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Monday, February 24, 2014
Classical music Middlebury College Gets a New Steinway Concert Grand
Posted
By Jenelle Roberge
on Mon, Feb 24, 2014 at 11:25 AM
The coming years at Middlebury College promises even greater euphony thanks to a brand-new Steinway. The grand is renowned as the piano of choice in concert halls around the world, and Midd recently became home to one of them. It is a gift of the Meredith, Ray and Nathaniel ('12.5) Rothrock family in honor of President Ron Liebowitz and his wife, Jessica Liebowitz.
Here are some fun facts: The piano has 12,000 parts. It is nine feet long and weighs 990 pounds. Steinway grands are painstakingly manufactured in a process that takes nearly a year to complete.
“It’s thrilling to see this instrument rolled out on our stage for the first time,” says Allison Coyne Carroll, associate director of the performing arts series at Middlebury, in a press release. “This piano is a wonderful addition to our concert hall, and its quality will be a joy for performers and audiences alike.”
Steinway artists and concert soloists Richard Goode and Paul Lewis, Middlebury faculty member Diana Fanning ’71, and Middlebury alumna Gwendolyn Toth ’77, traveled to the Steinway factory in Queens, N.Y., in late October 2013. They tested five pianos chosen to suit the acoustics of the Mahaney Center concert hall. Luckily for the world-renowned pianists who appear there, as well as listeners, a concert grand was the top choice.
The college celebrates its new, glossy-black Steinway on Saturday, March 1, with a lecture and concert. Guest Joseph Polisi, president of the Juilliard School, kicks off the event with a talk titled "The Arts, Education and the Human Experience" at 4:30 p.m. in the Mahaney Center concert hall. Polisi was awarded an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from Middlebury in 2010.
Music Vermont Boy Choir to Appear on 'Good Morning America'
Posted
By Dan Bolles
on Mon, Feb 24, 2014 at 8:30 AM
On Wednesday, February 26, the Vermont Boy Choir will appear on the ABC network morning show "Good Morning America." The 20-member choir will be featured as part of a larger segment in which boy choirs from around the country perform a unique joint rendition of "Let It Go," from the 2013 animated movie Frozen. Taping for that segment took place on Friday, February 21, at Essex High School.
According to VBC director Mark Railey, each participating choir will record a performance of the song to prerecorded music. ABC will then splice those performances together into one rendition featuring each choir at various sections of the song — Railey says the VBC will be featured at the chorus. The mashed-up version of the song will be presented on air accompanied by a live orchestra.
"Can you imagine how difficult that is?" says Railey by phone of the unusual recording process. "I hope everyone stays on pitch and on tempo."
Railey founded the Vermont Boy Choir in 2012. He was previously the founder and director of the Palmetto State Boy Choir in South Carolina. He currently works as the director of music at the First Congregational Church in Essex Junction. The VBC is composed of 20 boys ranging in age from 7 to 21.
For more info on the Vermont Boy Choir, visit vermontboychoir.org.
According to VBC director Mark Railey, each participating choir will record a performance of the song to prerecorded music. ABC will then splice those performances together into one rendition featuring each choir at various sections of the song — Railey says the VBC will be featured at the chorus. The mashed-up version of the song will be presented on air accompanied by a live orchestra.
"Can you imagine how difficult that is?" says Railey by phone of the unusual recording process. "I hope everyone stays on pitch and on tempo."
Railey founded the Vermont Boy Choir in 2012. He was previously the founder and director of the Palmetto State Boy Choir in South Carolina. He currently works as the director of music at the First Congregational Church in Essex Junction. The VBC is composed of 20 boys ranging in age from 7 to 21.
For more info on the Vermont Boy Choir, visit vermontboychoir.org.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Music / Theater / Classical music / Circus arts / Art / Dance Montréal en Lumière Festival Beckons, All Week Long
Posted
By Pamela Polston
on Sun, Feb 23, 2014 at 3:08 PM
I had intended to drive northward today for a taste of the mega-event called Montréal en Lumière But, dommage, both of my traveling companions begged off. And since I didn't want to go alone, this is what I am missing. A gigantic Ferris wheel, right in the middle of St. Catherine Street.
I have an inexplicable love of Ferris wheels. The one pictured here, courtesy of Air France, only looks this way at night, of course. But day or night, what a great view from its top! Well, maybe later this week.
Montréal en Lumière offers way more than a colorful carnival ride, to be sure. There's also something called an "interactive urban super-slide," and scattered around the Place des Festivals are promised "wow" moments from various special effects, including a "cube" that uses lasers, smoke and lighting to produce "multidimensional" hallucinations. Or something like that. I'm wowed just thinking about it. Three-story projections and other light-related stimuli justify the festival's name — and these are all part of the free outdoor site.
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Words In Vermont, Even Righteous Anger Is Friendly
Posted
By Ethan de Seife
on Sat, Feb 22, 2014 at 1:00 PM
Spotted this morning in the men's locker room of the Pomerleau Family YMCA in downtown Burlington, the above note gets the tone just right: pissed off but somewhat forgiving, and even a little amused.
Wallet Thief, 'fess up, if for no other reason than this is a pretty excellent note.
Tuesday Update: The wallet was returned!
On Friday, in the men’s locker room of the Pomerleau Family YMCA in downtown Burlington, I had noticed this little half-page sign on an adjacent locker. Struck by the evenhandedness of the writer’s tone (and the Bruce Lee quotation), I snapped a photo and posted it to Live Culture, the Seven Days arts blog.
While this modest little post didn’t “blow up” in the way that, say, the “Leave Britney Alone!” video did, it garnered quite a bit of commentary online. (At last count, the post had more than 500 Facebook “likes.”)
None of which would be worth further comment had the story not ended happily. Jeetan Khadka, 24, the former Bhutanese refugee who wrote the note, had his wallet returned to him Monday by employees of a Burlington post office. Apparently, the thief, after extracting currency and credit cards, had dropped Khadka’s wallet in a sidewalk mailbox.
In a short phone conversation with Khadka Tuesday, it became immediately clear that the tone of forgiveness in his note was in no way ironic. Khadka’s generosity of spirit was evident, not only in his story about how he’d wound up befriending someone who’d stolen from him once before, but in his chosen profession as a “young adult navigator” with the Chittenden County Youth in Transition grant program.
Pleased and surprised to have his wallet back, Khadka, a Burlington resident, was also sympathetic to the situation of the thief. “Whatever decisions we make — poor or rich or whatever — they have to do with the situation that we’re living in,” he says. “The person who made that choice [to steal the wallet], maybe it was a good choice for them. I believe that this person is not really bad. We all influence each other.”
Khadka’s green card was among the items returned to him intact. Though he’d had the foresight to make a copy of it, he was nevertheless anxious about its absence, since his application for U.S. citizenship is currently in process. Khadka came to Vermont in 2008 after 17 years of living in a refugee camp in Nepal. He is not currently a citizen of any country at all.
Though his positive attitude toward Vermont has not been diminished by this incident, Khadka does admit that it is probably time to purchase a padlock.
Friday, February 21, 2014
Movies / Movies You Missed / Film Movies You Missed & More: The Summit
Posted
By Margot Harrison
on Fri, Feb 21, 2014 at 5:01 PM
This week in movies you missed: We learn why climbing K2 is probably not a great idea.
What You Missed
In early August 2008, 11 climbers died on K2 — the world's second-highest mountain — in 48 hours. News of one of the world's worst mountaineering disasters quickly traveled around the globe, prompting a lot of tut-tutting about inexperienced climbers with "summit fever." But what really happened up there?
Director Nick Ryan interviewed the surviving climbers (those who agreed to talk) and pieced together a narrative. In this documentary, honored last year at Sundance, he tells the story through interviews, reenactments with actors and footage shot by the climbers on the mountain.
We learn that crowding was one major reason for the fatalities. Several groups had reached Camp IV simultaneously, and all hoped to summit K2 on August 1. When a Serbian climber fell to his death in the "bottleneck" — a single-file passage beneath a looming serac — progress slowed even more. Many climbers reached the summit at or after sunset, leaving them to descend in darkness.
And descending, as any aficionado of climbing tales knows, is the most dangerous part. They don't call the portion of the mountain above 7,500 meters the "death zone" for nothing. Add oxygen deficiency to a random mishap like a snapped rope, and you're in trouble.
Art / Film / Movies Burlington Film Society Joins Forces With Vermont International Film Foundation
Posted
By Ethan de Seife
on Fri, Feb 21, 2014 at 2:05 PM
At last evening's Burlington Film Society screening of The Punk Singer at Main Street Landing, the society's organizers made an announcement that may have long-term ramifications for film culture in Burlington, and in Vermont as a whole.
Effective immediately, the BFS will operate under the aegis of the Vermont International Film Foundation (VTIFF), yet will retain a degree of independence. VTIFF is the nonprofit parent organization of the Vermont film festival that plays every autumn at various venues around Burlington.
According to a press release issued this morning, BFS will benefit in the merger from access to VTIFF's promotional skills and larger budget. VTIFF, in turn, gains connections with BFS' devoted audience members, and takes a significant step toward its professed goal of presenting films year-round.
As a sign of this new union, the BFS website can now be found nestled within that of VTIFF.
Until this point, BFS and VTIFF had shared venues (Main Street Landing), a great many cinephile audience members, and a mission to advocate for and screen films in Vermont. As of today, the two organizations are formally united in these aims.
Theater Don't Miss: Ellis Jacobson Closes LNT's Winterfest with Original One-Man Show
Posted
By Xian Chiang-Waren
on Fri, Feb 21, 2014 at 1:27 PM
Lost Nation Theater's ninth annual Winterfest closes this weekend with Adapted From Samuel Beckett, a one-man show written and performed by Bread & Puppet alumnus Ellis Jacobson.
Jacobson doesn't want to give too much away, but he told Seven Days earlier this month that the show would include clowns, flashing lights, lots of movement and no puppets or masks. And, no, you don't need to have a threadbare copy of Waiting for Godot on your bookshelf to enjoy Jacobson's play.
“You wouldn’t know it from the title, but it’s a comedy,” he says. “And even though it’s about Samuel Beckett, a person can go in there not knowing who he is and still enjoy the show … It both ridicules and reveres Beckett, almost simultaneously.”
Founding artistic director of LNT Kim Bent, a longtime acquaintance of Jacobson's, offers that the play was born from his “deep love” of the Irish-born playwright.
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Music Do You Feel Lucky, Punk? 'Blind Faith' Tix on Sale for Grand Point North
Posted
By Dan Bolles
on Wed, Feb 19, 2014 at 3:44 PM
Sure, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals' Grand Point North Festival is still some seven months away. But that doesn't mean it's too early to start planning ahead, right? Actually, it totally is. But whatever. It's a slow news week.
This morning an event occurred that will delight hardcore Potterheads and degenerate gamblers alike. The former group will be psyched to learn that VIP tickets for this year's fest are now on sale. As for the latter — who are not necessarily mutually exclusive from the former — they may be intrigued by another ticketing option that also went live today: "Blind Faith" tickets. (And no, "Blind Faith" has nothing to do with the late 1960s British supergroup of the same name featuring Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood. At least as far as we know.)
As of this writing, there have been no lineup announcements regarding GPN 2014. (See: Seven freakin' months away, above.) So the only certainty is that Potter and her merry band of insomniacs will be there. However, if you're willing to roll the dice on the band's reputation for annually inviting top-notch talent to join them at Burlington's Waterfront Park in September, you can save some dough by ordering your tickets now and trusting that GPN will again deliver the big-name goods — hence "Blind Faith" tickets.
The $59 early-bird price tag for a two-day pass is actually a pretty deep discount, considering that two-day passes last year were $79. And, hey, since the 2014 lineup is still a mystery, we're not not saying Clapton, Winwood, et al. won't show up. [Editor's note: They won't.]
So do you feel lucky, punk?
Grand Point North is slated for September 13 & 14 at Burlington's Waterfront Park. Tickets are on sale here.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Books / Words / Television 'Orange Is the New Black' Author Coming to UVM
Posted
By Xian Chiang-Waren
on Tue, Feb 18, 2014 at 4:59 PM
Before "Orange Is the New Black" was a hit Netflix series, it was a critically acclaimed memoir — and before that, Smith College graduate and self-described "nice blond lady" Piper Kerman really did spend 15 months in federal prison on drug-trafficking charges. Kerman now frequently travels the country doing book readings and advocating for prisoners' rights. On March 27, she'll make a stop at the University of Vermont.
For those unfamiliar with the author's backstory, here's a recap: After graduating from college, Kerman stuck around Northampton, Mass., to work at a brewery and became romantically involved with a glamorous older woman, who happened to be trafficking heroin for a West African drug lord. Also self-described as a "well-educated young lady from Boston with a thirst for bohemia," Kerman eventually moved to Bali with her lover and began carrying suitcases of cash across international borders.
After six months of "room service, exoticism and anxiety," Kerman cut all ties with the lover and the life of crime and moved back to the United States to start anew. Years later, when she was in New York working as a television producer and living with her boyfriend (now husband), the cops showed up at her door. Her ex-lover's drug ring had been busted, and she'd been ratted out. After a lengthy legal process — and about a decade after her crimes had been committed — Kerman arrived at the federal women's prison in Danbury, Conn.
Film / Movies / Art / Music What I'm Watching: 'Suburbia'
Posted
By Ethan de Seife
on Tue, Feb 18, 2014 at 4:17 PM
One career ago, I was a professor of film studies. I gave that up to move to Vermont and write for Seven Days, but movies will always be my first love. In this feature, published occasionally here on Live Culture, I'll write about the films I'm currently watching, and connect them to film history and art.
I have found some unusual DVDs in random places: garage sales, thrift stores (who gives up a copy of The Way Things Go?), even at a rural Wisconsin truck stop (where, amidst the Chuck Norris DVDs on the discount rack, there nestled a highly improbable copy of A Couch in New York, one of the few quasi-mainstream films by Belgian experimentalist Chantal Akerman). I’m always delighted to find a copy of a film in a location that seems completely unrelated to it.
When I found a copy of Penelope Spheeris’ Suburbia at a stoop sale in Brooklyn about a year ago, I snapped it up for a buck or two. This was a less arbitrary discovery than the Akerman in the truck stop, but it wasn’t bad. It’s not like Suburbia or its director are obscure, but the film isn’t discussed much anymoree. And its story is so thoroughly steeped in early-’80s L.A. suburban subcultures that stumbling across it in an East Coast city added somewhat to the improbability of the find.
Suburbia is Spheeris’ first fiction film*; her first feature-length film is the well-regarded and revelatory 1981 documentary The Decline of Western Civilization. Both films are about disaffected punk-rock youths in and around L.A., and it seems correct to regard them as “sister” films. Spheeris was fascinated by punk rock, its fans and its culture, and clearly hadn’t gotten these subjects “out of her system” with The Decline of Western Civilization.
(Indeed, she has returned to that subject twice in her career, making The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years in 1988 and The Decline of Western Civilization Part III [about L.A. “gutter punks”] in 1998.) Perhaps part of Spheeris’ motivation for making Suburbia was to work through some of her “leftover” ideas about punk culture.
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