance. People sang along to what apparently was a very famous song in Brazil (too bad I couldn’t join in…), creating a sense of camaraderie in such a big auditorium. I was reminded once again that music has the power to connect many people.
