Archive: Arts & Entertainment

The Cornell Department of Music announced the first concerts of the fall semester from the Wind Symphony, Symphony Orchestra, and Chamber Orchestra. The Wind Symphony, under the direction of James Spinazzola, will take the audience on a trip through 400 years of music for wind ensemble in just one hour. The program includes works by Giovanni Gabrieli, Gaetano Donizetti, Richard Wagner, Dmitri Kabalevsky, and Donald Grantham. The performance is Saturday, September 29 at 3:00pm in Bailey Hall.

The Wind Symphony has a close relationship with musical organizations in Haiti and will be returning there for a tour in January 2019. In advance of that trip, the Haitian dance band RAM performs September 27 at 8:00pm at the Haunt. RAM Haitian Dance Band is based at the famous Hotel Oloffson in Port-au-Prince and led by the hotel's owner Richard A. Morse. Their style of mizik rasin combines elements of Haitian Vodou and folkloric traditions with a variety of musical influences, from Caribbean and West-African dance rhythms to rock and roll. Tickets are $18 at the door, $15 in advance at thehaunt.com, and $10 with CU student ID.

RAM will also present a workshop on Friday, September 28 at 4:30pm at Barnes Hall. The session will discuss Rara, a form of Haitian festival music, introducing attendees to the rhythms and dances associated with the style. Additionally, Elena Guzman, a PhD candidate in Anthropology, will talk about her fieldwork with a Rara band in Haiti.

The Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra are led this year by visiting artist Henry Cheng. The concert on Sunday, September 30 at 3:00pm in Bailey Hall includes selections from Elgar's Enigma Variations, Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances Suite No. 3, Xian Xinghai's Yellow River Piano Concerto with soloist Byron Wei-Xin Zhou, and works by Pulitzer Prize-winner Caroline Shaw in a collaboration with members of the Cornell Chamber Singers.

Cheng describes the program as a synopsis of the Orchestras' complete season and is both an exploration of the sense of self and of musical discovery. The Shaw and Respighi pieces blur the lines between past and present musical techniques and styles. The Orchestra will perform the Yellow River Piano Concerto on its upcoming tour to Asia, and the piece seeks to capture the spirit of young generations in China. Finally, the Elgar selections explore the extremes of life events and emotions through music.

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